Breath of Fresh Air – Muscular Dystrophy Association
“We loved working with you and Boulder Blimp! The Arch was perfect and was exactly what we needed for our event. I’ve attached a couple photos for you. I’ll definitely check out the website and see if there is anything else we would love to have for our walk next year!”
Cassandra Rix, MDA Development Specialist
What in the world is muscular dystrophy? It’s a term that gets tossed around without much comprehension as to what it actually means. Have no fear, my annoyingly high curiosity quotient [and my boss] insisted I do the research for you. Muscular dystrophy is a group of diseases that cause progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass. Abnormal gene mutations interfere with the production of proteins needed to form healthy muscle. Unbeknownst to me prior to this post, there are many kinds of neuromuscular diseases. I counted upwards of 60 from the list on their site! Symptoms of the most common variety begin in childhood and others don’t surface until adulthood. ALS, the disease I wrote about in a prior post, actually falls under its umbrella.
Muscular Dystrophy Association is committed to what I like to call the three C’s – cure, care and champion – which can be summed up as research, early detection and specialized care and family empowerment, respectively. I was in luck I didn’t have to dig too far to uncover the secret behind the creation of this nonprofit. In 1950, founder Paul Cohen saw the need, invited some people over that shared in his plight of muscular dystrophy and MDA was born, in a nutshell. That year, MDA’s first research grant for $1,500 was awarded to neuromuscular disease pioneer Ade. T. Milhorat, M.D. That’s about $16,000 by today’s standards!
What’s more is that MDA is an old timer like Boulder Blimp. I couldn’t believe they’ve been around for almost 70 years now! Maybe you remember their legendary Labor Day telethons hosted by Jerry Lewis. In 2015, MDA made the difficult decision to end its historic telethon tradition. To paint a picture of how far they’ve come, the FDA approved the first disease modifying drugs to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular dystrophy in 2016. That’s huge considering it will treat the most common genetic cause of death in infants.
They do so much good work that I didn’t know how to choose which ones to highlight. Do I mention the summer camps at no charge to families OR the myriad Muscle Walks and marathons they host OR the MDA Lockup where business leaders join forces with MDA by agreeing to be “locked up” while they raise money for their “bail”? Oopsy daisy, there I go again, talking to myself. There’s also their widely known shamrock campaign that goes off without a hitch every March so donate if you can. And…they have their own app, magazine and art collection! Alright, I’m done. I can’t keep up with MDA. Check out this bunch of overachievers here and find out even more for yourself. I can’t do everything. Sheesh! Now, hand me that water bottle, will ya?
That’s a wrap, folks! Stay tuned for the next installment of Breath of Fresh Air coming up next month. I wonder who the spotlight will turn to next! Will it be YOU?