Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy together with Trisomy 18 Foundation are among 100 charities that earned a $25,000 grant during Round 1 of the Chase Community Giving Challenge on Facebook. Now in Round 2, Chase Bank has given them the opportunity to compete for an additional $1 Million prize and five $100,000 prizes, to be decided by public vote from January 15-22, 2010.
Working together, these charities are advocating a novel approach to ask the Facebook public to support all charities with their votes that focus on saving children's lives through funding of genetic disease research.
Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy's Founding President and CEO Pat Furlong is thrilled to be part of this partnership. "As rare diseases, one of our biggest struggles as organizations is to raise awareness about our diseases. In the 16 years that PPMD has been fighting to end Duchenne muscular dystrophy, we, like the other members of this Partnership, have tried to reach as wide an audience as possible. This incredible contest provides us the largest awareness platform we have known and give us an opportunity to tell our families' stories. By uniting as a Partnership, we are showing the Facebook community the importance of collaboration in advancing genetic research. Research that will save the lives of our children and our children's children. A victory for any of us is a victory for all of us."