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Janet, As a fellow young onset Parkinson's patient, at the now ripe age of 36, and the President of the Young Onset Parkinson's Association whose board consists of all young onset, I will answer these concerns openly for you. First I invite you to visit us at www.yopa.org and my personal site at www.youngparkinsons.com as you may find some answers there. To answer your first question. Yes YOPAs financial records are available. I will gladly send you a copy if you would like. YOPAs current net worth is $600, six hundred dollars. We do not enjoy the budget, or paychecks, generated by the millions that the more well known organizations bring in. There is much YOPA could do in awareness & support programs if we were fortunate enough to have but 1% of that pie! Please note that none of us at YOPA receive any salary for our continuous and time consuming efforts. Two of the five of us, all Parkinsonians, are on disability. Three of us are struggling to hold down jobs in order to care for our children & families. I am 80% disabled, military medical retirement, but have recently began the stressful & physically tiring climb into a new career. Zephtek Industries is the company, http://www.personalizedcause.com, whom is making, taking orders, and shipping the pin. The pin generates a mere $5 per sale to YOPA, to date we have sold around 20. We, like many fundraisers, use these type programs due to ease of setup and product delivery. I do the same on YoungParkinsons.com using Café Press and Amazon.com. I in turn donate the small percentages from those sales to YOPA. This past Christmas YOPA spearheaded a support campaign which raised $500 for PWP who were identified to us as needing a little help. Five PWP were in turn sent a YOPA Christmas card with a $100 Wal-Mart gift card. Of the 2 families who replied, one gave his children a Christmas they otherwise would not have had & the other bought much needed jackets. On 26 April 2003 YOPA is leading a national team of 45 PWP in the NY Unity Walk. This team has raised over $21,000 for research for the event. http://www.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=8004&lis=1&t eam=50384 Last October we held a top-notch symposium with national level speakers & attendees. I followed with great dismay the issue with the pseudo-Parkinson's group in Canada and I hope they get what they deserve. As you point out they hurt things for smaller start-up grass roots organizations. I assure you, as I think the many fellow PWP I have been fortunate enough to meet on my journey so far would also, YOPA intends to be a Parkinson's group supporting their fellow PWP, in any form we are physically & financially able to. The Internal Revenue Service has determined that the Young Onset Parkinson's Association is EXEMPT from federal income tax under section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Service Code as an organization described as in section 501(c)(3) effective 4 April 2003.We have just registered with GuideStar.com. I hope this post answers your questions & concerns. Feel free to call me at home, 505-293-5612, or email [log in to unmask] if you wish. Sincerely, Tom Berdine President Young Onset Parkinson's Association(YOPA) www.yopa.org Tom Berdine President Young Onset Parkinson's Association(YOPA) www.yopa.org Founder YoungParkinsons.com www.YoungParkinsons.com Diagnosed in 2000 @ 33 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.465 / Virus Database: 263 - Release Date: 3/25/2003 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn