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hi all on Wed, 9 Apr 2003 tom berdine wrote, in part: >>> http://www.youngparkinsons.com/pinorderform.htm >>> Awareness Month Pin - April is Parkinson's >>> Awareness Month. Order your pin today! >>> All profit will be donated to the Young >>> Onset Parkinson group - a 501(c)(3) >>> corporation. Make checks payable >>> to Zephtex Industries, Inc ... and then on Sat, 12 Apr 2003 i wrote, in part: >> does yopa have financial statements available? and then on Sun, 13 Apr 2003, tom berdine wrote, in full: > 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&team= 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) > ( http://www.yopa.org/ ) hi tom and thank you so much for your detailed reply! soliciting money from the public is a privilege not a right and gaining the benefits of a charity license or IRS permit comes with obligations and responsibilities including transparency in finances recent experience with a newby canadian pd org to the tune of 500,000.00 and not so recent experience with an old established american pd org to the tune of 1,000,000.00 have left many of us ultra wary, justifiably so, imho the Parkinson Society Canada ( http://www.parkinson.ca/ ) has their most recent financial statement online, and i dearly hope that all pd orgs follow their lead in a prior listserv message reply to you, i mentioned that i was not able to access either of your web-sites, so i may have asked for information which was already available on-line if so, i apologize for the duplicated effort and am appreciative of your candour by the way since i have determined that my pd was probably caused by multiple trauma in 1981 at my age 34, and symptoms appeared in 1985 at my age 38, i'd guess that we have a lot in common! janet paterson: an akinetic rigid subtype, albeit primarily perky, parky pd: 56-41-37 cd: 56-44-43 tel: 613-256-8340 email: [log in to unmask] my newsletter: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newvoicenews/ my website: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn