#WhyIVolunteerForMDA No Longer
This April, the Muscular Dystrophy Association started a campaign for National Volunteer Month. They want to showcase volunteers by having them post why they volunteer for the organization using the hashtag #WhyIVolunteerForMDA.
As an MDA volunteer for over 30 years, I want to share why I no longer volunteer for MDA.
· #WhyIVolunteerForMDA no longer — because they gave the International Association of Fire Fighters $6 million that was supposed to be used for helping those with neuromuscular diseases, and they refuse to tell us why.
· #WhyIVolunteerForMDA no longer — because in 2016, they gave more to the IAFF than they did to their largest research grant recipient.
· #WhyIVolunteerForMDA no longer — because while they gave this money to the IAFF, they cut the services they were known for — helping with the purchase of wheelchairs and braces, funding MDA clinic visits, providing free flu shots, and they even shut down their loan closets.
· #WhyIVolunteerForMDA no longer — because during the same time they were paying IAFF, they were still taking your donations, but paused funding research grants. Meaning your donations were funding literally nothing during that time (except the executives’ pockets and the IAFF).
· #WhyIVolunteerForMDA no longer — because they spend more on employee salaries and compensation than they do on research grants.
· #WhyIVolunteerForMDA no longer — because they provide absolutely no funding to their so-called MDA Care Centers and will not pay for your visit there.
· #WhyIVolunteerForMDA no longer — because they lied to a large corporate sponsor to make them think the money they raised went directly to pay for my wheelchair, when in fact they had stopped paying a penny for any equipment years prior. In addition, they never fully paid for equipment. They only paid for a small portion.
· #WhyIVolunteerForMDA no longer — because they claim they held camps last year, but there’s no proof that they did. In fact, several camps were quietly canceled, leaving many parents without camp options for their children.
·#WhyIVolunteerForMDA no longer — because they don’t provide any funding for campers to utilize adaptive equipment for virtual camp.
· #WhyIVolunteerForMDA no longer — because they took out over $10 million in PPP loans during the pandemic, but shut down all their local offices and furloughed employees.
· #WhyIVolunteerForMDA no longer — because they bought ads, claiming your donations helped kids with neuromuscular diseases during the pandemic, when in fact they never even reached out to their clients during that time — unless it was to ask them to fundraise.
·#WhyIVolunteerForMDA no longer — because they borrowed $6 million from donor-restricted funds to cover operational costs.
· #WhyIVolunteerForMDA no longer — because they went on with the Kevin Hart MDA Kids Telethon in 2020, even though people with neuromuscular diseases asked them not to.
· #WhyIVolunteerForMDA no longer — because one golf tournament could easily cover the cost of a local camp, yet they continued asking for camp donations and even claimed they needed help buying small items, such as plastic straws, for their campers.
· #WhyIVolunteerForMDA no longer — because they paid their former CEO $853,207 for only 10 months of “work”.
· #WhyIVolunteerForMDA no longer — because while they cut services and didn’t do any outreach during the pandemic, at least one of their executives was happily posting photos of traveling all over the world with their family.
· #WhyIVolunteerForMDA no longer — because they claim to provide “care” and “support” to those with neuromuscular diseases, but they don’t.
· #WhyIVolunteerForMDA no longer — because they want to make the public believe there is such a thing as an MDA doctor, but MDA does not employ a single doctor, nor do they directly pay for research.
But mainly, I no longer volunteer for MDA because they’re misleading the public and have abandoned those they claim to help.
