Downers Grove Resident Jean Young Receives Volunteer Award at National Multiple Sclerosis Society Ceremony in Rosemont, Illinois

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Greater Illinois Chapter presented Jean Young with its Program Support Volunteer of the Year Award on Saturday, Oct. 18, during the annual Volunteer Recognition Awards Ceremony at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Rosemont, Illinois. The award was given in recognition of her contributions to providing outstanding leadership and support for people living with MS and for the chapter.

Jean Young, of Downers Grove, has been living with MS since 1984. She became involved with the National MS Society 10 years ago and has been engaged in a variety of ways.

She is the Downers Grove support group leader and serves as a member of the Support Group Leadership Council, where she shares her support group expertise with newer volunteers. Young is extremely proactive and dedicated to her support group members. She consistently schedules informative guest speakers and is always thinking of new ways to keep her group engaging and interesting.

Young started going to the support group as a participant in 2003, but when the group facilitator left, she felt she needed to step up so the group could continue. As the current group facilitator, Young is in charge of setting up meeting times (they meet once a month), scheduling doctors and other guest speakers to talk with the group about the latest in MS treatments and therapies, and communicating with the co-facilitators who help her run the group.

Young is very involved in the advocacy efforts of the organization and has had a strong presence locally and nationally. She has been to the U.S. Capitol to speak with federal legislators on behalf of the MS Society to advance policies and programs that benefit people living with MS and their families. She is active at the state level as well, making frequent trips to Springfield and local district offices to talk with state legislators. Her proudest achievement to date was the successful push to require gas station phone numbers to be posted on pumps to improve accessibility for people with disabilities.

Multiple Sclerosis is an unpredictable, often disabling disease that interrupts the flow of information in the central nervous system, which includes the brain, spinal cord and optic nerve. The Greater Illinois Chapter mobilizes people and resources to drive research for a cure and to address the challenges of more than 20,000 individuals in Illinois and 2.3 million worldwide affected by MS.

For more information, visit MSillinois.org or call 1-800-344-4867.