PARKLAND, Fla. – A South Florida woman is doing her part to expand understanding of this group of disorders affecting movement, muscle tone, and posture.
Friday, March 25, marks National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day.
Three years ago, Plantation resident Nicole Luongo launched a campaign she called ‘Go Green for C.P’. to light up buildings and structures across the country.
“Advocates like me and a lot of people I know in the disability community we do this work 24/7, we’re always advocating for awareness, for research for federal funding for so many different things,” Luongo said.
This is a reminder that TOMORROW is National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day! Tag me so I can see you #GoGreen4CP! https://t.co/rOektQbsiy
— Nicole Luongo (@green4cp) March 24, 2022
💚💚💚 #NicoleLuongo #DisabilityAdvocate #CerebralPalsy #CerebralPalsyAwareness #whatCPlookslike pic.twitter.com/eXCScrC3ow
An estimated 764,000 children and adults in the U.S. currently have cerebral palsy.
Parkland teen Kaitlyn August will be honored at the Broward ‘Walk the Talk For Epilepsy’ this weekend.
August was diagnosed with the disease 10 years ago.
“I want to do this because there are a lot of people out there who have it way worse than me like they have seizures every ten minutes or they have them five times a day, me I just have them once a month, so it’s still bad but I wanted to help those struggling more than me,” she said.
August is also spreading the word about the importance of alert service dogs, like her 4-year-old lab Mowgli, who are trained to sense a seizure.
For more information on local events go to: https://www.epilepsyfl.com/
And a free clinic is coming to Fort Lauderdale this weekend.
The organization ‘Remote Area Medical’ will be offering no-cost medical, dental, and vision services all day Saturday, March 26, and Sunday, March 27 at Joseph C. Carter Park.
For details go to: https://www.ramusa.org/event/fort-lauderdale-fl-2022/?instance_id=366
No I.D. is required but all services are on a first come first serve basis.