Inside was Carlo Magno.
Magno was a healthy sales representative for the Missoula radio station in the 1980s when he was tapped to become its new mascot.
Two decades later, Magno is back in town, stumping for something more profound.
He and his three-legged dog, Katie, are on a cross-country trip from Seattle to New York called the MS Express. One of their missions is to raise $1 million for multiple sclerosis research. Magno, who lives in Anacortes, Wash., has been dealing with the disease since 1995.
He threw out the first pitch at a Seattle Mariners game at Safeco Field on June 5. If all goes well, he'll be in New York by mid-November.
When he's up to it, Magno drives “Blu,” an antique electric wheelchair, down the byways of the nation. But that hasn't happened yet in Montana.
The heat prompted swelling and painful seizures when Magno, Katie and caregiver Dan Townsend were in Idaho. They got to town from Sandpoint in late June, and will be in Missoula for another week or so, Magno said.
The MS exacerbation became so painful, at one point he was taken to Community Medical Center.
“The last time I'd been there was 1985, when my son was born,” said Magno, outside his recreational vehicle parked on South Avenue near Dornblaser Field.
After consulting with doctors in Missoula and Washington, Magno was faced with a choice: return home for steroid infusions that would halt the seizures, or continue with the trip and risk extending them.
“Hey, five years I've been doing this thing. I'd already postponed it two times because of illness much worse than this,” he said.
So he'll carry on, through ups and downs.
He was in the Independence Day parade in Ovando, his favorite town, during “one of the nicest Fourth of July celebrations I can remember,” Magno wrote on his Web site.
“It was the highlight of my dreams,” he said later.
But the two ensuing days were spent in pain, parked in the RV in the Ovando town square.
“I don't admire me much right now,” Magno said Monday.
By Tuesday, things were looking up.
“I'm feeling much better,” he said. “It was a speed bump, and there's nothing extraordinary in that. I fully expected all that stuff, I already know I'm a high-maintenance girl. I have to have my own environment to operate in.”
Katie, a (roughly) 6-year-old Australian red heeler, came up limping on her lone back leg when they first got to Missoula. A veterinarian recommended an emergency crash diet, Magno said, and she's doing fine now.
Katie was named for network news anchor Katie Couric, whom Magno would love to meet when he gets to New York.
Magno hit other snags, too. The wheelchair lift on the RV that serves as home refused to work over the weekend.
“That virtually hamstrings me,” he said.
When they took it in for repair Monday, though, it worked just fine. It continued to operate Tuesday.
Blu has some wiring problems. Magno and Townsend could use an electrician to take a look at it.
Blu was Magno's savior. Five years into his bout with MS, he was wasting away in an easy chair, waiting and wanting to die, he said.
The 1955 Autoette CruiseAbout, which Magno called the “grandfather” of modern electric wheelchairs as well as electric golf carts, was salvaged from a bog on Washington's Lummi Island.
It gave Magno a purpose. He set about fixing up Blu, which was built out of World War II surplus by a company in Long Beach, Calif.
“I got tired of having this thing (MS) define me. I wanted to try to define it for a little bit,” he said.
His plan for a cross-country crusade started as “a lot of laughs,” Magno said. “Then a friend said, you do it and I'll sponsor you. So we just started smiling and dialing. It took five years, but I'm here in Missoula.”
His purpose is many-fold. Besides raising funds and awareness, Magno is representing the Anacortes Barrier Buster committee. He's noting the best ideas he finds for disability access in the cities he visits and taking them back with him. Meanwhile, Katie is raising money for Summit Assistance Dogs, which trains service dogs for people with disabilities.
Clear Channel Broadcasting, owner of his old station, KGVO, has pledged $2,500 worth of advertising. Canisters for donations will soon be set up around town.
And Magno is surveying the area, noting that Missoula and future Montana destinations - Great Falls, Bozeman and Billings - “are all cities that have proven themselves already exemplary in dealing with ADA codes.”
Magno is toting some Mr. Moose memorabilia, including the key to Missoula given to the moose by Mayor Bob Lovegrove in the 1980s. He hasn't found out what became of the costume he donned for classrooms and public events for five years.
“Maybe we'll have a deal before we leave: Bring in the head of Mr. Moose and win $500,” Magno said with a laugh.
Reporter Kim Briggeman can be reached at 523-5266 or at kbriggeman@missoulian.com
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