ARDS Foundation of Illinois ARDS Foundation, charitable organization offers support to families/victims of Acute (Adult) Respiratory Distress Syndrome.
ARDS Foundation of Illinois

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Where is the passion?

Several years ago, ARDS Foundation added a page on our website to illustrate how people around the world who have been personally touched by ARDS are trying to make a difference in the fight against ARDS.

There was a jazz quintet in Sheffield, England, and a Shakuhachi concert in San Francisco; in South Florida, a father who lost nineteen-year-old daughter to ARDS gathered with friends at Karapaloza and raised money. There has been a wedding couple in the UK that had people donate to ARDS as their gift. There was a gentleman in Illinois that asked his 70th birthday gift be donations to ARDS Foundation. A high school senior who lost her grandmother to ARDS facilitated a student-faculty basketball game to benefit ARDS Foundation. There was a game night in Massachusetts in memory of a father.

To be sure, each year, there are a few people who attend a fundraiser, others who send out literature, some share their personal ARDS story, and those who even support others dealing with ARDS. But those people are so few when one considers the vast number of ARDS patients and their families and friends who can actually see the devastation of ARDS and afterwards, do nothing.

So I ask, where is the passion?

I have a difficult time reconciling all of those people who ask what they can do and how they can make a difference. In the end, asking is all that is done. But I know that asking about it is not all that they can do.

As someone who survived ARDS, how can you be content with the fact that today, and everyday, there are will be thousands of people diagnosed with ARDS and for most families, it will be the first time that their families will hear those terrible four letters?

As someone who lost a loved one to ARDS, how can you be content to know that today, and everyday, another family will be told that their mother, father, sister, brother, child or grandparent will likely die?

If you have been in the unfortunate position to bear witness to ARDS and all of its devastation, why don't you feel compelled to offer your testimony?

Where did your passion go? Consider that the ARDS Community, of which you are now a member, is huge, and yet, so few people in this community choose to do anything.

I realize that often doing something to make a difference involves time. It might be inconvenient. Sometimes it is difficult. But sometimes it is not. If the ARDS Community refuses to act, why should anyone else?

Why all the excuses?
There is too much talk in the ARDS Community.
Find your passion.
The time for action is now.

Eileen Zacharias
August, 2006

 

  

To read more letters Go to Past Correspondence

 


ARDS Foundation
3100 Dundee Road, Suite 402
Northbrook, IL 60062
PH: 312-749-7047
Email:

Eileen Rubin Zacharias, President @
Paula Blonski, Vice President @

The ARDS Foundation

All donations are tax deductible in the amount allowed by the law. The ARDS Foundation is a federal 501(c)(3) organization.