We are sponsored by PDF - the Parkinson Disease Foundation, which funds the Pipeline Project and the CRLI Institute. BIO gives them complimentary passes. We earn this while we are there tho, we work the whole time - even at receptions in the evening people talk business. My daughter paid her own flight with some help from me. PDF gives her a pass and covers her meals...actually breakfast , most food is at BIO....pass is free to them..and really that comes from BIO. [BIO pass costs thousands.] She stays with us in our hotel room that is PDF paid for and she has come twice because we are unable to go safely without someone to help. She works the exhibits too.

I don't mind telling you this - if you are wondering others could be. The organizations can afford this. I am so very grateful for their sponsorship, but they schedule us to fly and work the same day; hard enough for a healthy person. I do not want to look a gift horse in the mouth [is that the way it's said?], but I do want pwps to understand that this is a terrific opportunity but we work hard, and are utterly exhausted when we get back. If i hadn't been in physical therapy before I went, I wouldn't have made it.

paula