Around Danville: Linda Ronstadt to appear at Concours d’Elegance, Parkinson’s fundraiser

By SHIRLEY JACKS    August 6, 2017 

Shirley Jacks/for Bay Area News Group

Danville Concours d’Elegance founders Jim, center, and Chris Edlund, right, appear recently with daughter Amy, left, outside their family store.

Here is a cause worth rallying for — the 13th annual Danville Concours d’Elegance, benefiting Parkinson’s disease research and patient care on Sept. 16  and Sept. 17.

Founders Chris and Jim Edlund, owners of Christe James Fine Jewelry Works, are longtime residents of Danville. They have raised three daughters and one son and were active and supportive in the children’s school activities. They all attended Vista Grande, Los Cerros and Monte Vista.

The couple are well-known as community leaders, therefore it was not surprising when they took on the daunting task of starting a new charity to benefit Parkinson’s research and patient care. It was a very personal cause for the Edlunds.

Four generations had Parkinson’s in Jim’s family and Chris’s aunt and grandma had the disease. It is not a “popular” disease so funding it doesn’t get the attention that it needs and deserves.

It was a natural route that led Jim to co-found the Concours d’Elegance with Chris, given that he is a classic car aficionado.  The 2-day event starts with a Tour d’Elegance (rally) on Sept 16 to AXR Winery in St. Helena, and the Gala Dinner at the Blackhawk Museum with a presentation by special guest Linda Ronstadt.  She will share her personal story “My Life in Music and Living with Parkinson’s.”

On Sept. 17, the Concour d’Elegance takes place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Danville Town Center.  For the first time, all proceeds from the gala will benefit Parkinson’s Institute & Clinical Center in Sunnyvale, and the proceeds from the other two events will be divided to Parkinson’s Institute and the Michael J. Fox Foundation.  For more information, tickets or volunteer opportunities, go to www.danville-delegance.org

The Parkinson’s Institute was founded in 1985 by neurologist Dr. J. William Langston, who was a movement disorder specialist.  He co-wrote, with J. Palfreman, “The Case of the Frozen Addicts.”

In the summer of 1982 in San Francisco, Langston was aware that several emergency room patients,  who had taken tainted synthetic heroin, rapidly developed signs of advanced Parkinson’s disease with frozen joints/muscles.  He administered L-dopa, the only known effective treatment at the time for Parkinson’s, and “unfroze” the patients.

That led to more daring treatments, such as fetal-issue transplants that have proven successful in some cases. It opened up a whole new field of research.

The institute is the only such place in the country that houses both a clinic and a research center on the same site. Doctors, patients and researchers work together on a daily basis so treatments and answers are delivered in a timely manner.

The institute sees about 2,000 patients a year. Eighty percent of funding comes from philantrophy, 10 percent from insurance and 10 percent from grants. The California Institute of Regenerative Medicine recently awarded a $1.9 million grant to the institute’s Dr. Birgitt Schuele for her work in genetics.

There is a strong bond within the institute. They are a supportive family of caregivers and friends. No one benefits more from this than Tom Follett, the chairman of the board. He has been a patient of the institute for the past 15 years and  said he has have thrived under their care. Happily retired, he plays golf several times a week and enjoys traveling with wife Gunilla.

While some say the institute is a well-kept secret, it’s no secret it needs funding to keep up the vital work in finding a cure for Parkinson’s.

http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/08/06/around-danville-linda-ronstadt-to-appear-at-concours-delegance-parkinsons-fundraiser/