A crowd of onlookers cheered as Wichita State freshman Ross McFarland’s friends pushed his wheelchair up a steep grassy slope.

He was completing the last leg of the Sixth Annual Rosstoberfest Run for Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy. Ross was the inspiration for the event and is the annual guest of honor.

When Ross was three, he was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), a genetically inherited disease that slowly degenerates muscle tone, found only in boys.

“From the time that they’re born, it starts to chip away at their muscle tone,” Ross’s mother, Bev, said. “It’s not until they’re about the age of three or four that you go ‘huh, there are some things that he now can’t do.’”

If you’re ever wondering what high school football team is playing tonight, or even what the weather is supposed to be like this week, Ross has the answer.

“I can’t wait to see WSU volleyball play Louisville. And that’s on the 16th,” Ross said. He knew the date by heart.

The McFarland family is doing what they can to raise awareness and money for Duchenne with the guidance of Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, a parent-led grassroots organization to research and promote advocacy for DMD.

“I’m really confident that that organization will be the one who will be a part of finding a cure or a therapeutic for the disease,” Bev said.

Boys with Duchenne will walk for a number of years, Bev said, but eventually will need a wheelchair, as Ross uses now. Three years ago, Ross could no longer walk.

Duchenne starts to deteriorate the larger muscles first. Ross is beginning to have a hard time using his arms, but still tries his hardest to give a hearty handshake.

With physical therapy, especially swimming, Ross can keep his muscles moving and loose.

But it’s a fine line between working out enough, but not too much.

“It’s just like anybody else,” Bev said. “If you work out too hard, you start to tear down your muscles. But the difference with us is our muscle will repair itself…with them it won’t. If they work too hard, then they tear down the muscle and it doesn’t repair itself.”

At least 900 runners were in attendance Saturday. The event raised about $30,000 last year for Muscular Dystrophy. The total amount raised this year has not yet been announced.

The WSU Cheer Squad and WuShock pumped up runners at the starting and finish line. Head cheer coach Kelli Rappard said she used to teach Ross, and was asked by Bev to contribute.

“It’s just been a yearly thing for us,” Rappard said. “We just make sure it’s always on our radar.”

At the finish line, runners get a brat and a beer in honor of the German-celebrated Octoberfest. But Ross is only 18 this year.

“Sorry buddy,” Bev said.

For some runners, it was simply a fun way to begin the weekend. Others had a deeper connection.

“This is a cause near and dear to my heart,” runner Kris McKinney said.

She was running for her uncle, who, like Ross, suffers from muscular dystrophy. McKinney hasn’t told him she was running the race.

“I do it for him,” she said. “Probably a lot of us [runners] know someone with muscular dystrophy. Hopefully, one of these days, it [the disease] will be over.”

Ross was surrounded by friends and families congratulating him after the race. Many stopped him for pictures.

“It feels great to me,” Ross said about having a whole day in honor of him. “It feels important to me.”

Friends of the McFarlands supported the family through volunteering and running.

“When you have a special needs child, and I do, too, you feel helpless,’” CY Suellentrop, a family friend and volunteer, said. “There’s not a lot we can do but offer support, and if this is a way we can do it, we’re all on board.”