FAST and the Vivint Gives Back Project; WHY Vote for FAST?

The video above is featured in THIS ARTICLE from Yahoo News. We are very lucky to have  Bryan Thompson, Finn's father (Finn has AS), who works for Yahoo, and advocated tirelessly for FAST and our children, on our side. Bryan was the driving force behind this Yahoo article and the featured video. The video features Bryan and his wife Tina and their son Finn, Rebecca Burdine and her daughter Sophie and last but not least Dr. Edwin Weeber, our rockstar AS researcher!

The FAST newsletter has just come out again, the May, 2011 edition, and there was tons of exciting news in it. "Dr. Weeber's Neurobiology of Learning and Memory Laboratory has started testing specific drugs.  One of these drugs provides significant improvements to the AS mouse in terms of motor coordination and brain function.  These results represent the first time a pharmacological agent has rescued the defect in neuronal function in a living Angelman Syndrome mouse.  More updates to come as experiments continue!!!" 

Wouldn't it be great if FAST had another $250,000 for research??? Well, they can, but not without YOUR HELP! Vivint is my home security company, and I nominated FAST in the Vivint contest on April the 27th, and we are now #1 in our region!!! Go to the Vivint Gives Back Project page for FAST <--- (click there) EVERY DAY and vote! Voting ends on August the 27th. If you find yourself having problems figuring out HOW to vote, click HERE and it will take you to the previous blog post, that has detailed instructions.

FAST spends 100% of all outside donations on RESEARCH!!! That means 100% of the $250,000 WILL go to RESEARCH that WILL move us toward REAL therapeutic treatments and ultimately a CURE!! It WILL help my son, Joshua, and others with AS, to be SEIZURE FREE, to have the ability to WALK, and the opportunity to SPEAK OUT LOUD!!!

PLEASE VOTE!!! It means the world to our family!!! A vote for FAST is a vote for JOSHUA!! ;-)

Love one another~Yvonne

A CHANCE TO HELP F.A.S.T. WIN $250,000 FOR AS RESEARCH!!!

FAST has an opportunity to win $250,000 from Vivint. Company (formerly APX) in their Vivint Gives Back Project.  They will be giving away $250,000 to the grand prize winner and (5) $100,000 prizes to the top in each region in their current competition on Facebook.  Their employees raised the money and now they want YOU to help them decide where and to whom it should go.  This competition is all conducted in FACEBOOK and has two phases.

Here is the link for the Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=188492087863434

Phase 1- Vote every day for FAST in the central region from April 15 – June 11th.

On June 12th the top 20 organizations in each region will move into Phase 2.

Phase 2- Voting begins June 14th – August 27th.  VOTE EVERY DAY!! If FAST is number one in the nation at that time we will win $250K.  If we do not win that, but are top in our region, we will win $100K.  This is a VERY important competition and we need everyone to vote for the sake of the children!!!  Vivint will also have a matching donations time period in phase 2.    During this matching time, you donate $50 and Vivint will match your $50 up to a total amount of $2500.00.  This means another $5000.00 for us!  Watch for the matching time periods and donate $50.00 (forgo 2 pizzas and some pop and you have your $50!!)

The first time you vote is rather difficult.  Please feel free to e-mail Yvonne Hamrick at 4hamricks@gmail.com and I will walk you through the process.

The second and subsequent times you vote is VERY EASY and requires about 30 seconds of your time.  Please follow the steps outlined below and GO VOTE!  THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!

FIRST TIME VOTERS:

Log into Facebook and:

First go to Account > Privacy Settings > Connecting on facebook> Blue letters “View Settings” and make sure your “Likes and Activities” are set to “Everyone” (Last category on that page)

Then go to: www.vivint.com/givesbackproject and click on “Log in” upper right corner. You may or may not have to select “Allow”.

Then, scoll down and find the thumbs up symbol. Underneath it you should see a blue “Like” symbol. Click on Like.

Then, scoll down to “Top Charities” click on it and then:
Click on “Central” region
Click on “FAST”
Click on the orange “Endorse” button

If you did it correctly you will receive a “success” message.
You can then post it to your wall by clicking on the facebook symbol.

SECOND TIME VOTERS:

Log into facebook and go to:

http://www.vivint.com/givesbackproject/charity/43

If the "endorse" button is GREY and not ORANGE, you will get a pop up saying you need to log in first and you either need to

(a) log in to facebook through the link at the top of the page (clicking on the pop up just takes you back to the page), or 

(b) if you are already logged in, wait a moment until the page finishes loading, at which point it will recognize you and the endorse button will turn orange.