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The responses ranged from May to October.  :-)   I had no idea this issue
would have any emotional connotation to it.  Evidently, there are turf
wars out there in Celiac Land.  I belong to both the CF and the local CSA
but do not (personally) care which month is designated; I just want to
make sure the information is correct in our newsletter.

Some saw it as a power grab by one organization over another and others as
just a practical matter of doing the awareness in the same month as the
Walks.  Some excerpts:

1. "...  CSA does their own thing always and does not seem to participate
with the other National groups.  That probably explains the difference in
months.  October was never an official month.  It was just one as
designated by CSA only."

2." ...October has been  celiac awareness  month for as long as I
have been diagnosed as a celiac (9 years).    Therefore to comment
that CSA is  ""still"" suggesting that October is celiac awareness
month is kind of  silly.   Shouldn't  you pose the question to CDF why
they declared May as celiac awareness month??"

3. "There was never an official proclamation by the government that
October would be celiac awareness month, that anyone could find. This is
now being done and will be officially observed by the US Congress, in May
beginning in 2004. No one has been able to find any history about who,
why, or how October was decided as celiac awareness month. Since there was
no official documentation, the suggestion was it should become May since
that is when we do the International Walks for Celiac disease awareness
and research. This is my personal understanding of the change."

4. "Good luck in solving this mystery!  I've heard that because October is
the month that CSA has their annual conference, THEY declared October as
Celiac Awareness Month.  And then because the other big organizations on
the west coast started the Celiac walks in May, they would like to have
May designated as Celiac Awareness Month.  I doubt they will ever agree.
It's too bad our big organizations can't speak with one voice.  Sounds
like politics, doesn't it."

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