Way back at the beginning of the year, Ryan Marshall, of Pacing the Panic Room, asked for a little help. He’s got a stepson, LB, who, in 2009, was diagnosed with SMS – Smith Magenis Syndrome. It’s a little-known chromasomal disorder that affects an estimated 1 in 25,000 births. Kids with SMS will often have a variety of neurobehavioral and physical characteristics that include, but are not limited to, disrupted sleep patterns, delayed language development, low muscle tone, and sudden mood changes, to name a few.
Ryan, with his wife, Cole, wanted to do something to raise awareness of SMS, raise some money for research, and offer something fun to other families – with or without SMS – as well.
So there’s this album…
It’s called Do Fun Stuff – A Kids’ Album for Parents, and it’s available on iTunes starting TODAY. All the artists involved donated their time and talent to help make this fundraising opportunity a reality. The songs are geared toward little kids (some of the songs make me think of Yo Gabba Gabba…and others make me think of the Beatles), but parents might find themselves pressing the repeat button for some of them as well. Regardless, the songs, the album – it’s all a labor of love. And on behalf of Ryan and Cole and LB, and all the other SMS families out there, I am urging you – particularly if you have very little kids – to buy this album. It’s for a great, very worthy, unsung (pardon the pun) cause, and 100% of the profits will go to charity – to a grant fund Ryan created at PRISMS. The money will be awarded to grad students who plan to make SMS research their field of choice.
So please, be a part of this. Buy the album. Buy a song (my favorite – “Sleep” – perhaps because Julia used to do so little of it when she was a baby.) Or, if you’d prefer, Make a donation. Or help pass the word by linking to the Do Fun Stuff site.
Do some good…
and above all,
Thanks.
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