Fundraiser!!

https://www.foodallergy.org/donate?form=FUNAMLFPQCY&fundraiser=NWMJJUHD

Hello all,

I recently got an approved partnership with FARE to raise support for the food allergy community through an online fundraiser! Given this event, I thought it would be appropriate to write an article on fundraisers. I wanted to answer a central question that commonly arises during the commencement of events like these: why? What could $1000 possibly do to advance treatment for a chronic disease that ultimately cannot be cured? Well, let me tell you what $1000 dollars can do for a food allergy patient.

Building off of my last post, I had mentioned the obscene prices of EpiPens, and the reality is that one set of two autoinjectors could cost well over $1000. This is where programs like our FARE fundraiser come in. We utilize small donations, and those donations specifically fund 2 efforts, the first of which is the establishment of programs that provide financial, physical, and emotional assistance to patients with food allergies all over the nation, and among these services is making access to medications like the EpiPen more accessible. The second effort these fundraisers target is research. Its important to remember that the quality of patient's lives directly correlates with the quality of research parallelly conducted on their conditions. Things cannot get better if science stays stagnant on issues like these. Take the change in allergenic philosophy that occurred around a decade ago regarding exposure to allergens. It took years of research and clinical trials in collaboration with physicians around the nation to come to the consensus that micro-exposures during infancy actually increases the likelihood of growing out of allergies, rather than the previous precedent of avoiding exposure in order to avoid stimulation of an already oversensitive immune system. However, research in this field is difficult to conduct for 2 reasons: federal regulation AND popularity of the field. Arranging studies that have national bearing are difficult to get approval for and require years of grants to subsidize, but additionally, within the field of medical research, certain fields receive more funding than others. Generally, Neuro labs receive the most funding, presumably because of the higher rate of incidence of neurological disorders and diseases compared to others, which is completely acceptable. However, as a negative consequence of this, other diseases that have comparatively lower rates of incidence recieve less grants and national attention. Fundraisers, therefore, even if they do not raise a single dollar, achieve the crucial goal of raising awareness about the issue, if they are conducted through nationally recognized organizations, like FARE. We impress upon our viewers the relevance of an issue that is not quite mainstream, and therefore, we argue, it requires a heightened sense of awareness from the general public. An outflow of this awareness is the financial support that people wish to provide at their own discretion, but to me, that is really just a bonus. What I truly hope people take away from this is that ultimately, the central goal of the fundraiser is to raise awareness. Once advocates realize this, apprehensions about perhaps not being able to raise "sufficient funds" ought to become secondary to the primary concern of whether or not the efforts are able to reach a wide audience and educate the general public, because in raising public consciousness in working with national organizations like FARE, we can demonstrate to existing leaders in the fields of research and public policy that this field deserves to be researched and funded! In showing that we value this cause, we then also inspire future leaders to explore this issue they previously didn't even know existed, and the result of these efforts, if successful, will then be funding that can go towards research and patient aid.

So over the next couple of months, I hope you too are inspired to further the field of food allergy patient aid and research by participating in either this fundraiser or others hosted by FARE, so that together as advocates, we can use the tool of fundraising to make a difference for the food allergy community!