Volunteers Needed to Spread Holiday Cheer to People with MS in Kern County

Dec. 2, 2011 - PRLog -- Bakersfield – Are you looking for a rewarding way to give back to the community this holiday season?  The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Southern California & Nevada Chapter is looking for volunteers and/or donations to make gift baskets for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) involved in the Caring Connection program.

Every week, through the Caring Connection program, volunteers visit people with MS who are living in a licensed care facility, or are homebound and unable to go out into the community.  This friendly visitor program helps provide a connection to the outside world, emotional support, companionship and social interaction.

During the holiday season, the National MS Society tries to do even more, by delivering gift baskets to this group.  One 30-year-old living in a skilled nursing facility is asking for gifts or trinkets she can give to her two young daughters.  Another man has asked for a radio.  Other items on wish lists: DVDs, books, holiday decorations and personal hygiene products.  “I think the baskets are very important because so many people living with MS are isolated.  Many do not have any Christmas at all,” explains Board of Trustee Lisa Karpe.  “No gift is too small.”

If you or someone you know would like to sponsor a person with MS by creating or assembling a gift basket, or if you would like to donate any products, please contact the Kern County office of the National MS Society at 661.321.9512, or email christine.grontkowski@nmss.org.

About Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis interrupts the flow of information between the brain and the body and it stops people from moving. Every hour in the United States, someone is newly diagnosed with MS, an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system. Symptoms range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis. The progress, severity and specific symptoms of MS in any one person cannot yet be predicted, but advances in research and treatment are moving us closer to a world free of MS.   Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, with more than twice as many women as men being diagnosed with the disease. MS affects more than 400,000 people in the U.S., and 2.1 million worldwide.

About the National Multiple Sclerosis Society
MS stops people from moving. The National MS Society exists to make sure it doesn’t. We help each person address the challenges of living with MS. In 2010 alone, through our national office and 50-state network of chapters, we devoted $159 million to programs and services that improved the lives of more than one million people.  To move us closer to a world free of MS, the Society also invested $37 million to support 325 new and ongoing research projects around the world. We are people who want to do something about MS NOW.  Join the movement at nationalMSsociety.org.