Monday, May 4, 2009

Help Support You're the Cure

You've been reading on this blog all about our You're the Cure on the Hill Lobby Day. It is a remarkable, inspiring event, but it is just one part of our advocacy program. Our work continues year round, delivering our message to lawmakers in Washington DC, your state capitols and local communities. Patients and caregivers count on our advocacy efforts to help pass policies that save lives from heart disease and stroke. But, all these efforts can be expensive.

With your help we can keep the pressure on and make an impact, but we need your support today.

Many of you email, call and meet with your lawmakers on our many policy priorities. In addition to your strong voices, will you consider making a donation to the American Heart Association? It's because of the generous contributions of volunteers like you that AHA is able to have a strong presence in State Houses across the country and on Capitol Hill.

Let me share some examples:
• The tools needed to enable the timely delivery of messages to lawmakers costs about $2 per advocate per year. Just this past year our You're the Cure advocates sent more than 350,000 messages to Congress alone.
• It costs on average $5 to send a paper petition to lawmakers.
• And the cost for a patient to come to Washington D.C. to meet face-to-face with Members of Congress and their staff during Lobby Day typically exceeds $1,000 a person for basic travel and lodging costs.

In order to ensure that the AHA is able to continue to conduct an effective advocacy program dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke, we need your generous donations today. Donate today to help AHA achieve our mission of building healthier lives!

The donation site is easy to use and allows you to give an amount of your choosing. Make your donation today!

We appreciate your support!

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