National and World CP Day
In the past few weeks I have shown my support to many disability awareness days including cerebral palsy which I am diagnosed with. I wore my crazy socks for Downs Syndrome awareness, purple for epilepsy, lit up blue for autism, and painted the world green for CP awareness. The thing I noticed is all these other awareness days were publicized on local and national tv. The White House even lit up blue for autism awareness. My friend Richelle Heath and I started in November emailing and writing businesses, government offices, sports teams, local and national news stations etc. We sent out over 500 emails and received only about 10 responses. While we did get the Skyview Atlanta to light up green and a local DJ in Knoxville TN (Hot Toddy on Star 102.1) announced that it was National CP Awareness Day on air, there was little to no interest. There are currently approximately 17 million people living with cerebral palsy worldwide yet it receives little attention in the media, little funding for research and testing, and basically unless you are on social media and in the CP community online you wouldn't be aware that CP even has an awareness day. I support all disability awareness and I am pleased that these other disabilities received the attention that they did, but my question is why are their awareness days considered more important to the general public? World CP Day is October 6 and we are back to sending our emails. Please help us bring CP awareness to the forefront by asking local businesses, government offices, news stations etc to help us spread the world to #LightUpGreen 10/6 for cerebral palsy awareness. I don't wish to take anything away from any other awareness for any disability but I believe all disability awareness days should matter not just a select few! Stand up! Together we can make a change!
