Let’s talk celebrity crushes. When I was a kid, I had a few, some of them a bit less humiliating than others. On the list? Greg Evigan (I was a huge BJ & The Bear fan), Scott Baio, Erik Estrada, Jon Bon Jovi, John Stamos, and Jon Cryer (apparently I had a thing for Johns). I’ll admit that I was mocked by my friends for some of these choices (I’ll leave it to you to guess which ones). And I didn’t quite get some of their crushes either… Michael Jackson, really? Kirk Cameron? And I didn’t understand any of the Coreys.
But there was one guy that we all loved, with zero exceptions: Michael J. Fox. We all swooned over him in Back to The Future. Thursday nights were never, ever miss TV nights for Family Ties. And I toyed with abandoning my law school plans for medical school after watching Doc Hollywood about a million times.
It was during that film, Doc Hollywood, that Fox noticed a twitch in his little finger. A year later, he would find out that it was a symptom of Parkinson’s disease. Over the next few years, Fox would devote his time to finding a cure for the disease and, as a result, he became the face of the disease for my generation.
Parkinson’s disease is a chronic, degenerative neurological disorder. It affects one in 100 people over age 60, though you can certainly be diagnosed with it earlier (as Fox was). Recent research indicates that at least one million people in the United States, and more than five million worldwide, have Parkinson’s disease. Chances are, you may know someone with the disease. I do. Even before Fox made his announcement that he had the disease, my favorite history professor at college was diagnosed with the disease; it eventually contributed to her retirement.
There is no cure for Parkinson’s disease. And that’s where the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research comes in. The Michael J. Fox Foundation’s single-minded goal is to speed progress in Parkinson’s therapeutic development. That includes advancing drug therapies, mobilizing and educating patients, increasing research – and hopefully, one day, finding a cure.
How can you help? You can make a cash donation online to the organization (note that the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research is a four-star charity according to Charity Navigator). If you’d prefer to mail your donation, you can do that, too, or call the Foundation at 1-800-708-7644. The organization also encourages matching corporate gifts, planned giving, and participation in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC code #12227).
The Foundation also has a gift shop. You can help shop for a cure! Additionally, other companies, like Tiny Prints, give a portion of its sales from this page to the Foundation (our firm loves Tiny Prints – we used them for our holiday cards this year!). For more ways to support the Foundation, check out this page.
A search at irs.gov (which I highly recommend any time you are considering making a donation to a charity) reveals that The Michael J. Fox Foundation is on the IRS list of charitable organizations. To find out more about the work of the organization, check out their website, follow them on twitter or like them on Facebook.
