Advocacy Alert: 05/11/2005

May 12 is International CFIDS Awareness Day and the CFIDS Association's 13^th Lobby Day. Seventy CFIDS advocates will spend the day meeting with their members of Congress and members of key Senate and House committees. They will share information and personal stories to impress upon lawmakers the serious impact CFIDS has on the individual, the family and the nation. They will speak for the thousands who might wish they could participate in these lobbying activities, but are unable to -- due to the physical, cognitive and/or financial effects of CFIDS.

This year, we will match our physical presence on the Hill with a Virtual Lobby Day, conducted by advocates using the Association's Grassroots Action Center on the Internet. We urge you to take part and strengthen our call for a more vigorous response to CFIDS by the federal government.

Our Virtual Lobby Day has four components. You choose whether to do all of them, or just one or two. You can even spread out the tasks -- do one each day between today and Thursday.

• Send letters to five (or more) media outlets in your community, asking them to help raise awareness about the devastating impact of CFIDS
• Send a letter to Secretary for Health Mike Leavitt, asking him to immediately implement the 11 recommendations made by the federal Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee (CFSAC)
• Send letters to the leaders of the House and Senate health appropriations committees that set funding levels for federal research programs, asking them to support the Association’s requests to increase CFIDS research fun
• Send letters to each of your members of Congress (two senators and one member of the House of Representatives), asking them to write to Secretary Leavitt in support of the CFSAC's recommendations. (Note: If you spread the tasks over the week, save this one for Thursday, May 12. Let the officials elected by your community know why you can't participate in the "live" Lobby Day event.)

We've made it easy for you to participate. You don't have to know who represents you in Congress or track down addresses for the local newspaper and TV stations. Go to http://www.cfids.org/ and click on the Capitol Building icon to get to pre-written letter templates for each task. Add as much or little detail as you'd like to make our letters your own. You can even ask friends and family to join the effort using our "Tell a Friend" feature.

Please take part in Lobby Day, whether you're in Washington or in cyberspace! If you opt for the virtual version, it won't be quite the same as walking the long, marble corridors of Congress with fellow advocates, but your efforts will make an important difference.

With gratitude,

Kim McCleary

President & CEO

The CFIDS Association of America