Parkinson's Awareness Month T-Shirt Contest

Each year, April is designated as Parkinson’s Awareness month.  How can you raise awareness in 2012?  How can you enlist others in the fight for a cure?  Enter your design in PDF's Third Annual Parkinson’s Awareness Month T-shirt contest by Tuesday, January 17, 2012.

The winning design will be chosen by the public, who will vote online from a group of finalists in February 2012, and then offered exclusively on PDF’s online store and distributed to participants of the Parkinson’s Unity Walk in New York City in April 2012.

• Rules and Regulations
• Deadlines and Submission
• Judging and Selection
• Past T-Shirt Design Contest Winner
• Questions?

Rules and Regulations

• Use a maximum of four (4) colors for your design – no gradients or transparent layers are allowed.
• All entries must incorporate PDF’s green and yellow and trademarked tulip.
• Keep the design off the seams.
• Do not use dates or months in the design.
• Save the design as a .jpeg or .pdf at 1000x750 pixel resolution before uploading.
• Remember the design must be your own original unpublished work and must not contain any third-party logos, trademarks or copyright material.
• One design per person.

Deadlines and Submissions

The deadline for sending in your design is Tuesday, January 17, 2012. Email all final designs to: pdtshirtcontest@pdf.org.

Judging and Selection

All entries will be voted upon by a committee of judges comprised of members of our Creativity and Parkinson’s Project and People with Parkinson’s Advisory Council.   After this committee selects our five finalists, the general public will vote on PDF’s website to choose the winning design.

Past T-Shirt Design Contest Winners

2011: It May Shake Me, But It Can't Break Me

La Honda, CA resident Marian Bumala’s t-shirt design, "Parkinson’s Disease: It May Shake Me But It Can’t Break Me,” tied for the winning spot as part of the PDF 2011 Parkinson’s Awareness Month T-shirt Contest.  The design was printed on thousands of t-shirts and was worn around the country during April 2011 to raise awareness.

Ms. Bumala’s t-shirt design depicted a tulip, the official symbol for Parkinson’s, rising above the sun. Written beneath the tulip are the words, “It may shake me, but it can’t break me,” signifying Ms. Bumala’s outlook that Parkinson’s may shake a person’s body and shake up a person’s life, but there is still hope.  The slogan resonated with the thousands of voters who chose it.

Ms. Bumala is an electronics engineer who lives with Parkinson’s. She is very involved with the Parkinson’s community on a local level - serving as an active member of a local support group, a clinical trial participant and a regular participant of Sunnyvale, CA’s annual Unity Walk, a local branch of the New York City walk.

Shes said of her design, “It is a wonderful feeling to be able to help out in the Parkinson’s community by doing something I enjoy – graphic design. I’m grateful to PDF for this opportunity and hope that my design will raise awareness of the disease.”

Robin Elliott, Executive Director of PDF, said, “Ms. Bumala’s t-shirt slogan “It may shake me, but it can’t break me” reflects the dedication the community has to beating this disease. We congratulate Ms. Bumala for tying for first place in the Parkinson’s Awareness Month T-shirt contest and for helping to demonstrate our community’s continued urgency to find a cure.”

2010: Fight to Win

Heather Hinrichsen’s Fight to Win design for Parkinson’s Awareness Month was  featured on a t-shirt worn by hundreds of people throughout the US in 2010.  She submitted her design to the PDF Parkinson’s Awareness Month T-Shirt Contest in early 2010 and received over 800 of the 1,900 votes, beating four other designs.  What’s the story behind her design and how did she do it?

Ms. Hinrichsen, 36 years old, lives with young-onset Parkinson’s.  A busy mom, she and her husband Todd have two children, ages 2 and 3.  She does her best to check the websites of Parkinson’s organizations, such as PDF, every few weeks.  In February, she found a story about PDF’s Parkinson’s Awareness Month T-Shirt Contest.  An avid scrapbooker, Ms. Hinrichsen wanted to try her hand at it.  She and Todd had previously discussed designing a Parkinson’s t-shirt, so she thought, “Why not design it for the contest?”

Ms. Hinrichsen’s design, featured above, includes the phrase, Fight to Win, a message that seemed to resonate with the voters who pushed her design to the top of the list.  She chose this phrase because it’s something she has done herself while coping with young-onset Parkinson’s.

Ms. Hinrichsen was diagnosed at the age of 33, when her first child was just three months old. She fought to come to terms with her diagnosis as a young mom, to find the right doctor to address her needs as a young person with Parkinson’s, and to find support from people who could understand what she was going through.  Less than two years after her diagnosis, she and Todd had their second child.  She is now a stay-at-home mom to her two young children and occasionally still works in a volunteer capacity in her career as a physician assistant, for example, recently flying to Haiti with a medical team to assist with earthquake relief efforts. She also found friendship among a support group made up solely of young mothers who are living with PD.

What is her hope for the awareness t-shirt?  Ms. Hinrichsen says, “First, I hope that by sharing my story, people will realize that Parkinson’s is not just an older person’s disease.  It can strike younger people.  Through the shirt design, I also want to spread the message to everyone to fight PD.  I plan to fight until I win - I have PD, but it doesn't have me."

Questions?

Please direct all questions to pdtshirtcontest@pdf.org or call (800) 457-6676 with your inquiries.