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Hello to Christina, Lou Ann and Allen in Hawaii, Your reference to the refusal of the national PD organizations to merge struck a responsive chord in me, and in many others as well, I'm certain. I thought you might be interested to know that some of us are addressing this issue from a new angle. Last year, members of a PD support group in New York City organized a Parkinson's Walk and succeeded in obtaining the endorsement of the four major organiza- tions: PDF, NPF, UPF and APDA. Our goals were to raise public awareness of Parkinson's, to promote co- operation within the Parkinson's community, and to raise funds for research. With relatively little time for planning, we were able to attract more than 200 walkers, and we raised $16,000, all of which was turned over to the organizations. This year we will be holding another "Parkinson's Unity Walk," on October 15th. The exciting part is that there will actually be three walks taking place -- in New York, San Francisco, and Lincoln, Nebraska. That's as of this writing. If there are Parkinson's activists in other cities who have a network of people and are prepared to put in the work required to organize a walk in their own city, we will very gladly welcome them. However, since we are about to prepare our publicity materials, we will need to hear from them very soon. Who knows? If more and more of us at the grass-roots level keep addressing the issue of unity, maybe, just maybe .... In the meantime, we'll keep working and hoping. Margot Zobel