Recent Quest Articles
Productive Partnership
Since first partnering with MDA in 1985, Acosta, a full-service sales and marketing company focused on packaged consumer goods, has raised more than $82 million for MDA’s mission. Acosta’s staff support MDA through fundraising events, marketing promotions and even volunteering at MDA Summer Camps. Here are just some of the ways Acosta offices across the country have showed their support for MDA:
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The Power of Role Models
In recent months, I’ve experienced a noticeable decline in my arm and leg strength. My limbs feel heavy. It seems like they succumb a little bit more to gravity each day. One night, I tried to roll over in bed, and it took me six attempts — six! — to succeed. By the time I finally flipped over, I felt like I had just gone to the gym.
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A World of Opportunities
In 2010, Darrin Altman, diagnosed with ALS, faced a professional dilemma. His speech was failing, which threatened his career as a Spanish-language court interpreter. “My doctors at UCLA recommended an app to help me communicate, which worked OK, but not perfectly,” Altman recalls. After testing several alternatives, he decided that the solution was to create his own full-featured text-to-speech app, which he would offer to the world for free.
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A Word from President & CEO Lynn O’Connor Vos
Since joining MDA as president and CEO in October, I’ve had the sincere pleasure of spending time with and learning from our families, leading clinical experts, renowned researchers, dedicated sponsors, and passionate MDA staff and volunteers. The progress we’re making together is unprecedented, and I know it is only the tip of the iceberg. Working together, I see incredible opportunities to push the limits of neuromuscular disease research and provide an even better health care experience for individuals and their families.
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Progress Now Winter 2018
In November, MDA announced 13 new MDA research and development grants, with a total funding commitment of $3.5 million, that are now supporting research projects around the world. The new projects cover a broad range of diseases in MDA’s program and are intended to impact the greater neuromuscular disease landscape.
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Startup Support
Once I was diagnosed with myotonic muscular dystrophy (DM), I sought a support group to learn more about my disease and meet others with the same diagnosis. Shortly after I began attending, the facilitator left the group and I was asked to take over her responsibilities. Talk about trial by fire.
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Enter Stage Right
Matt Plummer, a 30-year-old graphic, web and thatrical designer in Fort Worth, Texas, will never forget the role that introduced him to the world of theater and art during his sophomore year of high school: Townsperson No. 3 in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. “I think a lot of people in my situation have a hard time expressing themselves,” says Plummer, who lives with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). “That experience really gave me a creative, artistic outlet to express myself and everything about me.”
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Helping Hands
An MDA partner since 2001, Lowe’s takes great pride in improving the communities it serves. To date, Lowe’s and its loyal customers have raised more than $63 million to support MDA’s mission. Lowe’s also supports MDA by encouraging their employees to volunteer throughout the year and to join together in select improvement projects. This year’s projects included helping to construct new decks and ramps for the MDA Summer Camp at Camp Calvin Crest in Nebraska.
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Carry On
For Ed Walsh, who has been a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier for 23 years, getting involved with MDA came naturally. Walsh is a member of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 358 in New York. NALC was one of MDA’s first national sponsors, originally partnering with MDA in 1952. Beyond that official partnership, Walsh and his fellow branch members have found personal connections to MDA.
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Flying High with Kippy
When Christine “Kippy” Hoene, a 57-year-old acrobat and entrepreneur with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), first opened her SaltAer circus school in Jacksonville, Fla., earlier this year, it represented a culmination of her passions. At age 35, Hoene decided she wanted to learn a new skill every year, and after seeing Cirque du Soleil perform in Las Vegas, she set out to learn acrobatics.
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