Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation Launches Third STEPtember Campaign

New York – August 29, 2019

What steps can you take to help people with cerebral palsy? How about 10,000 a day? Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation (CPARF) is proud to launch its third annual STEPtember campaign in the United States to raise funds and awareness for cerebral palsy research. STEPtember is an inclusive, one-of-a-kind wellness-meets-fundraising initiative that challenges participants to get active, feel good, and do good by taking 10,000 steps a day — or doing 40+ exercises to reach that total — for 28 straight days. This year’s event runs from September 3rd through September 30th and features Justin Gallegos, Nike’s first pro athlete with cerebral palsy, as its US STEPtember Ambassador.

CPARF seeks to surpass last year’s best-ever event, which raised $1.3 million and featured 13,000 participants. In 2019, companies like Nexstar Media Group want to raise the bar. Karen Baird, the Business Administrator at Nexstar’s WAVY TV-10 in Norfolk, VA, is on one of nine teams at her station so far, and she’s thrilled that more people will be signing up. “We’re so excited,” she said, because “raising funds is important [and] raising awareness is priceless.” She’s motivated to take part because her stepson has cerebral palsy.

18 million people have cerebral palsy worldwide — a lifelong condition that’s the most common physical disability in childhood — and the proceeds from CPARF’s STEPtember will fund US-based research projects to find new treatments for cerebral palsy, discover ways to prevent it, and, ultimately, find a way to cure it.

Motivated by this mission, teams of up to four — made up of colleagues, friends, and family — will compete against each other to move the most and raise the most money. And when people track their progress, they can do it against their team, their organization, and people around the world.

STEPtember is a global movement that began in Australia in 2010 and went international two years later. In 2019, beyond the US and Australia, the fundraising initiative will also take place in France, Turkey, Canada, The Netherlands, New Zealand, and Singapore.

Additional organizations with employees signed up to step it up include UBS, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, PwC, FTI Consulting, Ipsen Group, and Katten. To join them and others to connect your movement with something more, visit www.steptember.us.

CPARF’S mission 

Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation is a nonprofit organization living on the cutting edge. It’s where researchers thrive, where we do our best work, where we’re about to change the world. And we’re driven to that edge by hope.

The hope that we can help people with cerebral palsy live pain-free. That we can help them live the lives they envision for themselves. And hope that we can amplify their voices — allowing them to say what’s on their mind whenever they want to and be understood.

We’re committed to funding high-quality cerebral palsy research, collaborating with researchers across the US, and sharing their information globally. In the past decade, nearly 60% of the most effective cerebral palsy treatments have been discovered thanks to the collective efforts of the international cerebral palsy research community.

To learn more about how CPARF is committed to making breakthroughs for people with cerebral palsy, visit www.cparf.org or contact info@cparf.org.