Pancakes for Parkinson’s was founded in 2004 by one student at the University of Virginia in honor of her Godmother who had Parkinson’s disease. Since that time, Team Fox (the Michael J. Fox Foundation’s grassroots community outreach program) has adopted “Pancakes” as one of their national fundraisers. Collectively, these student-driven Pancakes for Parkinson’s events, held on a number of university campuses across the nation, have raised $250,000 to benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Our aim at UT is to raise public awareness and to educate people about Parkinson’s disease, which strikes 1 person in 100 over the age of 60; while raising money to support the Michael J. Fox Foundation which is dedicated to finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease through an aggressively funded research agenda and to ensuring the development of improved therapies for those living with Parkinson’s today.
Finally, we pledge that 100% of the donations raised during this event will go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation to further its goals.
The first annual Pancakes for Parkinson’s was April 20, 2011 at the University of Texas at Austin; it was organized by the Texas Round Table, a student organization of current and former presidents from 14 spirit groups across campus, with the help of a group of  Texas Exes, faculty and staff. We were inspired to do this when a longtime faculty member and former VP of Student Affairs, Dr. James Vick, was diagnosed with Parkinson disease. At the inaugural event, we raised $59,363.88. These funds were matched through a $50 million challenge grant given by Sergey Brin (one of the original founders of Google) and his wife, Anne Wojcicki, which means our combined efforts raised close the $120,000 for Parkinson’s Research.
