SMA is a muscular dystrophy disease. Like cancer and its many awful versions, there are many forms of muscular dystrophy that fall under this one umbrella. The Muscular Dystrophy Association was the first organization to really put a face to these many diseases with long and often hard to pronounce names impacting so many people. ALS/Lou Gehrig's disease, duchenne, and a whole host of other diseases, like spinal muscular atrophy, fall under that muscular dystrophy category and are represented by the MDA.
Since Gwendolyn's diagnosis, we have gotten to know our local MDA chapter and the great work that they do. And as with any organization or effort to propel SMA closer to a cure, we are more than happy to help.Parvaneh Givi is Santa Barbara's Executive Director and she is simply awesome. You may remember that this year we participated in the MDA Telethon. It was Parvaneh who nominated us. And we are so, so, so excited that this year Parvaneh and the Santa Barbara office have decided to dedicate their annual major fundraiser, the Winter Wine Down, to SMA research — ALL of it! Isn't that AWESOME!!! We can't wait to be involved and help. More news on that soon — it's going to be F.U.N.!
Just a few weeks ago the Santa Barbara Fire Department participated in the annual MDA Fill The Boot and Gwendolyn was asked to be the event “Ambassador.” She was very excited and that day at preschool she made a very specific gift for all the firefighters who selflessly used their day off to raise money for the MDA (she was very bossy about what colors go where and wanted them to have lots of glitter 