Email Your Lawmakers to Please Fund Cerebral Palsy Research Now

“Reaching for the Stars. A Foundation of Hope for Children with Cerebral Palsy” (RFTS, Inc) is asking for your support to urge lawmakers for dedicated research funding for Cerebral Palsy, the most common motor disability in children affecting over 800,000 Americans.

We went to Washington on April 26th, 2012 with members of the AACPDM and met directly with Senator Tom Harkin (Iowa), Chairman of the Appropriations Committee that funds the NIH and CDC (Labor, Health and Human Services and Education), and Senator Johnny Isakson (Georgia), member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee about this important public health issue.

Now we need YOU (families, friends, individuals and children with Cerebral Palsy) to follow up with these two Senators directly to show how strongly we support Cerebral Palsy research funding at the NIH and CDC, and how grateful we are for their support.

Here’s what you can do to help!

Step 1. Please email Senator Tom Harkin (use his form at http://harkin.senate.gov/contact_opinion.cfm) and and Senator Johnny Isakson (use his form at http://www.isakson.senate.gov/contact.cfm), as well as your your individual Senators and Congressmen and women with the subject line: “Please Fund Cerebral Palsy Research Now”. Here’s a website where you can get all the Congressional contact information you need to contact your national lawmakers: http://congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt

Step 2. Please cc: info@reachingforthestars.org so we can track the number of emails being sent and hold lawmakers accountable for responding.

Step 3. Please read our updated Fact Sheet with the main points you can use in your email:

• Even though Cerebral Palsy affects 1 in 268 children, over 800,000 Americans and is the most common motor disability in children – there is no dedicated or line item funding of Cerebral Palsy causation, prevention or cure research at the NIH or CDC.
• We can no longer accept the status quo for Cerebral Palsy . The cost is devastating – both emotionally and financially, for families and for our healthcare and government system. The cost of not curing or preventing Cerebral Palsy is over $1.5 MM per person, and over $13.5 billion dollars alone in lifetime care costs for the children born with Cerebral Palsy in 2000.
• In 80 % of the cases of Cerebral Palsy, the cause is unknown due to lack of research.
• Any other additional comments you want to make about your own family situation or experience with Cerebral Palsy.

With a dedicated federal funding commitment, we can make strides toward finding a cure and best treatment, as well as prevention for Cerebral Palsy but understanding the risk factors, the cause, which treatments might be most effective.

Please help us reach our goal of having at least 100,000 emails sent to Senator Harkin and Senator Isakson by the end of May.

Together we will make a difference. Today we will step together towards Preventing Cerebral Palsy, Treating Cerebral Palsy, and Curing Cerebral Palsy for future generations of children.