Gratitude and the Gravity of Giving
Musings from PFP's Local Community Program Coordinator, Kevin Curtin
On Friday morning, while we waited for the Standing Warriors class to begin at the Townlake YMCA, I had a devilish prompt for the early arriving participants: “What New Year’s resolutions have we already broken?”
Before anyone could answer, the class’s beloved instructor Lauren Lewis blew into the room and expertly intercepted the question.
“I’ve had the same resolution every year since I was 20,” Lauren offered, taking her space at the front of the class. “To be as healthy as I was the year before.”
Easy for her to say, I thought. Lauren, who recently attended a 50-year reunion for her high school graduation, is more fit today than I was at 20.
But maybe that incrementally-modest mindset is the key to why her fountain of youth runneth over: instead of setting goals to raise one’s physical standard, just attempting to maintain it on an annual basis will be the most beneficial in the long run.
Judy Powell, a dedicated participant in the challenging Friday class, responded: “Lauren, that’s what you do for us!”
Judy had just hit the nail on the head. We know that regular exercise can significantly decelerate the progression of Parkinson’s – and, in fact, a preliminary research study published by Yale’s School of Medicine last February found that high-intensity exercise, like what is incorporated routinely in most of Power for Parkinson’s Standing Warriors classes, actually preserved dopamine-producing neurons. The annual resolution that Lauren Lewis has made on January 1 is what everyone who participates in PFP’s classes can work towards.
And on the topic of New Year’s pronouncements, last week I stood in front of the classes and thanked them, not just for donating to our Holiday Drive, but for enduring our endless messaging about the fundraiser. For small, community-supported nonprofits like ours, it can be exhausting to be in “fundraising mode”. But our supporters have, once again, made it a success by providing critical funds to keep us on track to continue our mission for another year.
That mission, as stated by our co-founder and executive director Dr. Nina Mosier in a letter last week, is to: “help as many people with PD as possible stay active and live their best lives.” I believe that the work of our team over the next 12 months will benefit more people than ever – in Austin, in growing global community online, and through reaching communities that have previously lacked the free resources Power for Parkinson’s provides.
Our Holiday Drive exceeded its goal by raising $334,413. That total comes from a wide base of support, the 234 individual donations we received during the month represent the greatest overall breadth of contributions our organization has taken in during a fundraiser. Additionally, 71 of them came from first-time donors and we gained several monthly donors, which is an especially valuable form of community support for us.
You may be interested to know that, while we saw enormous growth in our global audience in 2024, with the number of people doing our YouTube exercises continuing to increase, the lion’s share of our donations continue to come from our community in central Texas. They source not only from our in-class participants, but family members, volunteers, board members, and even instructors. That the people we interact with on a daily basis – the people who see firsthand the value of this work – go over-and-above to support PFP is inspiring and confirms what we all see: that these classes touch lives in meaningful ways.
Personally, I’m deeply moved to see the many donations that are made in the memory of a loved one who has passed – often someone who attended Power for Parkinson’s classes. Those kinds of memorial donations show that the connections that are made in this world are not just a relationship of the present, but something that stretches back. It brings to the front of my mind that every individual we interact with are the roots of their own family tree, as well as a circle of friends and any benefit we can help bring them is a benefit that also touches the many lives tied to them.
Like Lauren Lewis, I also make the same New Year’s resolution every year. It’s to be open with my gratitude and tell my friends that I love and appreciate them. So I want to tell everyone who is part of the Power for Parkinson’s world, and those who support us, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for being there with us.
