Parkinson's Tulip Earrings

Bead Artist Barbara de Garmo

Barbara grew up in Rye, New York surrounded by the buzz of the city. In the early 1970's she found needlework to be very relaxing and a good outlet for her creativity. In 1975 she moved to Maine with her husband and basically stopped doing all needlework to pursue a teaching career in a small school of 48 children K-8. She retired from teaching and in 2002 when diagnosed with Parkinson's disease she found great solace in needlework; however, a few years later she was introduced to beading by her sister. Inspired by her sister and encouraged by her husband and son, she started beading. It has become very much a part of her life and now does both beading and needlework, as well as continuing to work full time. The 'Tulip' Series Earrings are designed by her son, Hunter and hand-crafted by Barbara de Garmo to raise Awareness for Parkinson's Disease.  Earrings can be purchased for $10.00 by contacting Jean Baker at 888-763-3366.

Parkinson's Tulip Pin Sale

A new tulip is popping up in gardens across the country just in time for Parkinson's Awareness Month. The tulip - a red flower with distinctive leaves shaped like the letters P and D- was designed by a young onset person with Parkinson's from Washington state-Karen Painter.

The red tulip has been associated with PD Awareness since 1980 when a Dutch horticulturalist who had PD developed a red and white tulip and named it "Dr. James Parkinson". Jean Burns, co-founder of PDPlan4Life.com saw the tulip her new friend had doodled on a napkin and was "immediately struck by the unique and beautiful design".  Jean wrote a successful grant application which funded the creation of several thousand lapel pins based on Karen's design. She also created a new website www.pdtulip.com enabling people to easily download the tulip graphic.

Pins are available for $3.00. Please contact Jean Baker 888-763-3366.