Sunday, April 1, 2012

April Is Parkinson's Awareness Month!

Parkinson's Awareness Month starts today (no fooling)!  It is the perfect time to show your support for family or friends with this disease or to honor the memory of a loved one.  While donations are an obvious option, I can suggest some others:

  1. Call, write a letter or poem,  or draw a picture for your PWP.  These are also things your children can do so that they will learn to experience the joy of compassion and helping others.
  2. Pray for a cure or advances in treatment of symptoms that improve quality of life for patients.  Also give thanks for the many volunteers and PD organizations that give so much of themselves for others.
  3. Visit your loved one to let them know they are not forgotten and that they are important to you!  Take them to dinner, buy them flowers or a book, or just sit and talk.
  4. Participate in or commit to participate in a PD fundraiser in your area.  If you don't know where to start in researching this, just google "Parkinson's organizations in the _________ area".
  5. Investigate opportunities to use your time and talent to be a volunteer for one of these organizations.  All the above involve little or no expenditure.
  6. Donations are needed to keep the research going that will ultimately lead to a cure.  Beyond that, there are organizations dedicated to providing services and invaluable support for their PD communities that need your help.  The following are some of the organizations that I can recommend for research (above the line) or services/support donations:
  • Michael J. Fox Foundation (www.michaeljfox.org)
  • Parkinson Alliance (www.parkinsonalliance.org)
  • National Parkinson Foundation (www.parkinson.org)
  • Parkinson Association of the Rockies (www,parkinsonrockies.org)
  • Davis Phinney Foundation (www.davisphinneyfoundation.org)

Whatever you choose to do will be appreciated!



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