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Hello Friends,

Pursuing the quest to keep the media actively involved in all we do, I
have sought the cooperation from the Princeton, NJ area media. Two
newspapers interviewed me, and a cable tv taped an interview. One
article appeared in our hometown paper, The Princeton Packet on 4/10.
It was a good introductory piece on the activities taking place in
Princeton, as part of the Pennies for Parkinson's campaign.

The Trenton Times interviewed me on April 2 and the article was
scheduled for 4/11. The writer missed the dead-line and I was a bit
concerned that the article may be too late for the Pennies for
Parkinson's campaign kick-off. I was reassured that the article with
pictures and the "story" would appear in the paper's Health/Science
section on 4/15. The interviewer called me asking for some additional
information and we were set -- or so, I thought. When the April 15
paper did not have the story, I was upset. I spent 2 hours being
interviewed, an other two hours having photos taken and mostly because
I really HATE having pictures taken and being in the "lime-light" is
alien and difficult for me. But, we do what we must to win this war.

The editor of the Health Section of the paper responded to my agitated
call, saying that he had read a series of excellent articles that
appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and wanted to combine the
two stories. Of course, I knew and loved the 3 articles and was
wondering how the two may be combined.

This is the result: 95% of the front page of the 4/22 Health/Science
section is devoted to the feature.
There is a large full color shot of ripples in the lake with
reflection of trees.
Then the title of the article - "The Silent epidemic".
In the middle of the page, my picture separates two articles: one
written by Jeanne Jackson about me and the other one written by Carol
Smith, "Parkinson's disease: The Silent Epidemic". Both stories are
continued on back pages of the section.

I am very happy that the The Times' editor had the idea to bring the
two stories together. It makes a significant statement about the
disease being a national/global issue. Of course, I am critical about
some of the basic statistical data, organizational identity/
affiliation that was not clearly stated. For instance,the article
reads as if I am responsible for the Parkinson Alliance PRO-Seed Grant
program, "Tuchman's efforts would provide seed grants of $25,000 each
to some of those researchers." I will write to the editor to thank him
for the great presentation and also give more specific info on the
Parkinson Alliance and PRO-Seed grants that need to be publicized.

Part of the feature can be read on:
http://www.nj.com/features/times/science/stories/04-22-RYAD2FBD.html


Margaret Tuchman
Princeton, NJ
B1941/Dx1980
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