Thanks to the efforts of Reaching for the Stars and Senators Isakson and Casey, March 25th, 2013 is the first official National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day in the United States. It will go down in history as Senate Resolution 89 as part of the 113th Congress.

It’s about more than just wearing our team’s ribbon (although ours is green).

It’s about creating understanding among people that we all have differences yet we are all human and sustained by love, compassion, and the acceptance of each other’s personal challenges.

Here are some facts about cerebral palsy:

  1. It affects more than 17,000,000 worldwide
  2. Cerebral palsy is the most common cause of motor disability in children.
  3. Cerebral palsy is estimated to affect 1 in 303 children in the US
  4. In 80% of cases the specific cause for the development of cerebral palsy is still unknown
  5. Cerebral palsy is NOT contagious
  6. Cerebral palsy does not get worse over time
  7. Not all people with cerebral palsy use wheelchairs
  8. CP receives no dedicated line item funding or research at the CDC or NIH
  9. We don’t understand much more about CP and its prevention and underlying causes than we did a half a century ago

Maya is our daughter and she is one of the 17 million people world wide whose life is affected by cerebral palsy. You may give to Reaching for the Stars.