Hi again! My second post tonight! Since beginning my work as a caregiver to a young ALS patient, my mind has been on overdrive researching, reading, watching movies, visiting the ALS society in Vancouver. I'm a student nurse and am surpised that in school we barely touched on the subject. The most horrifying fact I've learned is that just as many people die of ALS in Canada as they do from AIDS. ANd yet, AIDS has millions of dollars in funding for research, whereas Canada only allocates $15,000 per year to ALS. I just finished reading "cries of the silent" by Evelyn Bell and am now reading "Laugh, I Thought I'd Die" by Dennis Kaye. So these statistics are from those books...but I am fairly sure they are still somewhat correct? Anyways...I've been thinking and thinking of what I could do as a fundraiser and a project of awareness. I know myself, as one small person, can't really do much...but I feel in my heart and soul that I NEED and WANT to do something! How can people not know about this? Back in Feb/Mar...Dean, the man I work for was on a short clip on global news in Vancouver. His son, McKinnley, decided for his 8th birthday that he did not want any gifts from his friends, just money donated to the ALS society. I think he raised around $800. SO if one small determined 8 year old child can make a contribution, than so can a 31year old nursing student! One idea I have recently come up with is to make necklaces, bracelets and pendants.....I love working with beads and such and thought about making a small batch and seeing if I could sell them through the ALS society, or forums like this or even ebay. I checked on ebay and saw a red, plastic bracelet that someone had made (much like the Lance armstrong yellow ones) for ALS...but they were $24 US and didn't say anything about donating the money to ALS. What do you all think about my idea? SOmething small to start off with anyways?