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Our support group has done much over the past 4 years to raise celiac
awareness.  We are coming up on our fifth radio discussion program which is
30 minutes long.  We have done a GF day in our local hospital cafeteria
twice over the past year and handed out information, and the chef fixed GF
entrees and desserts that day.  Newspaper articles have also helped.

Now we have acquired a table at the local fair for one day, which may now
be expanding to 7 days.  A member of our group is the owner of a printing
company.  He just joined us and we have put him to work, and he actually
jumped in with both feet and is giving us 200%.

He is making us banners, a small recipe booklet, started a website, and is
making a CD about celiac disease.  It is narrated and loaded with pictures
that fade in and out.  This will run on a large computer screen all day
during the fair.  We will be handing out information to all who stop.
These are professionals making this happen.   I cannot even begin to
imagine what this would have cost out of our own pockets....which of course
we could not have done.

A month following the county fair, we will be doing a health fair at a
local church.  Then we are looking to set up in Krogers, Wal-Mart, and
another local grocery store.

Pamela's is sending us samples to hand out.  Organizations are providing
brochures.  Manna from Anna has provided us with mixes so we can have bread
to be sampled.   I had to make a lasagna (actually just layer it) so the
photographers could get pictures to put on the CD.   This little idea has
snowballed into a massive community effort.

We are hoping to focus on the foods you can still eat, rather than what you
cannot eat.   We will have everyday mainstream items on display along with
GF foods from the various companies.   We are hoping to obtain a variety of
these also.

If you are a GF company and would like to provide literature or a sample
package of your product, we would be glad to have it.

I just want everyone to know we are a small city of about 60,000 and WE ARE
MAKING IT HAPPEN!!    If we can do it, we know others can too.   Up until a
month ago, we had done everything on our own.  We just got lucky on the
printing company owner in the past month.

Let's all go out there and make a difference.   If only I could get the
medical community a little more educated......  hmmmm..... maybe there is
still time...

Got any suggestions???

Bev Messner
Richland County Celiac Support Group
Mansfield, Ohio

* Visit the Celiac Web Page at www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/index.html *