Margot Zobel, the Founder and Director of the Parkinson's Unity Walk will share Parkinson's related news and insights on a periodic basis.

April 2004

"Margot's welcome speech at the Tenth Annual Unity Walk"

I'd like to give you a brief history of the Parkinson's Unity Walk.

In 1994, after living with Parkinson's for more than a decade, I began to question why Parkinson's disease got so little public attention. Why, for instance, were there fund-raising walks in New York for nearly every major disease -- with the glaring exception of Parkinson's? Were people with Parkinson's ashamed of their disease? Were they fearful of crowds? Were they afraid of losing their jobs or their friends if they came out in public?

When I suggested to my support group that we sponsor a fund-raising walk, the initial response was negative. "People with Parkinson's won't walk," they told me. But they were wrong about that. Before long, we had enough volunteers to form a walk committee, made up of people with Parkinson's, their families and loved ones. What we lacked in experience we made up for in determination. And in October of 1994, the first Parkinson's Unity Walk was launched.

There were only 200 people walking that day– but we felt we were making history. We raised $16,000, and as we had pledged, every penny was turned over to research.

That first walk was an important stepping-stone in many ways. Besides raising money, it helped bring Parkinson's disease out of the shadows and gave us a sense of empowerment. People who had been secretive about their disease now competed to see who could raise the most money for research. They spread the word by mouth and through the Internet, encouraging others to join us. A community was born. In just a few years, our local walk metamorphosed into an international event. We have attracted participants from over 48 states and 10 foreign countries, and raising nearly 3 million in donations in which 100% goes toward research.

We won't stop walking until a cure is found. We don't know how many more walks it will take, but we hope you'll be with us.
Margot with Michael J. Fox

Behind the scenes …

April 24, 2004 was a glorious day, a perfect day on which to mark our tenth anniversary. What made it such a success? It was the selfless dedication of nearly 200 volunteers who planned and carried out every detail of the Walk under the guidance of Executive Director, Carol Walton and Event Director, Trina Stokes.

Here are just some of the details that the volunteers had to deal with: Registration, teams, t-shirts, snacks, water, speakers, sound system, portosans, permits, marshals, golf carts. Getting everything to Central Park (at an ungodly early hour), setting everything up according to plan, taking everything down again. Cleaning up.

Thank heavens for the volunteers! We can't list you all by name, but we are enormously grateful to each and everyone of you.

Margot


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