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Ivan's message was inspirational. I strongly agree that we have to put a face on PD. While we (in the minds of millions of people) are anonymous, elderly and probably senile ; we are in reality, people of all ages, of differing physical conditions and abilities. We are teachers, artists, writers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. We are valuable contributors to society, forced to retire before our time. How can we make people understand this? I don't think a quilt is the answer. It's already been done, very successfully, by the AIDS community. A copycat project will not have the impact, nor the media coverage, an original idea would have. A garden or a piece of art work? Possibly, but it wouldn't have a presence in every city world wide. Ivan has gotten the project going. Let's put our heads together and come up with as many suggestions as possible, no matter how far out. Something good will come out of this if we don't let it die on the vine. My suggestion: Designate a day in January as "International PD Awareness Day". Send an announcement to your local newspaper mentioning the day and telling a bit about PD. On that day, each and everyone of us sends a donation (of any amount) to a PD organization of our choice or to a trust we set up to receive funds. When enough time has passed, we calculate the money received and send press releases to all media ( with lots of pictures of PWP's), saying something like, "PWP's are tired of being forgotten. This is what we look like. Help us find a cure". This is just a quick thought that needs discussion, but I thought it might be another way we could go. BTW I saw great poster at the Parkinson Institute this week. It was a bar scene with lots of cheerful looking people sitting around, conversing or laughing. The caption said, " How many of these people have PD? At the bottom it said, "All of them". Mary