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This is a grassroots fund-raising concept.  It will only recognize it's true
potential if a significant portion of the estimated one million people who
have Parkinson's in this country participate.  It's a flexible program in
that there are many ways to participate.  The major theme is collecting
loose change or spare change, but you can simply write a check if you
desire.  We were aware that there are a lot of organizations competing for
your charitable dollar and felt that putting aside a handfull of change
everyday or emptying that can of change you been accumulating was a novel
and painless way to contribute.  That was the initial concept, however, many
wanted to place containers in public places.  We are in the process of
obtaining containers satisfactory for that purpose.  Pennies for Parkinson's
is intended to be the banner for many types of grass-roots fund-raising, be
it street fairs, health fairs, bake sales, or walk-a-thons.

To be successful simply requires widespread participation.  It's a numbers
game.  If the average contribution is 25 dollars it takes 1000 contributions
to fund the minimum seed money research grant.  Extraordinary efforts by
individuals is simply not going to get it done.  We need each and everyone
of you to participate.

There have been some marvelous responses on this list to some very
worthwhile endeavors.  The "spread the word" initiative and the "agonists
survey" immediately come to mind.  Neither those, however, have a direct
impact on curing Parkinson's.  Contributions to Pennies for Parkinson's will
go directly towards funding research.