Parkinson’s Walk 2012
(Submitted photo)
On Saturday, April 13, the Parkinson’s Disease Support Group of East Tennessee, PK Hope Is Alive, will host its second annual walk at at A.K. Bissell Park in Oak Ridge. The local walk will be in conjunction with the 19th annual Parkinson’s Unity Walk in New York City.
Registration starts at 9 a.m., and the walk, which will help raise funds for Parkinson’s Disease research, will take place between 10 a.m. and noon. Last year, PK Hope Is Alive raised more than $17,000 and was the No. 8 fundraising organization in the country.
April is designated as Parkinson’s Awareness Month. PD affects both men and women in almost equal numbers. It affects more than 1.5 million people in the United States, and it is estimated that 60,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Symptoms vary from patient to patient and can include small, cramped handwriting; shuffling walk; muffled speech; and prolonged, repetitive painful contractions of a body part. More information about Parkinson’s Disease will be available the morning of the walk.
To register as a walker (joining the PK Hope Is Alive team) or sponsor a walker online, go to www.unitywalk.org.
Walkers who have raised $50 and are present the day of the walk will receive a commemorative T-shirt while supplies last.
If you would like to make a donation, send a check made out to Parkinson’s Unity Walk to PK Hope Is Alive/Karen Sampsell at 117 Newhaven Road, Oak Ridge, TN 37830.
For more information about the PD fundraising walk, call Tom or Betty Worden at (865) 579-5557 or Karen Sampsell at (865) 482-4867.
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