Bonnie Strauss Created Foundation Due to Personal Experience with Dystonia

In 1979, Bonnie Strauss of Armonk, NY, began experiencing neck spasms that forced her to seek medical attention. For five long years, Bonnie visited all types of doctors from psychiatrists to chiropractors. No one offered an accurate diagnosis.

It wasn't until she met a woman who recognized the symptoms and sent her to see a neurologist in New York, that Bonnie was properly diagnosed with spasmodic torticollis, a form of dystonia, characterized by involuntary contractions of the muscles in the neck.

Dystonia is a neurological movement disorder that causes uncontrollable and, at times, painful spasms in one or more parts of the body.  It affects an estimated 500,000 men, women and children in North America alone, striking more people than muscular dystrophy, Huntington’s disease, and Lou Gehrig’s disease combined.

Bonnie wanted to make a difference for other people who suffer with dystonia, as well as Parkinson’s disease. To support internarional research efforts to thisn underfunded research area, she established The Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia & Parkinson’s Foundation, Inc. in 1995. Her mission continues to be the funding of cutting-edge research and to raise awareness in the public and the medical community for dystonia and Parkinson’s disease.

Through her personal dedication, she created the Annual Dystonia and Parkinson’s Golf Invitational, which first took place in September 1993, at the Century Country Club in Purchase, NY.  As a result of her efforts, this event raises more than $1 million annually for medical research and has increased awareness of this rarely-heard-about and often misdiagnosed disease, dystonia.

Now in its 21st year, the golf outing is considered the Foundation’s premier fundraiser.

This year’s invitational, with the theme 21 Years: Coming of Age, will be held Monday, June 17.  Willie Geist, co-host of NBC’s Today and MSNBC’s Morning Joe, is emcee.  Guest of honor will be his father, Bill Geist, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, and who has been a correspondent with CBS since 1987.  He is currently host of the network’s Sunday Morning.