Written by Malcolm Munro
Magic Mountain Toys Helps Find a Cure for FOP!
When four-year-old Miranda Friz plays outside with her little chums, her mom makes sure Miranda wears her protective headband. None of the kids ask why she wears it. Mom Karen Munro and dad Pete Friz told moms and dads in their street about FOP and why Miranda needs to be extra careful. Miranda should avoid very physical games as well bumps and bruises, parents told their kids. The kids heard and understand. Miranda’s popular “big brother” Owen at only seven years is often touchingly protective. He understands. None of this seems to impress Miranda very much - her sunny disposition and ready smile somehow a perfect match for her headband’s bold colors and patterns!
At the time of my granddaughter Miranda’s diagnosis, it was only a few months before I retired from my work as a business school academic. When my wife and I recovered from our initial shock, I began thinking about how I could help find a cure for FOP beyond donating to IFOPA. I taught electronic commerce at the university and thought I might generate some research dollars by selling products on the Internet while increasing public awareness of FOP. But what should I sell? I had no answer for months until I gathered ideas from our extended family - my own adult children, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews. I got many suggestions, the most common of which was to sell toys. I soon settled on educational toys because it seemed to fit nicely with a campaign to find a cure for FOP.
My next challenge was to find an appropriate name. I had read the book by Carol Zapata-Whelan titled Finding Magic Mountain: Life with Five Glorious Kids and a Rogue Gene Called FOP. With this inspiration, I struck on Magic Mountain Toys as a particularly apt name, the idea of climbing a mountain being a wonderful analogy for finding a cure. The same analogy had been effectively deployed by Dr. Kaplan in his reports on the progress of research at the FOP Lab.
I invite you to visit our educational toy store at www.magicmountaintoys.com Note that 100% of the profit is donated to the FOP lab at the University of Pennsylvania. You can help find a cure for FOP by visiting our store whenever you need to buy toys (though we are only able to ship to North American addresses at present). You can help even more by telling members of your extended family and your personal network of friends about this community fund raising effort and how they can help. The more involved, the better - and the sooner we will find a cure for Miranda, Erin Kate and all our loved ones with FOP!
Malcolm Munro, IFOPA board member.
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Malcolm Munro, retired business school academic, is the “store manager” and International FOP Association board member. Malcolm’s granddaughter Miranda Friz was diagnosed with FOP in May 2007, just months past her second birthday. This unwelcome news gave rise to the idea of establishing a charity to raise funds to find a cure for FOP.
This charity website benefits from the teamwork and expert advice of Miranda’s extended family: Helen Munro (Grandma), Karen Munro and Pete Friz (parents), Susan Munro (aunt), Blair Munro (uncle), and Erin Munro (aunt) - the latter three also being parents of youngsters. Special thanks for his many insightful suggestions are also due a relative whose modesty compels him to remain anonymous! Our larger collaborative family includes the International FOP Association, FOP Family websites listed in FOP Links, our community of FOP friends, and particularly the extended Munro, Friz and Borsa families. Profit from this store is currently donated to the Center for Research in FOP and Related Disorders (which we refer to as the FOP Lab) at The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. With every purchase at Magic Mountain Toys, you are supporting FOP research and helping find a cure for Miranda and others with FOP!
Corporate Sponsors
Shopster Inc.(www.shopster.com) is our major corporate sponsor, courtesy of CEO Sarath Samarasekera. Shopster hosts our website and generously waives its normal setup fee, monthly subscription fee and transaction fee on each purchase. Through its subordinate company, Secure2U.com, Shopster handles our order processing. order fulfillment and customer support issues. Suzanne Lucas, Shopster Customer Education Specialist provides ongoing professional advice, support and encouragement. Our second corporate sponsor, Anduro Marketing (www.anduro.com) provides Internet marketing support as well as technical advice in the form of search engine optimization, courtesy of CEO Jeff Nelson. Accounting services are provided through the generosity of Martin R. Margolis, Chartered Accountant, an expert in entrepreneurship and small business accounting.
“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see”. John W. Whitehead
Help find a cure for FOP!
