On November 9th, GTNeuro along with the National Parkinson's Foundation are
raising awareness for Parkinson's Disease through an event called Moving Day
hosted at Georgia Tech. We are in need of students willing to volunteer at our
event as well as walk in our trail across campus by assisting those afflicted
with Parkinson's.
If you are interested in volunteering for the event, please email Arjun
Meka (arjunmeka@gmail.com) or Emily Young (emily.ryoung9@gmail.com). You may
sign up at the following link:
I hope you can take a moment to read this note from our beloved Billiee
Pendleton-Parker :
"I am not Michael J. Fox. I am not Linda Ronstadt. I am not Mohammed
Ali. I am not former President Bush. I am a face in the crowd. I have been a
face at Tech since 1987. I am a face that is almost 62 years old. I am Billiee
Pendleton-Parker, and I have been diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s
Disease.
Being hospitalized two years ago for an unknown ailment led to two
CT-scans, an MRI, being bed-ridden, using a wheel-chair, progressing to a
walker, undergoing over a month of in-patient/residential physical and
occupational therapy, and my favorite thing: free cupcakes. Well, that’s what
I told my neurologist that they should call a lumbar puncture—folkss would be
insisting “Sign me up!â€
I take medication three times every day to help lessen leg and arm tremors.
I wear sensible, but cute, shoes. I utilize technology (including elevators)
daily. I love “The Big Bang Theory†and “Criminal Minds.†I voluntarily
gave up driving; difficult, but necessary. I have a staggeringly wonderful
support system of loving friends for whom I am eternally grateful. I reached out
(thanks to Google) to the National Parkinson’s Foundation to see how I, as a
community service volunteer and activist, could help—offering our beloved
Georgia Tech as the venue for the inaugural Atlanta Moving Day. This is a
morning of awareness-raising for and education about Parkinson’s Disease—with
aa goal of securing at least $100,000 to aid much-needed research.
I am not a statistic. I am, and continue to be, just a face in the
crowd—but it’s a “Tech face‗and one that II hope you’ll see lurking
about campus for years to come. I depend on you, our future neuro scientists
and researchers and brilliant brains in all academic areas, to walk for
Parkinson’s on November 9—”to help continue to and finish the $100 million
NIH-driven brain mapping project—to be supportive of any and ALL ‘faces in the
crowdd’—because you just may know one of them. I have Parkinsonn’s, but
Parkinson’s doesn’t have me. :) :)
As Anne Frank once said: “I don’t think of all the misery but of all
the beauty that still remains.â€
----
Thank You,
Jordan Glasgow
Neuroscience Club at Georgia Tech
Vice President of Marketing
