Parkinson’s Foundation Adding Cities to Its National Moving Day Walks Fundraiser

This year will mark the Parkinson’s Foundation‘s fifth annual Moving Day, A Walk for Parkinson’s fundraiser. Moving Days, held in cities across the country on different days, have raised $13.7 million for services that improve the quality of life of persons with Parkinson’s disease (PD).

New Moving Days are being organized this year in Nashville, Louisville, Milwaukee, and Broward County, Florida.

The latest cycle helped the foundation raise $500,000 for 12 community-health, wellness and education programs in Washington, D.C., the San Francisco-Silicon Valley region of California, and Tampa. The money will help people living with Parkinson’s and their caregivers.

Moving Days not only raise money, but raise awareness of Parkinson’s and inspire others to take part in increasing understanding of the neurodegenerative disorder, and bringing us closer to beating it.

The Parkinson Foundation chose movement as a rallying cry for hope and progress because of the essential role it plays in Parkinson’s treatment. Moving Day participants are encouraged to get moving in any way they can — walking, stretching, even doing yoga in the event’s Movement Pavilions. Key event goals are to help everyone with Parkinson’s have the best possible quality of life they can, and to support more research to develop better treatments.

Some of the Moving Day funds help support the Parkinson Foundation’s mission of providing quality care for more than 50,000 patients worldwide through the foundation’s Center of Excellence network. Funding also goes to front-line research such as the Parkinson’s Outcomes Project. And it goes toward providing free resources for Parkinson’s patients and their caregivers, such as a toll-free Helpline, 1-800-4PD-INFO, and lifesaving Aware in Care hospital kits.

“Each year, Moving Day grants support life-enhancing local programs that have a true impact on the communities we serve,” Kayln Henkel, the foundation’s senior director of National Signature Events, said in a press release. “From Boston to Los Angeles, thousands of our supporters share a common goal: to help us beat Parkinson’s.”

“Thanks to the Parkinson Foundation and Moving Day San Francisco, Stanford’s Neuroscience Supportive Care Program will be able to expand our supportive services to the Bay Area’s Parkinson Community,” said T.C. Cowles, RN, a Moving Day grant recipient at Stanford Health Care. “The Supportive Care Program offers free classes, exercise programs and support groups to people impacted by neurological diseases. This grant allows us to create innovative, specialized exercise classes and to develop a community speaker series to enrich the lives of people with Parkinson’s and get them moving.”

Moving Day national partners, who help make the event possible, include ORIG3N, UCB, Right at Home, and Lundbeck.

For more information on the 2017 Moving Day walks, and to register, visit https://www.npfmovingday.org

Sources:
The Parkinson Foundation