BAKERSFIELD, CA-- It is estimated 900 Kern County residents suffer from multiple sclerosis, a disease that currently has no cure. Volunteers were in downtown Bakersfield Sunday trying to raise public awareness about the disease by tying orange ribbons around the trees signaling the start of Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week.
Darren Kerns brought his family out because his sister has MS.
"There is no cure, that's the challenge,” Kerns said
A challenge Christine Grontkowski and the National MS Society of Kern County is trying to change.
"This is our fifth year doing this now,” Grontkowski said. “When we first started doing this were tying ribbons around the trees people would stop us all the time 'what is that orange for?' Now we are doing it and people are saying ' Oh MS."
Its that type of awareness that can lift the spirits of 14 year-old Bakersfield resident Taylor Prather. She was diagnosed with MS at age 11 and finds it tough to educate her friends.
"That was hard for me to explain to my friends cause they don't know, I hardly knew,” Prather said.
Officials from the MS society say as awareness increases so does funding which in turn leads to better medications. Prather takes injections three times a month and has been able to resume playing sports like swimming.
One of the bigger events happening in MS Awareness Week is a fundraiser being held Tuesday March 4th at Imbibe Wine and Spirits with catering by Frugatti's. The event starts at 5:30 pm. For more information contact the MS Society's Kern County office at 661-321-9512.