"Reach" - The Last Word - National Multiple Sclerosis Society - Brief Article - Column

"Reach" was the theme of the National MS Society's annual National Leadership Conference in November. The Old English, Old High German, and Old Norse roots of this word "reach" mean to stretch oneself repeatedly. This is an appropriate way to describe what our volunteers do. The National Leadership Conference recognized 32 volunteers who have made outstanding contributions to ending the devastating effects of MS. Some of these men and women have lived with MS most of their adult lives. Others have been motivated by a family member or a friend, or by their professional involvement in treating MS or searching for scientific understanding of this disease. They join 92 others in the Society's Volunteer Hall of Fame.

These honored volunteers stand for many thousands of others, all of whom reach every day for better answers to MS. They reach out to the public, promoting an end to stereotyping people with disabilities. They reach out to legislators, in order to change the things that block quality health care or full participation in civic life by people with disabilities. They tirelessly reach for funds to support the Society's programs and its international research effort.

We all know we can reach still further. We have often seen how the daily effort to live well with MS brings out strength and creativity in people. What happened in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001, drew on our collective ability to reach into ourselves to face calamity and emerge strengthened. As shown on page 13, people with MS responded as did other Americans. Anne-Elizabeth Straub volunteered to help exhausted rescue workers at a Brooklyn firehouse. Barbara Gordon helped her children (and herself) go forward after the collapse of the towers. And Col. Joe Robinson, chief of the Department of Defense Military Support Division, served as he has done for years (despite his MS). His team coordinated the 15 federal agencies involved in the rescue and recovery effort.

We will all need to reach, as these three people did, to stretch ourselves repeatedly in the coming months and years--and to give both spiritual and material resources in order to keep moving toward a future when MS is history.

Mike Dugan General, USAF, Ret. President and CEO

COPYRIGHT 2002 National Multiple Sclerosis Society
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group