Parkinson's Bike-A-Thon

[Donna Kos <donnakos@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

My name is Donna Kos and I'm from Akron, Oh.  I'm a member of the Akron
Area Parkinson's Support Group as were my parents Edward and Jarmila
Kos. It was my dad that had PD for about 18 years.  The last 8 years I
became very involved in doing research in respect to Parkinson's and
trying to help my parents cope with the increasingly difficult aspects
as the disease progressed. My father passed away in March of '96.  That
following summer I was doing a bike tour of Olympic National Park in
Washington state, and I came up with the idea of organizing a
coast-to-coast fund-raising Bike-A-Thon with the objective of raising
public awareness about this disease, and also raising money for
Parkinson's research.  It took a very long time before I was able  to
get  the attention of a national organization,  but it finally DID
happen when I was able to meet with someone from the PDF of New York
City.  They were the first organization to take me seriously and to
offer their help in this masive organizational  task. The PDF will be
making the event public sometime in January.  At this point the only
people that are aware of the event (which is being called Parkinson's
Power Across America) are those PD Support Groups whom I have written
to, Phoned, e-mailed, etc.  By the way, my route will follow along the
southern tier of the U.S. From San Diego, Ca. to St. Augustine, Fl.
There is also a northern tier put together by a young man from
Massachusetts who will be leading a core group of  four bicyclists from
Boston to San Francisco.  This will be the first coast-to-coast
fund-raising event for increased awareness of PD. I'm hoping to make the
Bike-A-Thon multigenerational, and that we can count on the sons and
daughters of Parkinsonians (as well as grandchildren) to be willing to
give their time and efforts to support this cause.      Look forward to
hearing from anyone interested in knowing more about this event.
Donna

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