Thank you from one of the organizers...

As one of organizers of the PANDAS Parents Meeting, I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who attended our event two weeks ago. Since my first introduction to PANDAS in 2008 when my own child became ill, I have devoted a good amount of time to online forums, research, and advocacy. Yet, the PANDAS Parents Meeting was the first time I actually ever met another PANDAS parent face to face! It truly shows the strength we have as a community and our determination to let nothing get in the way of getting our children better and helping others.

By meeting parents at the meeting, it put faces to those I have known over the internet for years. It made me feel even more a part of a community.

Some have asked if we plan on doing this again. Organizers have briefly discussed it, but nothing is solidified yet. After months of planning the 2011 meeting, we are still closing the book on this one and may take a break before thinking of another. We will definitely keep everyone updated.

We have seen an increase in people wanting to do get togethers on smaller levels and asking for advice. This is wonderful! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Our email will stay open and still get checked. We hope to put together an easy to follow "how to" handout with what had to go into planning and the reality of funding, organizing, what we may do different, etc.

This has been a great learning experience and a great leap into an even more organized PANDAS movement.

Thank you!

Vickie

Additional Summaries are Now Available

Thank you to the Canary Party's Indiana leader for presenting at the PANDAS Parents Meeting on November 5th. The summary of Cecilia Coble's presentation is now available.

The Canary Party by Cecilia Coble

As mentioned in earlier posts, we also have a number of other summaries available. Be sure to check them out on the right side of our website!

Summaries are Beginning to be Posted

Summaries of some the presentations are already posted. Please be patient as we work on the rest.

Please click on the summary you wish to be brought to. They can also be found on the right side if this blog...

• Who We Are: Survey Results by Sarah Alleman 
• PANDAS: A Parents Briefing on Trends, Hope and Next Steps by Amy Joy Smith, NP
• The Road Less Traveled by Elizabeth Eberhardt
• GUTPro™ by Organic 3

A Sampling of Photos

PANDAS Parents Meeting would like to share a sampling of photos from the day. Please note any group shots have been purposely blurred for privacy reasons. Click on photos to enlarge.

Sign that welcomed parents

Gift Bags

Door Prizes

Our Meeting

Post Meeting

Organizers

Welcome Video

PANDAS Parents Meeting is happy to share it's opening video from the event...

This video can be found on YouTube.

That's a Wrap!

WOW! Yesterday was the first PANDAS Parents Meeting and it was PERFECT!

Thank you to all those who organized and presented:

Vickie Blavat
Sarah Alleman
Tammy Thweatt
Dan Corrigan from Organic 3
Leslee Bassett
Amy Joy Smith, NP
Elizabeth Eberhardt
Cecilia Coble

Thank you to all those that attended as well. We had a cross section of most of the country with parents from Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, New Jersey, Michigan, and California! This proves no matter how far apart we are, we all have the same focus...getting our children better and keeping them healthy!

The empowerment in the room cannot be explained. The parents that attended were determined to connect and share information. 

The organizers of the PANDAS Parents Meeting will work on summarizing the day's events and share it with everyone soon. We want to make sure those that were not able to attend, have the opportunity to learn from what was shared as well.

Thank you again!

The Big Day is Almost Here!

Organizers at the PANDAS Parents Meeting have worked hard for months and the BIG DAY is almost here! Check out our countdown on the right side of the screen....ONE day, some odd hours, minutes and seconds!!!!

We have our speakers lined up. Gift bags ready to go. Pamphlets printed out. And a building excitement that can hardly be explained!

We look forward to meeting all the attending parents on Saturday. For those that are not able to make it, we do plan on doing a write up post meeting.

Safe travels to everyone!

Vickie, Sarah, and Tammy