PDF uses the PD Tulip for 2010 "April is Parkinson's Awareness Month"

By Sheryl Jedlinski

Pdplan4life co-founders Jean Burns and Sheryl Jedlinski want to recognize and thank the national PD orgs for joining the grassroots effort to make the PD Tulip the national symbol for Parkinson's awareness. Special thanks to:

• The Parkinson's Disease Foundation for using the PD Tulip in its 2010 national campaign, April is Parkinson's Awareness Month.
• The Parkinson Alliance for giving a PD Tulip pin to every participant in this year's Parkinson's Unity Walk in New York City's Central Park.
• The Michael J. Fox Foundation, and the National Parkinson Foundation, and the Parkinson Alliance, for putting the PD Tulip on their home pages.
• The Parkinson's Action Network (PAN) for researching USPS procedures for choosing a new stamp design, and printing and mailing to the USPS a petition with 6,000 names requesting the tulip design be used on a future postage stamp.

• Affiliated and unaffiliated organizations and individuals around the US for using the tulip in a variety of ways, from embroidering it on shirts and socks to wearing it as pins and pendants.

"Be proud of your organization and use its logo, but please display the PD Tulip as well," Jean requests. "It is a reminder that regardless of affiliation, we are one community working toward common goals: to help PWP live better longer, ansd to discover better treatments or even a cure."

Now, with such visible support throughout the PD community, we are well on our way to seeing our dream come true.

The PD Tulip — a red flower with distinctive leaves shaped like the letters “P” and “D” — was designed by a young onset person with Parkinson’s (PWP) from Washington state — Karen Painter. “After staring at a pink breast cancer ribbon in a store window, it dawned on me that people with Parkinson's also need a nationally recognized symbol for awareness,” she recalls.

Drawing attention to PD is critical to obtaining funds for the research to find a cure for this disease.

When Jean saw Karen’s tulip design doodled on a napkin, it was love at first sight. She started dreaming that it could become the symbol that would represent everyone whose lives are touched by Parkinson’s:

• People with PD and their friends and families
• Every major organization and their chapters
• Scientists and researchers
• Drug companies
• Healthcare professionals

“The groundswell of support for my design has far exceeded my expectations," Karen says.

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