We also used the Grassroots Action Center to help with follow-up from visits to members of Congress made on Lobby Day. For some of these meetings, we didn’t have anyone in our group from the representative’s district or the senator’s state. With help from OFFER, we were able to generate 88 letters from persons with CFIDS living in Utah to thank Kara Bacal for meeting with our group and to ask that her boss, Senator Orrin Hatch, to support our Lobby Day requests. Similar efforts were made to enlist help from on-line advocates in other states and districts to back up our Lobby Day requests.

On May 23, we asked advocates to help us respond to a distressing article about CFIDS that ran in the June issue of “Psychology Today.” We posted text of a letter in a form that could be edited completely by the user, or sent as-is. More than 2,800 responses were directed to the article’s author and editors at the magazine.

All of these actions are still “live” on the Grassroots Action Center site, and you can help add to the above numbers of responders. You’ll receive notice of special opportunities like these by signing up for the Grassroots Action Listserv. Close to 20,000 messages have been sent through the Center since we launched it in April 2004; thanks to all who have demonstrated the might of the CFIDS community!