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Volunteers help create and mail gala invitations

You are the driving force behind our ability to fund research and educate the families, their doctors and the general public. With your help we can achieve new heights and envision a better future for children with Progeria.

Please join the thousands who have come together to meet PRF's future challenges with excitement and optimism.

Together, we WILL find the cure.

Featured Volunteer
Click here to see Past Featured Volunteers!
Read What Our Volunteers Have to Say
Help PRF reach it's Volunteer Fundraising Goals for 2007!

Volunteer for PRF

PRF relies on its volunteers to help spread the word and raise funds for medical research. With the exception of the Executive Director and two part-time assistants, everyone involved with PRF, including its Board of Directors, Committee members, Corporate Officers, etc. generously give their time, energy and talents to PRF for free so that we can spend less on administrative costs and more on raising awareness and finding a cure for Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome. Come join our growing team of volunteers!

There are many ways that you can help children with Progeria. One of the best ways is to hold a fundraiser for PRF. As you can see from our Miracle Makers, the possibilities are limitless!

Some suggestions are:

Run a bake sale at your school or place of worship
Hold a car wash in your community
Conduct a letter writing campaign to your friends and family
Distribute collection cans at local stores in your community
Sell our awareness wristbands
Sell our PRF cookbook, "Cooking for a Cure"
We will give you all the support you need - instructional sheets, a supply of newsletters and/or brochures, and lots of moral support! Of course you are free to develop one of your own creative ideas into a fundraiser, as many of our Miracle Makers have done. Please contact our office for information and assistance, and fill out a volunteer application today!
Email: volunteers@progeriaresearch.org or
call (978) 535-2594.

Volunteer Application* [52kb] for 18 and over
Volunteer Application [MS Word 531kb] for 18 and over

Youth Volunteer Application* [41kb] for under 18
Youth Volunteer Application [MS Word 539kb] for under 18

(You will need the Adobe Acrobat Plugin to view and print forms)

Please complete the application and email to volunteers@ progeriaresearch.org, fax (978) 535-5849 or mail: The Progeria Research Foundation, PO Box 3453, Peabody, MA 01961

Featured Volunteer

It’s time to highlight a person or group that exemplifies the true meaning of the word "volunteer". PRF is lucky to have hundreds of people from around the world who generously give their time, talents and energy to help raise awareness and funds for children with Progeria. We hope you enjoy reading about all our Miracle Makers, and that they inspire you to join our team because it is only Together that we WILL Find a Cure!

Brooksy Village: Featured Volunteer

No mailing is too big for this group!

We are proud to acknowledge the wonderful volunteers at Brooksby Village, a retirement community in Danvers, MA. They have been helping us prepare and mail our newsletters for over 5 years. We literally would NOT be able to do it without their help!

Our newsletters are mailed twice a year now and our mailing list has more than doubled in that time span from 4,000 to almost 9,000!! WOW!! These volunteers are so passionate about our Foundation, and no matter how many newsletters are mailed or how many steps there are to the mailing, they always show up in large numbers to help for a morning or afternoon, making sure that the mailing is completed efficiently and on time.

Tom Cook, the Volunteer Coordinator at Brooksby Village, always cheerfully accommodates the group with a spacious room. . We always begin each mailing by updating the group on what the Foundation is doing and sharing the latest research news since the last mailing, as the group is always eager to learn of our progress. Many of these people have become generous donors to the cause as well!

Quinn catching up on Progeria news

A special thank you to Quinn, who ALWAYS stays an extra hour or two to help us count and carry the enormous quantity of newsletters to our cars - This is no small task indeed!

We look forward to our mailings at Brooksby Village as it’s a rewarding experience to involve the community in one of our most important missions – public awareness! The continuity over the years has given us a chance to get to know these generous volunteers who have given so much of their time and energy. They really feel as though they are valuable members of our volunteer team, and they ARE!

Thank you Brooksby Village volunteers!!

We are lucky to have you on our team!

Past Featured Volunteers!

Isma:

Several times a year, we highlight a person or group that exemplifies the true meaning of the word "volunteer". PRF is lucky to have hundreds of people from around the world who generously give their time, talents and energy to help raise awareness and funds for children with Progeria. We hope you enjoy reading about all our Miracle Makers, and that they inspire you to join our team because it is only Together that we WILL find the cure!

We are proud to acknowledge Ismael Negron, one of our wonderful, dedicated translators. Isma’s “day job” is a mechanical engineer and patent examiner in the US Patent and Trademark Office in Virginia. And when off the clock, he spends lots of time translating important information for our Spanish-speaking families of children with Progeria.

Isma first became familiar with Progeria after seeing the Primetime special about PRF in October 2003. He then wrote to us to offer his translation services, and has been a valuable member of our volunteer translator team ever since. Isma often translates “on the spot” – within an hour! - enabling us to communicate effectively with Spanish-speaking families of children with Progeria. He has even participated in a conference call between PRF and a Spanish-speaking family from another country.

Asked why his translation work for PRF is so important to him, Isma said, “I am not a doctor, so I do not have the knowledge to help with a cure. I know Spanish and English, so, I decided that the least that I could do was try to make it easier for those who do have the knowledge and strength to help, to communicate with the kids with Progeria and their families. Helping with translations is not something that I do for the Foundation, but rather something that they do for me.”

Isma has helped us open up the lines of communication with families of children with Progeria. Thank you, Isma -- we are lucky to have you on our team!

Read more about our team of translators.

In October 2006 Amanda from Switzerland, a 12-year old high school student, challenged herself by climbing 19,340 feet of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania last October. She raised over $9,500 for PRF by soliciting sponsorships for her climb from friends, neighbors and schoolmates.

Read What Our Volunteers Have to Say

We have some of the most caring, dedicated and passionate volunteers ever! They are really making a difference in the lives of children with Progeria!

Jessica: "He [a boy with Progeria that she saw on TV] touched my heart and made me feel as if it was my turn to volunteer and help find a cure for Progeria."

Susie (college student, USA): "I have been a volunteer at The Progeria Research Foundation since September, 2005. I became aware of Progeria after a school project, and ever since then I have been passionate about helping to find a cure."

Susie and Megan draw together in Boston in November 2005

Brett, age 12, USA: "I feel fortunate to have a great life and I want kids with Progeria to feel the same."

Brett and Sam at PRF's 2005 International Race for Research

Kim, USA: "Volunteering my time for PRF has been a gratifying experience. It is such a great feeling to be part of an organization that you SEE the results of your efforts! In the time I have been involved with the Foundation, I have seen such incredible growth, medical breakthroughs and countless successes...all in a few years! When the gene was discovered with work that researchers did on a PRF grant, we could say, 'I helped make that happen! I was directly involved in helping to raise those funds!' Everyone likes to be part of a winning team and volunteering for PRF sure feels like I am part of that team. I always say I do it because I want to be in the room on the day the cure is announced. I know it will be soon."

Kim, winner of our second "Amy Award"

Helene (Germany): "Thank you for giving me the opportunity to help. Nothing is more rewarding than giving something to others."

Thais (USA): "You guys can indeed count one me for anything you might need!!!"

Thais at the International Race for Research

Lucy (USA): "I can only hope that we are all doing our part to make Progeria a thing of the past, soon!"

Mike (from Canada): "I have to tell you that we are having a blast doing this [running a series of events that raised $7,000 in 2005]. We are all proud of what we and our friends have accomplished in "together we will find a cure". This is probably the nicest thing we have ever done as a group or individually.

Mike of the "Bud Boys" - a true Miracle Maker

Help PRF reach it's Volunteer Fundraising Goals for 2007!

Did you know that PRF volunteers (including "Miracle Makers") raised more than $110,000 in 2004 and 2005 combined?

Help us to reach our new, higher goal in 2007. Get involved!


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