Last week, the SMA Treatment Acceleration Act of 2009, or H.R. 2149, was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Congressman Eric Cantor (R-VA). This new version builds on the momentum created by the success of the last SMA Treatment Acceleration Act that at the end of last Congress had accumulated 85 cosponsors in the House of Representatives and 21 cosponsors in the Senate, or approximately 20 percent of each legislative body — truly remarkable progress for a bill of this type.
We are very excited and hopeful that this bill will be passed into law, but we need your help to help the supporting organizations effectively lobby Congress. We are asking all of you to make a renewed effort to gather more signatures for PetitionToCureSMA.com, our online petition in favor of the SMA Treatment Acceleration Act. From our accomplishments last year, we know this petition has a material impact on garnering legislative support. By presenting an actual, growing list of constituents from the petition in support of this bill, Families of SMA, Fight SMA, SMA Foundation, and Muscular Dystrophy Association have used the petition data as a powerful tool as they meet with the different legislators.
To date, we have received over 58,000 signatures from all 50 states and over 120 countries around the world. Every signature is making a difference towards getting the SMA Treatment Acceleration Act passed and spreading awareness about SMA in the process!!!
Here are several simple ways that YOU can help get the SMA Treatment Acceleration Act passed this 111th Congressional session:
- Household Check. Make sure that your spouse or others in your household have all signed PetitionToCureSMA.com. Every single signature is important.
- Email. Email the petition link – http://PetitionToCureSMA.com – to every contact with a personal request asking them to take 30 seconds to help end SMA and ask that they in turn pass the petition link on to their contacts.
- Petition Flier. Print out our petition flier or make your own to put up in your community and pass out to groups, organizations or during fundraiser or special events. You can download our petition fliers here: (a) full-page flier and (b) half-page flier.
- Contact Online Resources. Contact blogs, forums, or other online communities and ask for their help in promoting SMA awareness by posting a link to PetitionToCureSMA.com.
- Use Your Facebook Status. Use your Facebook status to remind your Facebook friends to sign PetitionToCureSMA.com and ask that they do the same.
- Join Our Facebook Group. Join our Facebook group – “PetitionToCureSMA.com” – by clicking here and make sure to post the group to your Facebook profile and invite your Facebook “friends” to join as well.
- Add Our Button to your Blogs and Websites. Add our petition button to your personal blog or website. You can get the HTML code for our petition button on the upper right hand side of our blog under “Our Buttons”.
- Twitter. Twitter about the petition, the SMA Treatment Acceleration Act, and the petition milestones and ask that your “followers” RT your tweets.
- Reach Out to the Media. Ask your local media outlets to do a story about SMA, the remarkable research and hope on the horizon, and include the petition as a call to action. If your family has already been featured, reach back out to the media for an update piece and make sure they include the petition to give the audience a simple way to help.
- Share Your Ideas. Let us know about your ideas for spreading the word and share your success stories. Collectively we can get this bill passed.
We know that SMA will not receive the attention it needs without help. With your continued outreach efforts for PetitionToCureSMA.com, we are certain Congress will see the wisdom in pushing SMA research forward. And soon, SMA will be considered a treatable disease…a curable disease!