Help Cure Juvenile Myositis (JM)

Readers, today I am asking that you do something that will make you feel good.  And best of all, you don't have to donate any of your hard earned dollars to do it.  No, today I am asking that you simply place your vote to help the Cure JM foundation win a $250,000 Pepsi Refresh Grant to use towards finding a cure to Juvenile Myositis.

Currently, they are on track to receive one of two available grants, but could use all the support they can get to ensure that they don't slip out of the running before voting ends Sept 1st.

Fellow dad blogger Kevin, from Always Home and Uncool, whose daughter (thing 1) suffers from JM, recently published the following post on his blog.  He has asked that I publish it here as a reminder of why it is so important to lend your support.  If you can, please take the time to read it and then go and vote to help cure JM.

Cole Flack of Oregon received his diagnosis of juvenile dermatomyositis in February 2007, roughly four-and-a-half years after Thing 1 received hers.

In the years that followed, this teenager with a love of sports and being outdoors lost his ability to walk. Cole endured multiple abdominal surgeries to deal with gastrointestinal issues caused by the disease and its medicinal treatments. Yet as recently as the fall, he still managed a full course load at school and compiled a 4.0 GPA.

Earlier this month, Cole went into the hospital with pneumonia.

Yesterday, we received this e-mail written by his parents:

“Hello friends and family,

Cole went to be with the Lord at 7 p.m. tonight. It was very peaceful. Cole is free now to run ... jump ... play baseball ... everything a 15 year old boy should be able to do. …”

Cole is the third child with a form of juvenile myositis that our family has come to know since Thing 1’s diagnosis to die from this rare autoimmune disease or its complications.

Three.

When only three in a million children are diagnosed annually in the United States with this disease, that little number grows exponentially in your worried head every time your child coughs or sneezes or scraps a knee.

Please help prevent more deaths of children like Cole by continuing to vote every day this month to help Cure JM, the only national nonprofit dedicated to supporting children with juvenile myositis and their families, win a $250,000 Pepsi Refresh grant.

That $250,000 equals half our volunteer group’s annual budget, a budget raised solely through fundraising done by the family and friends of JM children. Every penny of that grant is set to pay for research into finding the cause and cure of juvenile myositis, juvenile dermatomyositis and other forms of JM diseases.

Right now, we are No. 2 in the standings – we need to hold this position until Sept. 1 to win the grant money. The only way that can happen is with your help.

You can vote up to 3 TIMES, every day, during the month of August!

(1) Send a text vote: Text 100850 to Pepsi (73774) (standard text messaging rate apply)

(2) Use the Facebook app: http://bit.ly/CureJMonFB

(3) Vote directly from the Pepsi website site for our Cure JM and its affiliated causes at http://pep.si/CureJMKidstoWin5