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TOPIC: Myasthenia Gravis Association of Western PA's Comedy for a Cause · Pittsburgh Sunday Morning

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: And welcome in. This is a public affairs program shedding
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the light on the interest, issues and concerns of the
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: greater Pittsburgh area. Good morning. My name is Johnny Hertwell.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Your host, Jim Joyce is my guest from my seeing
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the Gravis Association of Western Pa. He just walked through
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the door, sat down, put him in front of a microphone.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Let's get to work. Let's do this, Jim.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Johnny. How are you.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I'm doing great? All right. So we're talking about Comedy
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: for a Cause, which is coming up on Saturday, October tenth.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: It's going to be at the Kennedy Township Volunteer Fire
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Department Banquet Hall, which is a McKeith rocks. So tell
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: us all the information that we need to know about
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: your event, then we'll talk about your charity.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you, Johnny. Yeah, this is an annual event
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: we do for my CEO, Gravis Association. This is taking place,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: as you said, on Saturday, October tenth. We have two
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: great comedians lined up. We also have the.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Tell us about the comedians.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Sure sure so. Our headliner, his name is Mike Jones,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: and then our feature comic is Chris Nakis looked both
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: these gentlemen up on YouTube. They're really really funny. People
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: be really entertained if they come to the show on
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: the tenth.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Now, how many years have you done comedy for a cost?
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: So this I've been with the organization for coming up
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: on seven years. Obviously with COVID, we skipped skipped a year,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: so this is the.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Week we all skipped.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: That's right, I think everybody we just raised. Yep, absolutely,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: so we didn't have it that year, but every year
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: I've been there, so this is probably at least eight
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: or nine six being under my guidance.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Got it? Okay? All right, So the ticket information? How
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: do they get tickets?
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so tickets. We have a general admission ticket for
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: forty dollars. We also have a fifty dollars ticket which
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: includes a pre show wine and cheese reception. People were
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: interested in buying tickets, they can call our office which
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: is area code four one two five six six one
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: five four five. They can email us at mg A
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: office at m g A WPA dot org. I know,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: probably better off calling, or you can also go to
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Slapsticks Production dot com.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Okay, very good, all right, So let's I want to
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: talk about your organization. But let's talk about the disease
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: by seeing the gravis. Okay, yeah, because I think a
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: lot of people they've they've heard of heard of it,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: but they don't know what it is exactly.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so absolutely we appreciate that opportunity to do that.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: So my CEA gravis is a chronic neuromuscular disease that
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: impacts a person's muscles, and specifically they're voluntary muscles.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: It impacts every person a little bit differently. Uh So
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: some people may have issues with breathing or swallowing. Uh,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: some may have really bad fatigue in their arms and legs.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Others may have facial drooping or just overall muscle weakness.
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  Speaker 2: Uh So my ceograph is called the snowflake disease because
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: it impacts everyone so differently that no two people are
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: impacted exactly the same. But it is really focused on
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: that profound muscle weakness, just depending on what muscles are
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: being impacted for that individual.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Is there a cure?
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately right now there is not a cure, but there
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: are a lot of really positive treatments, many of which
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: have come out just really in the last.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Four of yince we started talking when you first started,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: like the six or seven years ago.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, and it's really exciting. Obviously, never a good
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: time to have any disease. But when people call us,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: especially if they're newly diagnosed, we really stress to them
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: that they shouldn't give up hope because there are a
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: lot of treatments out there. If one doesn't necessarily work
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: particularly well for them, there are others they can try,
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  Speaker 2: and that truly is a new phenomenon. Within the last
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: four or five years.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: I explained chronic What is a chronic disease.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Chronic disease is something that there is no cure for
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  Speaker 2: and it's just going to be with that person, you know,
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  Speaker 2: for the remainder there life. But again, fortunately with my
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: sea gravis, people can live with this disease and as
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: long as their symptoms are managed, they can live a
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  Speaker 2: relatively normal life, have a job, you know, go on vacations.
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  Speaker 2: It just really depends on how well their medical care
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: team can really get their symptoms under control.
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  Speaker 1: Does it affect men, women, children?
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  Speaker 2: My sea gravis impacts everyone. There really is no specific race,
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  Speaker 2: sex age now it is primarily we do see some
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: cases where it impacts younger children, but the most of
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  Speaker 2: the people we're working with are in their twenties and older.
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  Speaker 2: And that's not to say that someone younger couldn't get
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: my sea of gravis, just the people that they're reaching
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  Speaker 2: out to us are usually a little bit older than
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  Speaker 2: child age.
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  Speaker 1: What are some maybe symptoms that you know people first
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: are aware of, or how is it diagnosed?
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  Speaker 2: Sure, so it's diagnosed a number of different blood tests
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: can officially diagnose the disease, But in terms of what
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: people may experience before they're diagnosed, they may just have
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: that overall sense of weakness. A lot of people actually
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: will have eyelid drooping or facial drooping to the point
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: where many times people think they're having some kind of
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: stroke or other neurological, you know, emergency. It's very interesting.
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  Speaker 2: A lot of times will have people who when they're
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: telling their story of how they're diagnosed, they will say
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: they'll they went to the eye doctor because they're having
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: some double vision, or their eyelids were drooping, or they
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: were just having blurred vision, and unfortunately their eye doctor
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: was well versed enough about the disease to get them
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  Speaker 2: referred to a neurologist or other specialists that can help
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  Speaker 2: them become, you know, officially diagnosed with the.
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  Speaker 1: Disease because it's so unique and somewhat rare. Does it
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: get misdiagnosed at times?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it really does because again, many of the symptoms
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: and actually could look like someone is having another condition
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  Speaker 2: like a stroke, and obviously someone's having a stroke that's
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: much more of a dire condition to get diagnosed quickly.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: So usually my C of Gravis is a little further
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  Speaker 2: down the list of things that doctors are checking off
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  Speaker 2: when they're working with people to find try to find
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  Speaker 2: a diagnosis.
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  Speaker 1: So tell us more about your organization.
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  Speaker 2: Sure, So the my C of Gravists Associates of Western Pennsylvania.
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  Speaker 2: We were founded in nineteen fifty five. So we're celebrating
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: our seventy first year of supporting individuals with my scene.
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  Speaker 1: Seventy Yeah, thank you.
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  Speaker 2: Now, like I said, I've just been involved for about
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: seven years. Although you know, every year, you know, we
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: have new challenges. You know, we support more and more people,
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: but you know, very rewarding. But we really look to
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: support people in three different ways through education, through advocacy,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: and then through support programming. Not just the people with
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: my cenior graviss. We also look to really support their friends, family,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: we support healthcare professionals, and really just the general public
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: to try to raise awareness, let people know what the
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: disease is, because, as you said, it is a rare disease.
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  Speaker 2: And I think because there are more treatments and you
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: see more commercials on television, people do tend to at
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: least have people tend to have heard of it at
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: least now, Whereas when I started seven years ago, most
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: people that I talked to had never heard of it
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: unless they knew someone with the disease. Now it's becoming
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: a little more top of mind just because there are
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: so many more commercials and information out there. But what
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  Speaker 2: we really try to do is, you know, bridge that
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  Speaker 2: gap to when someone's diagnosed, make sure that they are
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: surrounded by support, help them become more empowered to take
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  Speaker 2: charge of their care, to work with their physician, with
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: their care team, and really get on a good treatment
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: pattern or you know, journey to make sure they're well managed.
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  Speaker 1: You mentioned education, and one of the reasons come on
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: the show is to educate people about mycene at GRAVIS.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: But also you want to drive people to the comedy
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  Speaker 1: for a cause, which, by the way, is coming up
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: on Saturday, October tenth, Kennedy Township Volunteer Fire Department McKee's Rocks.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: If you want more ticket information call four, one, two, five, six, six, one, five,
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  Speaker 1: four or five. So, in addition to education advocacy, tell
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: us a little bit more about that.
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  Speaker 2: Sure, So, because my senior Gravis is such a rare disease.
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  Speaker 2: When someone's diagnosed, it really changes their life. They may
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: have to work with their employer, maybe work with their
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: elected officials. There are more costs associated with the disease
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  Speaker 2: through medications, maybe some different home remodels or something that
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: needs to take place. So we really try to help
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  Speaker 2: equip those individuals to have those conversations. They may need
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: to have a work schedule that's a little more conducive
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  Speaker 2: where they may have to take some breaks, or they
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: may need more time off for physician appointments. We want
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: to try to help them be able to educate their
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: employer to know that's going on. Same thing with as
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: I said before, with elected officials. This may not be
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: on the radar of some elected officials just because you
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: know they've never met anyone with the disease before. But
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  Speaker 2: you know treatments can be very costly. We want to
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  Speaker 2: make sure that we are advocating for individuals with their
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  Speaker 2: insurance companies, with their elected officials, to make sure that
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  Speaker 2: we're giving them as much support as possible to have
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  Speaker 2: a very productive lifestyle not being held back because of
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  Speaker 2: this disease.
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  Speaker 1: Now, you talked a little bit about your organization, about
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: you want to educate in advocacy and things like that,
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  Speaker 1: and one thing you failed to mention is that you're
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: a small, little organization, which I respect because you come
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: up with some great ideas like comedy for a cause
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: and the Purple Party and the people. Let's talk a
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  Speaker 1: little bit about the Purple Party. I attended. It was
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: in the springtime, and you have some very passionate individuals
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: advocating for the disease.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So, as you said, we are a small organization,
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: just myself and then one other individual or officially on
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: the bay roll of the organization. But we have you know,
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: twenty five to thirty volunteers board members who are very
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: much champions of the organization. You met many of them
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  Speaker 2: that evening at the Purple Party, and they will really
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: go out of their way to make sure they're not
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  Speaker 2: only supporting us, but being good advocates out in the community,
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  Speaker 2: spreading the word, letting people know what the disease is.
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  Speaker 2: And the really great thing is that although some of
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: the people you met have my Senia Gravis, not all
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: of them did, and many of them were just friends
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: with people who do, or you know, they just have
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: learned about the organization, respect our mission and really become,
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: you know, great advocates and great champions, great cheerleaders for
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: us out in the community.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: So you really come up with some really great fundraisers.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Purple Parties won the Comedy for a Cause, You've done
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: other things. So where did these ideas come from? From you?
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Or from your volunteers? Where do the ideas come?
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: They come really from a lot of different places, Like
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: give you for an example, in the summer a couple
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: of months ago, we actually had a cornhole golf tournament
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: and I just saw something online. This was a place
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: up in Mars that opened up, I believe last year,
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: and it's pretty much combining mini golf and cornhole.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: And I was gonna say, yeah, is that what it is? Yeah,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: it's golf but with corn hole.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's mini golf with instead of using a
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: putter and a ball, you use the bean bags and
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: you run through a cornhole course. That just was something
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: that sort of came across my Instagram feed and I'm like, wow, hey,
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  Speaker 2: I should reach out to them and see if that'd
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: be interested in partnering. And they were great and they
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: did others. The Purple Party. Joe Bet Barr is one
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: of our board members, and again, I've been with the
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: organization for seven years. She started that initiative well before
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: I started, So you know, other ideas come from our
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: board members. Same thing. Comedy for a Cause was in
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: place before I started. But you know, really without the
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: support of our board and our volunteers and just a
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: community in general who attend these things and really support
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: these initiatives, that's really what makes them go.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Well, it's a good thing. It's a Saturday night. It
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: avoids any kind of conflict with the Steelers correct on
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: a Sunday. So all right, Comedy for a Cause. We
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: talked a little bit about your organization, but let's kind
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: of drill down about the event. Tell us everything we
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: need to know.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so again, it's taking place on Saturday, October tenth.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: If you want to attend that VIP that actually starts
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: at five thirty pm. General missions at six thirty. We
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: have a buffet dinner at seven and then the show
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: starts at seven thirty.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: So it's dinner and a show, dinner and a show.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So the general admissions forty dollars. If you want
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: to throw in that VIP want and cheese reception tickets
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: are fifty dollars, but you get a VIP experience and
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: a buffet dinner. We have a wonderful cookie table. I
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: know when you attended the Purple Party, you got to
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: see the cookie table there, very very similar. We have
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: several volunteers who really make all those cookies, donate all
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: their time, donate the materials, so we're very thankful for them.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: I go to it Alta well Pittsburgh weddings. Only one
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: wedding where they didn't have a cookie table. I thought
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: these people were going to lose their minds.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: Those are fighting words, and it really is.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: They had a granola bar. Did not go over very well.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: I will leave those.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: So what I'm saying is a cookie table is a
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: good call.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, And again you know, super thrilled. I'll
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: mention her name Jackie Kay, one of our volunteers puts
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: in so much time I think between the Purple Party
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: and the comedy show, she probably makes over one hundred
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: and fifty dozen cookies for both events. So really, you know,
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: thrilled about that. I'd be remiss not to mention that
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: the wine and cheese reception is co sponsored this year.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: One of the sponsors is state Representative Anita Astrina Kulik,
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: whose husband Joe is on our board and I met her, Yeah,
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: you met her at the Purple Party. Absolutely, the Joe
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: and Anita are great supporters of our organization. And then
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: also the other co sponsor is our newly elected board president,
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: Phyllis Morosco, who I think you also met at the
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: Purple Party. Those ladies are kind enough to sponsor the
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: one cheese reception, so we're really excited about that.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: And tell us about the comedians.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so the comedians again, Mike Jones and Chris Nakis.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: We work with a company called Slapstick Productions. They help
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: us to line up the comedians. Make sure you know
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: they have all the information they need. The show itself
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: will probably be about an hour and a half, so
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Chris is the feature he'll probably do you know, twenty
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: minutes half an hour, and then Mike is the headliner,
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: he'll probably do you know, forty five minutes to an hour.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: So it's a fun evening, but you don't have to
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: worry about being out till midnight one o'clock. We're usually
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: wrapping up by like ten, ten thirty, so we can
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: get you home at a safe time.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: So VIP is the wine and cheese. You've got the buffet, dinner,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: and then a dessert table. You got the cookie table.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Do you have any like fifty to fifty drawings? Do
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: you have any Do you have any raffle baskets or
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: anything like that?
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: We do, Yeah, thanks for asking. So we have a
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: really great basket raffle. We usually have between eight and
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: ten different baskets. We will have a fifty to fifty
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: drawing and I think last year the prize was close
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: to five hundred dollars, so it's you know, a nice,
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: nice prize for the fifty to fifty. And then we
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: also have a silent auction, which this year we've had.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: We have a lot of good prizes lined up, a
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: lot of Steelers, pirates, penguins, memorabilia, that'll be there for
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: silent auction. We always try to start those bids relatively low.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: We really want people to leave with, you know, some
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: great prizes, so we're not trying to you know, make
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: the starting bids so high that people aren't in interested
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: in bidding. So definitely show up for some great silent
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: auction items as well.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: We're talking with Jim Joyce in comedy for a cause
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: to benefit the mycene A Graphics Association of Western Pa.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: The comedy event is Saturday, October tenth, Kennedy Township Volunteer
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Fire Department at Banquet Hall. If you want tickets, the
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: number to call is four one, two, five, six, six
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: fifteen forty five. Is that correct? You can email it.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: But it's far too many letters for my I totally
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: agree calling is probably the best way to get the tickets.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: All right, we only have three or four minutes left.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: So do you want to talk about more about the
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: organization or maybe about the disease? What what is the
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: one thing you want people to know? What is the
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: one thing you want people to learn about mycenia graph.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I talk a little bit about the disease,
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: but then also the organization itself. One of the things
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: we hear a lot when people are newly diagnosed, because
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: this is a rare disease, is they really feel a
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: sense of isolation. You know, maybe this is the first
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: time they've heard of the disease. Their friends and family
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: may have never heard of it before. As I said
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: before their employer, so they can really feel isolated and
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: just not necessarily lost, but just really confused about what
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: their next step should be.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: That is the disease have a hereditary factor to it
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: at all.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: At this point, they don't believe. So although we do
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: have we do have some cases where we do see
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: So when you.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Talk about the isolation, you know, you know, there are
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: certain diseases that you know, you may suspect that you know, hey,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: my father had it, my grandmother. So this is something
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: that when you talk about isolation, is that you're kind
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: of on your own.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and again every case is a little bit different.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: We do support people that seems like maybe a couple
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: members of the family do have the disease. So I'm
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: not saying that there there's no chance that there is
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: a hereditary component to it, but you know, really most
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: of the research shows that it's it's really not you know,
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: handed down right, you know from from generation to generation.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: But you know, what we really stress to people is
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: that you should not feel that you're alone in this
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: this journey and in this battle. Organizations like ours exist
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: solely to support people with my senior gravis. So if
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: someone has that need, or you know they're just even
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: maybe they've had the disease for many years and they're
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: just looking to maybe connect into a community, really reach
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: out to our organization and we will try our best
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: to help you in any way we can.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Now, is the phone number the same for you, same.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: Phone number, that's four one two five six six one
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: five four five, and learn more about the comedy show,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: but also know that we're there to support you with
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: it whatever we can.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: All Right, The Comedy for a Cause benefits my seeing
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: the of Gravis Association of Western Pa. Two comedians Mike
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Jones and Chris Nakes. Is that how you pronounce this?
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: I believe?
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: So Saturday, October tenth, it's going to be in m
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: McKees rocks at the Kennedy Township Volunteer Fire Department Bankwood Hall.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: They've got a fifty to fifty drawing basket Raffle Sile auction.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: It goes to a great cause. If you want tickets
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: or more information on the organization, the number again is
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: for one, two, five, six, six, fifteen forty five. Jim Joyce.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Always a pleasure and good luck with your event.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Johnny really appreciate the time.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: As always, If you have any comments, a concern, or
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: an idea for our future program, please email us from
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: this radio station's website. I'm Johnny Heartwell. Thank you so
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: much for listening.