WINNIPEG – It all started with a dream to find a cure.
When she was just 10 years old, Jenna Sigurdson created a campaign to raise awareness about Parkinson’s after her dad was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease.
The 13-year-old recently designed bookmarks to help educate people around her while fundraising for research at the Parkinson’s Society of Manitoba.
“Most of the time kids think… I can’t do this right?” said Sigurdson. “You can set your mind to do anything that you want to do, it’s just determination.”
Each bookmark sells for two dollars. In four years, she has received more than $40,000 in donations.
“Her helping brings hope that someday maybe the cure will be found,” said Jenna’s dad Blair Sigurdson. “Lots of Parkinson’s medications do have side effects, it just masks the disease it doesn’t actually stop it or slow it down… and eventually the disease will win.”
The initiative has now spread across Winnipeg, with bookmarks being sold in Red River Co-op stores and gas stations.
“It inspires the community to get behind her,” said Joycelin Hill of Red River Co-op. “When you see a girl that’s just in her early teens doing this amount of work and just doing it all by herself… she’s looking after her dad.”
Sigurdson’s goal is to raise more than $50,000 by the end of the year and help about 6,000 Manitobans who are living with Parkinson’s disease.
“It’s every day movement taken for granted, so I think that really shows the true meaning of what it is,” said Sigurdson.
Proof that something as small as a bookmark can lead to positive change.
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