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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Registration Opens for
FAAN’s Walk for Food Allergy
FAIRFAX, Va. (March 9, 2009) – In keeping with its mission to fund research and educational initiatives as well as raise awareness about food allergies from coast to coast, the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) is gearing up for its 2009 Walk for Food Allergy.
In its sixth season for Walk for Food Allergy, FAAN has scheduled 35 Walks in cities across the country and online. This includes 10 more Walk locations than in 2008. Last year’s Walks drew more than 15,000 people and raised a record-breaking $2.3 million.
Participants can sign up as individuals or in teams for Walks throughout the nation that will begin in August and conclude in December. Parents, grandparents, children, educators, and health professionals participate in these events to support the more than 12 million Americans with food allergy, including 3 million children. They walk to find a cure for food allergies, to increase awareness, and to provide understanding, hope, and an opportunity for a child with food allergy to simply be a child. They walk to save a life.
“The Walk for Food Allergy empowers our local communities to raise awareness, educate their community, and make a difference in the lives of people with food allergies,” said FAAN CEO Julia Bradsher.
FAAN is at the forefront of food allergy research, working with leading health professionals and researchers, as well as funding studies that have ultimately been used to help change laws and school policies, and that have led to improving the lives of individuals with food allergies. Contributions to FAAN’s Walk for Food Allergy events go directly toward its research and educational programs.
“Recent studies show that the prevalence of food allergies is on the rise, especially among children,” Bradsher said. “It takes our combined efforts to gain a better understanding through research and continue moving towards a cure.”
The events also promote awareness of how food allergy affects not only individuals, but an entire community. Everyone in the life of a child with food allergies can do their part to help keep them safe.
Jo Ann Molnar, a mother from Long Branch, N.J., said last year’s Walk in her home state changed her life. “I was overwhelmed with emotion as I looked around at the community in Monmouth County that came together to help raise awareness in this fight against food allergies,” Molnar said. “We built an incredible team and achieved great success in bringing a FAAN Walk to our community.”
To register or learn more about FAAN’s Walk for Food Allergy, visit www.foodallergywalk.org.
ABOUT FAAN
Founded in 1991, the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) is the world leader in information about food allergy, a potentially fatal condition that afflicts about 12 million Americans, or one out of every 25. A nonprofit organization based in Fairfax, Va., FAAN has 30,000 members in the U.S., Canada, and 62 other countries. It is dedicated to increasing public awareness of food allergy and its consequences, to educating people about the condition, and to advancing research on behalf of all those affected by it. FAAN provides information and educational resources about food allergy to patients, their families, schools, health professionals, pharmaceutical companies, the food industry, and government officials. For more information, please visit FAAN at www.foodallergy.org, www.faankids.org, and www.faanteen.org.
CONTACT:
Jennifer Love
Marketing and Media Communications Manager
(703) 563-3061 direct, (301) 639-4811 cell
jlove@foodallergy.org
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