 |
 |
My name is Donna Kos and I'm from Akron, Oh. I'm a member of the Akron Area Parkinson's Support Group as were my parents Edward and Jarmila Kos. It was my dad that had PD for about 18 years. The last 8 years I became very involved in doing research in respect to Parkinson's and trying to help my parents cope with the increasingly difficult aspects as the disease progressed. My father passed away in March of '96. That following summer I was doing a bike tour of Olympic National Park in Washington state, and I came up with the idea of organizing a coast-to-coast fund-raising Bike-A-Thon with the objective of raising public awareness about this disease, and also raising money for Parkinson's research. It took a very long time before I was able to get the attention of a national organization, but it finally DID happen when I was able to meet with someone from the PDF of New York City. They were the first organization to take me seriously and to offer their help in this masive organizational task. The PDF will be making the event public sometime in January. At this point the only people that are aware of the event (which is being called Parkinson's Power Across America) are those PD Support Groups whom I have written to, Phoned, e-mailed, etc. By the way, my route will follow along the southern tier of the U.S. From San Diego, Ca. to St. Augustine, Fl. There is also a northern tier put together by a young man from Massachusetts who will be leading a core group of four bicyclists from Boston to San Francisco. This will be the first coast-to-coast fund-raising event for increased awareness of PD. I'm hoping to make the Bike-A-Thon multigenerational, and that we can count on the sons and daughters of Parkinsonians (as well as grandchildren) to be willing to give their time and efforts to support this cause. Look forward to hearing from anyone interested in knowing more about this event. Donna ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com