On January 6, 2015, Affect Magazine featured Team Fox member Zoe Butchen, highlighting her efforts to further awareness and raise funds for Parkinson's research. 14-year-old Zoe has raised over $46,000 through her ongoing “Dance/Shake/Donate" challenge. She has mobilized her friends, family and the greater community to dance, shake and donate.

Affect Magazine took notice of Zoe’s accomplishments and invited her to share her experience and inspiration. Below is an excerpt from her piece, but you can read the full article here: Affect Magazine

…It all started in November of 2013, when my Dad told my brother and I about his diagnosis. We sat around the kitchen table on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of fall, Mom, Dad, Cole, and I, sitting where we always sat, just like any other day of the year.

He asked us, “Do you notice that my left hand shakes often?” and although my brother and I both noticed that his hand had been shaking, we didn’t think anything of it.

When the words “Parkinson’s Disease” first came out of his mouth, I was shocked. Quite honestly, I was unsure of what the disease meant, but I started to cry, and hug my dad, and ask a lot of questions, the most prominent being “Are you going to be okay?”

Dad, as usual, was positive about his situation and said, “In life, we’re all dealt certain cards and we don’t have the luxury of changing those cards; we’re forced to play with the cards we’re dealt.

Our family’s motto has been for Dad to just “shake it off,” so when Taylor Swift’s song was released, I thought that connecting the ideas would be a perfect way to raise money and awareness for Parkinson’s research with the support of the Michael J. Fox Foundation. We decided to make it into a bigger idea so we created DanceShakeDonate.com, and I created a video to tell my story…

…Many people have reached out to me and shared that they too have a connection to someone affected by the disease. Knowing so many people have been touched by Parkinson’s and feel the same way I do compels me to put in all of my effort to help eliminate it for good. As of today, we have raised over $46,000, and my goal is to raise and donate 100% of at least $100,000 to be put towards research through the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Of course, I hope that the challenge goes viral, just as the ALS ice bucket challenge did with its millions of videos of anyone and everyone (including numerous celebrities).

The most important thing that I’ve learned in the process of Dance Shake Donate as a whole is the importance of having a positive attitude. Anyone who has Parkinson ’s disease is in need of love and support from their family and friends to help them through the struggles that the disease can bring. If those people are willing to dedicate their time and effort into caring for and loving the patient through these ups and downs, he or she can feel stronger and more confident while conquering the disease.

Being interviewed by the many media outlets and organizations has been such an unbelievable learning experience, but my goal has never been to get five minutes of fame. I want to promote my message to support Parkinson’s research. These days, many stories are overlooked because they’re “unimportant” or “irrelevant” to us, but some stories, like this one, need to be heard…