Homework again

For my last college class I had a Leadership project which revolved around running a team for the MS Society and their annual MS Walk. Unfortunately, things didn't turn out quite the way I expected. To make a long story short, I want to post a question that I received in my class and my response:

From Meghan

Knowing that only 35 cents of every dollar goes to research will you continue to put your efforts towards this program or are you looking for other ways to raise monies for MS? Meghan

From Joseph

Meghan,

So you understand my reasoning I want to give you a little snippet of something I wrote recently.

"This disease, and other neurological diseases in the same general category, represent a major failing for the current medical system. Primarily, there is little understanding of what causes these issues in the first place, though continued research seems to imply that there are environmental causes (especially our continued exposure to high levels of electricity, chemicals, etc) for some of these ailments. On the opposite side, there is little that can be done to alleviate the symptoms, or to cure this outright. As more and more people are affected by Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and other chronic neurological conditions, this is a terrible failing for the medical community and it is rapidly becoming a huge impact on our society in general."

I would have NEVER thought that there would be eight people in my close family that had a condition like this. More than just a random fact or a news story, these types of conditions have radically altered my life - and the doctors don't even understand them!!

So yes - an emphatic yes - I will be looking for another way to combat these types of conditions. My sister and I were talking about setting up one of those Vacation Fund savings accounts and giving the entire family the account number. Have a garage sale, put in fifty. Get a tax return, add a couple hundred. If the whole family did a little bit the whole year round, versus just a month or two in Spring, I think that we would end up with a noteworthy donation.

Then, once a year, we would have a Be The Miracle party (like Bruce Almighty) and sometime during the party I would sit down and make a donation of what was in the account to someplace like the Montel Williams MS Foundation.

(The difference between the MS Society and the Montel setup is that Montel has used his network of contacts and advertisers to gather big name corporations into the fight. It appears that all of his administrative costs are covered by their donations and help, so when an individual donates 100% of it is applied to the medical research. You can learn more at http://www.montelms.org/)

-Joseph