EDMONDS — Keeping up with Pat Erickson is harder than it sounds.
Erickson regularly volunteers at local elementary schools shelving books in the library, teaching drama and readers’ theater to fourth-graders and entertaining children through storytelling in the role of Mrs. Wigglesworth, an elderly woman with an eclectic wardrobe. She participates in breast cancer walks, runs a nonprofit and organizes benefit fashion shows featuring vintage clothing.
Erickson’s fast-paced lifestyle means that much more to her because she has Parkinson’s disease.
This month the Shoreline woman is hosting Walk to the Future, a benefit open to the community in hopes of creating a future without Parkinson’s disease.
The event is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. July 24 at Edmonds Stadium, located at Edmonds-Woodway High School. Prizes will be awarded to the individual and team who bring in the most contributions, and random prize drawings will occur throughout the day. Closing ceremonies and a victory lap will be at 7:30 p.m. Representatives from various Parkinson’s groups were invited to share information. There will be live bands performing, including a band featuring Erikson’s husband and daughter.
For more information and sign-up forms, visit www.pinkyspassion.org. People who don’t have a team can join on the day of the walk.
Parkinson’s disease strikes when nerve cells that create the chemical dopamine break down. Dopamine sends signals to the part of the brain that controls movement. Parkinson’s is progressive, worsening over time. Medications are designed to help people with Parkinson’s control the symptoms. For Erickson, being able to stay active requires taking medication every three-and-a-half hours daily.
Erickson said she wants people to understand Parkinson’s is not an old person’s disease. While it typically strikes middle-aged people, Erickson met a girl diagnosed while in her 20s. Michael J. Fox, she noted, was diagnosed at 29.
“I want to be open to people,” she said.
Not many people are aware of all of the resources available to teach about Parkinson’s, Erickson said, and it seems people aren’t attached to the disease unless they know someone diagnosed with it. When she was diagnosed, her immediate thought was she would be in a wheelchair within a few years.
“I want people to know your life doesn’t stop,” she said. “It’s not the end of the world. It’s an adjustment.”
Also, medications to control Parkinson’s cause side effects that some people mistakenly think are side effects of the disease. For example, one medication causes her to feel fidgety, she said. Kindergartners she reads to have asked her why she is so excited and moving around, and Erickson gracefully tells them it’s because she is happy to see them. Erickson would eventually like to write a children’s book explaining Parkinson’s in a way children will understand.
The four primary symptoms of Parkinson’s are tremor, trembling in the hands, arms, legs or jaw, rigidity and impaired balance.
For Erickson, early symptoms included her right hand stiffening up, which she waved off as carpal tunnel syndrome from too much typing. A few months later, she had trouble moving her hand while doing the chicken dance with her son during a wedding.
Erickson said she hid the diagnosis for five years.
“I didn’t want to be viewed as sick,” she said.
Her husband, Steve, encouraged her to open up about the diagnosis. Around that time, Pat Erickson was organizing vintage fashion shows with her friend Marla. That event seemed like the time to share the news, she thought. They decided to turn the show into a fundraiser for Parkinson’s. The pair raised more than $12,000, which they donated to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Erickson went on to form Pinky’s Passion for a Parkinson’s Cure, which earned nonprofit status in 2007.
“We have a lot of fun together,” Erickson said. “If you’re not having fun, it’s just not worth it.”
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