YoCream International Inc. raised $8,000 for the Brian Grant Foundation at a fundraising event held at its company store in Portland.
YoCream announced that all sales revenue generated on July 31 at the YoCream Frozen Yogurt Company Store would go to support Parkinson’s awareness, education and research and Portlanders showed up in crowds to show their support. Brian Grant, for who the foundation is named, was diagnosed with Early Onset Parkinson’s at 36.
“The monies raised by YoCream will be used to promote awareness and increase education of Parkinson’s,” explained Brian Grant. “The support from my home town and its citizens for me and my foundation is extraordinary. It means so much to me and all of us who have been and will be diagnosed with PD.”
This fundraising event kicked off a weekend of activities to generate awareness of the disease. Grant’s successful “Shake It Till We Make It” benefit included a celebrity gala dinner and golf tournament and raised $350,000, which was given to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research, the leading source of financing for Parkinson’s research to speed a cure.
YoCream will continue its support of Grant’s foundation by donating 20% of its new FroYo Shake sales through 2010. “We support Brian and his leadership efforts to raise awareness about Early Onset Parkinson’s, and we would like to continue to keep this in the forefront of our customer’s minds,” stated Tyler Bargas, director of sales at YoCream. “Customers can customize their own frozen yogurt shake by adding any of the more than 30 toppings to the FroYo Shake base in the self serve frozen yogurt store and feel like they are helping a fellow Portlander and his cause.” Like all of YoCream’s Frozen Yogurt products, FroYo Shake contains high levels of beneficial live and active yogurt cultures.
Parkinson’s disease is a chronic, degenerative neurological disorder that affects one in 100 people over age 60. While advancing age remains the greatest risk factor, PD can strike people even under age 30. The average age at onset is 60, however, people have been diagnosed as young as 18. Estimates of the number of people living with the disease vary, but recent research indicates that at least one million people in the United States, and more than five million worldwide, have Parkinson’s.