Victoria Flower Day committee receives Tony Proudfoot Exceptional Public Awareness Program Award

April 29, 2012 - PRLog -- MARKHAM, ON, April 26, 2012 – The Victoria Flower Day committee will receive the ALS Society of Canada’s Tony Proudfoot Exceptional Public Awareness Program Award (group) during an awards ceremony to be held at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel, Toronto, on April 28.

Since June 1986, the Victoria Chapter of the ALS Society of British Columbia has sponsored Flower Day, a day in which more than 100 volunteers in the Victoria and Salt Spring Island area solicit donations for the ALS cause, and distribute blue cornflowers to the public. Many people also stay to chat with the volunteers, relating stories of someone they know who has been affected ALS, or to honour the memory of someone who has lived with ALS.

Victoria resident Ellen Mahoney and her team currently lead this volunteer-driven event. All donations from the cornflower sales are sent to ALS Canada. In 2011, more than $15,000 was donated, and over the past 25 years, approximately $200,000 was raised from Flower Day events.

“When you consider most donations per person in an event like this are about two dollars, the Victoria chapter volunteers on this day touch at least 10,000 people providing information on ALS. It is an amazing awareness campaign,” said Wendy Toyer, executive director, ALS BC & Yukon.

The Tony Proudfoot Exceptional Public Awareness Program Award recognizes an individual, a group or media outlet whose aim is to educate and increase awareness of ALS. Activities in the category may include liaisons with the media, co-ordinating public awareness displays and public speaking. The award was renamed in March 2011 in memory of Tony Proudfoot (passed away in December 2010) who used his public profile to raise awareness of ALS through the media.

ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rapidly progressive and fatal neuromuscular disease that causes the degeneration of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. As the nerve cells die, people with ALS lose control of their muscles, which makes breathing, eating and even smiling almost impossible. Eighty per cent of those diagnosed will die within two to five years.

The ALS Society of Canada, founded in 1977, is the only national voluntary health organization dedicated solely to the fight against ALS and support for those living with ALS. The Society funds research towards a cure for ALS, supports provincial partners in the provision of quality care for those living with ALS, and provides information to build awareness about the disease.
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For more information, please contact:


Wendy Toyer
Executive Director
ALS Society of British Columbia & Yukon
604-685-0737
wendy@alsbc.ca

Bobbi  Greenberg
Director of Communications
ALS Society of Canada
1-800-267-4257 ext. 208
bg@als.ca