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Barton Conrad wrote: "Great News! Thank you, Gail." Yep Murray not only got the Award... but they have named the award after him ! WOW !... and well deserved ! Well Barton, as Gerry Hines wrote... we will be reporting back more but for now we are just TOTALLY exhaused... and she and I [who had never met before] don't even have Parkinson's [our family member does]! We have been at the PAN Forum in Washington, DC for 4 days of the most packed scientific updates, educational briefing, legislative / advocacy cram course you could imagine culminating in a day of marching on Capitol Hill at our pre-arranged appointments with our two state Senators and our home district's Representatives. It wasn't all work. We got to meet each other, get and give hugs to grassroots advocates on this list and from across America ... some we've been emailing and telephoning for years but some who we have never met face to face like my dear cyber brother Murray and his wife Brenda. I had the opportunity to pick Murray and Brenda up at National Airport on Sat. morning after they had flown all night from Vancouver, British Columbia on the extreme West Coast to Artington, Virginia on the extreme East Coast. They were just in time to see the spectacular display of Cherry Blossoms along the Potomac River Basin in Washington, DC and to get a glimpse of the Smithsonian's Annual Kite Festival on the Mall. Our Capital city was in full bloom but with mega security every where we went. We were a team of aprox 200 PD adcocates that did the business of telling our stories, asking for legislative support for 10% increase in NIH funding, Udall Centers complete funding, NETRP funding and asking them to oppose a ban on somatic cell nuclear transfer [SCNT] research and to sign on to their respective Parkinson Caucus groups to keep them informed of the most current info and bills before Congress. As Gerry said... more later... It was a fantastic adventure that recharged our determination to push for research to find a Cure for Parkinson's in time to help all those on this list and around the world ! Hugs to you all, Gail Vass PS. I have photos of the forum and the Award dinner [in jpeg] but don't know how to share them except on a one to one if you email me and ask. Maybe Art Hirsch can advise me ! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn