Vision:

The Miracle for Megan Foundation was created to raise awareness, increase research, and develop optimal treatment methods for people with Genetic Disorders. We envision the ability to detect Genetic Disorders early and help to provide exceptional care to the patients and families with these disorders.

Basis:

Our foundation is based on Megan Miceli, an 18 month old little girl with a Gene Deletion 15Q13.3. After 13 months of evaluation the Doctors of Kennedy Krieger Institute finally found her diagnosis. The Gene Deletion is so rare that there has only been 6 reported cases since its discovery in 2008. The subjects who have been studied all have 4 symptoms in common, Hypotonia (low muscle tone), Seizures (mylonic), Intellectual Disability, and Schizophrenia. Megan is a beautiful child with no abnormal features. Her limitations are all physical in nature. She is developing physically and mentally at a rate of 50% of her age. Megan receives constant care from numerous doctors at multiple hospitals, and receives care at home from Central Infants and Toddlers Program. The majority of her life is spent in Therapy and the Doctors Office. It is because of her that we have developed a foundation of hope, inspiration, and great ambition to improve the lives of all that are effected by a genetic disorder. Her smile can heal and now her foundation can do the same.

Foundation goals

1. To provide funding to the therapeutic center of Kennedy Krieger Institute. With these funds the center may purchase new equipment and research new ways to provide therapy for its patients

2. To provide funding for the neurology unit of the Kennedy Krieger Institute, as well as other Neurological research facilities, to increase early detection, identification, treatment, and possible prevention methods for Genetic Disorders.

3. To fund a scholarship program for the families who have children with Genetic Disorders who require assistance in funding medical care and education.

Mission:

To empower the Team at Kennedy Krieger Institute to continue to provide the optimum health care for children in need. To discover new treatment methods, as well as therapeutic services for all of Kennedy Krieger’s patients. To increase funds for research in the identification of genetic disorders, and find potential cures for symptoms related to gene deletions. Finally to provide the funding required to give all of Kennedy Krieger’s Children and families the opportunity to live full and complete lives without regard for cost of care and ability to receive such care.

There will be a 5k in the fall and your help is needed as a sponsor to make this a successful event!!!

Become a fan on Facebook

How To Gather Feedback With Social Media

1. Add a survey to your website or blog: http://wufoo.com
2. Add a poll to your Facebook page: http://www.involver.com
3. Poll your Twitter followers: http://www.polldaddy.com or http://twtpoll.com
4. Post a YouTube video: YouTube now allows for “video responses,” so users who see your video can post a response in the same way they’d post a text comment.
5. LinkedIn Answers: LinkedIn Answers product is actually specifically designed for this purpose, letting you pose a question to your connections and get feedback.

Gather Feedback Responsibly

While the social web makes gathering feedback and conducting market research exceptionally efficient and low-cost, it’s important to remember that you’re also potentially broadcasting your next move to competitors. Thus, social media-based feedback programs should be designed to give you the information you need without telegraphing your strategy.

Merchant Circle is more expansive than many of the other options for listing your business in Local Search. Listings can include coupons, photos, videos, reviews of your business, and blog posts. If you already have a blog you could use posts in your Merchant Circle blog to drive traffic back to your own.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) perks! Because Merchant Circle is such a large site, meaning it has so many members and content, the search engines are very likely to be crawling the site for content. Therefore,  Merchant Circle listings tend to show up very high in organic (FREE) search engine rankings, helping to increase your business’ exposure.

− To get started, go to http://www.merchantcircle.com and click on “Sign Up” in the upper right hand corner.

                                
− Next, click on “Get Started” and follow the prompts to enter in the information for your business.

– For more tips and tricks and ways to enhance your listing, take a look at Merchant Circle’s “How-to Guides” found at http://www.merchantcircle.com/corporate/educenter/howto/index.html.

– You can also download the Getting Started Guide here: http://www.merchantcircle.com/corporate/getting_started.pdf.

2. Search for people whom you already know that may be on LinkedIn and request to Connect.

3. Join at least FIVE groups – these should be oriented to not only the services of your business, but personal interests as well (i.e. college alumni group).

4. Request a recommendation and make a recommendation.

5. After you do each of these things one time, it’s not time to stop! You should be constantly updating your profile while repeating steps 2 to 5 at least once per week.

Think about how you would feel if you were an outsider looking at your Facebook profile. Is there anything there that might just not need to be shared with the rest of the world? Remember, depending on your privacy settings, every picture that you post, every note that you post on someone’s wall, every status update, every group that you join, every application that you add is broadcasted to your entire network. So before you post that picture from your best friend’s bachelor party or become a fan of the Insane Clown Posse, consider just who is going to be seeing your profile.

This is not at all to say that your profile has got to be strictly business, in fact that is not the case at all. Posting photos, updating your status, joining groups, and sharing your favorite activities make you a real person. That kind of transparency is a great way to build trust and have others feel comfortable doing business with you. Just keep it clean!

1. Navigate to your page and click on “Suggest to Friends”  found underneath your logo for your page. Your Friend list will pop up for you to select who you’d like to invite to become a Fan of your page.

2. Send out a mass email to your Contact Manger & Outlook Contacts letting them know about your page with a link to your page in the email asking them to click on the link and become a fan. You can get the link by simply copying and pasting the website address from your browser’s address bar when you are viewing your FB Page.

3. Include a link or button to your page in yours and your staff’s email signatures.

Here are the steps to do this in Microsoft Office:

• Click on” Tools” drop down menu
• Selction “Options”
• Select “Mail Format” tab
• Click on “Signatures”Select “New”
• Click: Insert picture (on right hand side of screen) >> Insert desired picture (must have the FB button image saved to your computer already)

• Now that picture is inserted into the signature click on the picture to select it then click on the chain link icon (hyperlink) >>type in the URL of your FB Page

• Add the rest of the text for your signature then “Save”

4. Provide engaging and interesting content on your page that your current fans will want to share with their own friend network.