This will appear on the op-ed page of the Arizona Daily Star tomorrow morning. Bob Dolezal X-Sender: [log in to unmask] Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 07:08:16 -0700 To: [log in to unmask] (robert l dolezal) From: Jim Kiser <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: You just have to keep trying Mime-Version: 1.0 Bob, A sad, but ultimately very happy story. We will run it tomorrow. Thanks very much. jim At 03:18 PM 2/24/99 -0700, you wrote: >At about 9:30, Tuesday morning, my phone rang. It was Cynthia Holmes, the >coordinator for our Arizona American Parkinson's Disease Association >Chapter. > >"I have an unusual request," she began. I heard her inhale. "How would >you like to sit on the dais with President Clinton this Thursday, and give >a two minute talk before the President delivers his address?" > >It was my turn to gasp. The President was coming to Tucson to push his >Medicare program, and I was being asked to participate. And, it turned >out, in a big way. > >"You would talk about your problems with Parkinson's disease, your fears, >the impact on your life. And," she concluded, "you would introduce the >President." > >A little background. The Pima Council on Aging, which had been contacted >posthaste by the White House, had called Cynthia, and others, looking for >three people, each representing a different medical problem, to appear with >the President. > >"They will be calling you for a 'bio' to send to the White House." > >A half hour - make it an eternity - later, the call came. The kind, gentle >voice of Mary Ellen Beaurain talked to me about the role I would play, and >asked me if I felt up to it. She also personalized her involvement, >explaining that one of her relatives suffers from Parkinson's. Then she >asked me the routine, and necessary, health and security questions. > >All went well until ... "Now for your experience with Medicare." > >"Uh, I am not on Medicare, not for another 16 months." > >An hour later, after I had suggested that a 2 minute discussion of my >inability to secure insurance for times future, for long-term care when I >can no longer roll over in bed, bathe or clothe myself, eat, walk, talk - >well, you get the picture - she calls back. She was sorry, but I just >didn't fit the White House definition. > >I would not introduce the President. > >A few hours later, Cynthia calls again. She apologizes - "This is not your >best day" - and tells me that the corporate sponsor we had been seeking for >our chapter for the past six months - it would be the first ever, anywhere >- had declined our invitation. > >But there was a bright side - a very bright side! The business we had >approached about the corporate sponsorship will include us in an annual >charity raffle to benefit three organizations. "We would never have gotten >here if it hadn't been for the corporate sponsor proposal," Cynthia assures >me. > >After a minute of disappointment, I suggest "Tomorrow, let's start looking >for another sponsor!" If a corporation will "sponsor" the "HOLLYWOOD" >sign, if corporations will leap to sponsor - and re-name - football bowl >games and golf tournaments, and glue their name on stadia throughout the >land, won't someone want to be the first ever corporate sponsor of a >disease group support chapter. > >Cynthia agrees. We can still find our sponsor! Maybe even SPONSORS! We >just have to keep trying. > >Later, as I mull over all that has happened to me today - fleetingly a >presidential greeter, now again a non-entity, creator of the first >corporate sponsorship for a Parkinson's chapter, again only the creator of >the first PROPOSED sponsorship - my phone rings. It is my daughter, Lisa, >a fine young lady, now 35 and living in New York, who has been doing >everything humanly possible over the past 4 years of her marriage - most >recently in vitro - to become a mother. "I heard that little heartbeat >today, daddy," she whispers. "There is at least one baby, and there might >be two. You may become a double grandpa!" > >And I was getting down! > >You just have to keep trying. > > >Bob Dolezal >5319 E. Calle Bosque >299-1030 > > > >