Little Sends Lots of Letters of Support

Since 1996, the Department of Defense’s (DOD) funding of the Neurofibromatosis Research Program (NFRP) has made important contributions helping people not only with NF but it also translates to cardiovascular, learning disabilities, war-related injuries, and other illnesses. The Littlest Tumor Foundation advocates keeping the research for NF ongoing. In order keep the DOD’s funding for the research going, the Littlest Tumor Foundation asked people throughout northeastern Wisconsin and beyond to sign a letter of support letting both the U.S. Congress and Senate that people wanted the research to continue. We went to the University of Wisconsin’s Oshkosh and Green Bay campuses collecting signatures of support and spreading the word about neurofibromatosis to students and others. Many people had not even heard of NF but when they did they were more than eager to sign the letter of support to potentially impact 175 million people. We had even met people who have NF as well!

After collecting the signatures, we sent out letters of support to our congressional representatives from the eight Wisconsin districts. We were able to meet with every congressional office and sentorial aide in both Washington D.C. and Wisconsin. When we got back in the Fox Valley region of Wisconsin, we had face-to-face appointments with Rep. Tom Petri in Fond du Lac, Rep. Reid Ribble and Tony, Senator Ron Johnson’s aide. At the meetings we discussed the importance of the DOD’s NF research and how it would impact millions of people in the US and abroad as well as raising awareness about NF. Since the sending of the letters of support and meetings, Representatives Reid Ribble, District 8, Gwen Moore, District 4, Tammy Baldwin, District 12, and Thomas Petri, District 6, have signed the letter. Thank you all who have taken a little time to sign the letter of support to continue the Neurofibromatosis Research program, our hard work has paid off thanks to you! In the end, we sent out 2,822 letters of support.

The Power of Family Fitness

The Power of Family Fitness

Often times, when we think about being active we think of it as something we have to “squeeze in” when our kids are sleeping, at a friend’s house, or at school. Have you ever thought about how great it would be to include your family in your pursuit to exercise more regularly? Exercising as a family will improve the health of your entire family, make exercise more fun, and at the same time help family members develop stronger connections.

Some simple tips to get you started.

You may start out by simply focusing on educating the entire family about the benefits of being active and leading a healthy lifestyle.

Put up a healthy living bulletin board in your kitchen, with resources about the benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle, this will help get your point across, without having to bombard your family with statistics and facts related to living healthy. Example: post a story about a young person who had trouble focusing at school but started exercising and saw an amazing difference. You are only limited by your creativity!

Here are a few other ideas to get your family focused on fitness:

• Have a family member pick an exercise at the beginning of the week and make that your family activity for the week. Then train throughout the week with the goal of improving by the weekend. Keep the focus on the fact that everyone is improving. Rotate who gets to pick the activity each week.




• Hold a family fitness night each week. Each week select a different family member to design the family workout that you will all do together. This ensures that everyone gets to do something they enjoy, and your workout will never become dull.




• Join a fitness facility. You will be surprised how motivated your entire family will become when you all head out for a workout after dinner each night or take a class together. You can also purchase small pieces of equipment to keep around the house (jump ropes, resistance bands, stability balls and dumbbells) to keep you from missing your workout on even the busiest of school nights.




• Never underestimate the power of going for a walk. It is a great mode of activity and also naturally encourages conversation.




• Set some family goals. Example: Set a target of being activity 3 nights per week, and build from there.

Most importantly, make the process fun. You’ll be teaching your children about discipline, goal setting, and the importance of not only health, but also family connection.