THE INAUGURAL EVENT

THE HISTORIC SANTA MARIA INN

— SANTA MARIA, CA JULY 18-20, 2014 —

2

4—Our Directors and

Volunteers

5—The Awards and

Merchandise

18-19

Daniel Medina

Introducing The

Advocates

16-17

The Presentations

Session 2

10-11

Session 1 Keynote

Speakers/Bios

12-13

Session 2 Keynote

Speakers/Bios

6-7

Meet our VIP’s

Reception in the Kent

Room at the Santa

Maria Inn...

20—The Awards

21—The Gala was

lots of fun! This event

will be remembered

forever...

14-15

The Presentations

Session 1

8—Thanking our

Sponsors and

Exhibitors

9—Opening with Con-

gresswoman

Lois Capps

22-23

Many thanks to our family,

friends and donors...

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OUR WEB-SUITE

www.Help4HD.org

www.BlogTalkRadio.com/Help4HD

www.Research4HD.org

www.H4HDiRegister.org

www.TheHuntingtonsPost.org

www.SpeakInspired.org

SOCIAL MEDIA

Issuu.com/Help4HD

Facebook.com/Help4HD

Facebook.com/H4HDiRegister

Facebook.com/TheHuntingtonsPost

Facebook.com/Research4HD

Facebook.com/SpeakInspired

Twitter.com/MBiliardi

LinkedIn.com/MelissaBiliardi

BROADCAST MEDIA

SoundCloud.com/Help4HD

UStream.tv/Channel/Help4HD

Vimeo.com/Help4HD

YouTube.com/Help4HD

HELP 4 HD HEADQUARTERS

436 Playa Blanca

Santa Maria, CA 93455

Office: 805.441.5618

Fax: 805.934.9614

info@help4hd-international.org

THE ORGANIZATION

Help 4 HD International Incorporated

Help 4 HD Radio established 2010

Incorporated in 2013

501c3 Public Charity 2014

Melissa Biliardi/Founder/President/CEO

Katie Jackson/Vice President Operations

Ric Gonzales/Treasurer/Director

Katrina Hamel/Secretary/Director

Daniel Medina/International Affairs Director

Lizanne Lawrence/Executive Committees

OUR MISSION

Educate the world about

Huntington’s disease through

all forms of new-age technology

multimedia and broadcasting

PROGRAMS & SERVICES

Help 4 HD Support Groups

Help 4 HD Chapters

Help 4 HD Affiliates

Help 4 HD Conferences

Patient Registry

Relief Fund

Research Portal

Clinical Trial Support

IVF PGD 4 HD

Fiscal Projects

Radio Program

Newspaper

Magazine

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O

(left to right)

Griselda Barbosa, So Cal Ambassador

Lizanne Lawrence, Executive Committees

Katrina Hamel, Secretary/Director

Daniel Medina, International Affairs/Director

Katie Jackson, Vice President/Director

Michael Sabado, IT Administrator

Melissa Biliardi, President/CEO

Not Pictured: Ric Gonzales, Treasurer/Director

Our amazing friends and special guests from Mexico: Honoree Margaret Gallardo, her son and daugh-ter in-law Gabriel & Lorenza Gallardo, Veronica Ruiz, and Brenda Vega, with our International Affairs Director, Daniel Medina

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Nick McCallion and Nichole Rizzuto

LUNDBECK LADIES: Lynn Gerber and Kim Glisson

Griselda Barbosa and Brenda Vega

AWARDS: By Custom Glass Etching, LA, Las Vegas. Www.GlassEtcher.com

Help 4 HD International Merchandise 4 Sale: SUPPORT, EDUCATE, INSPIRE!

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Ric & Caryl Gonzales, Steve and Jan Reniere Mona Gable, Shirley & Kevin McCormack

Sonia Slevinski, Dr. Peg Nopoulos Alan Fernandez, Katie Jackson

Dr. Jan Nolta, Mona Gable

Katie Jackson, Marie & Hubert Jessup Ameet Khara, Dr. Jan Nolta

Nichole Rizzuto, Phyllis Rizzuto

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Dr. Ira Shoulson, Katie Jackson Nan Meek, Melissa Biliardi, Josie & Dr. Ira Shoulson

David & Dr. Ellen Feigal Melissa Biliardi, Sharon Thomason, Katie Jackson

Lynn Gerber, John Sarley, Kim Glisson, Terry Tempkin, Ameet Khara Ric & Caryl Gonzales

Frances & David Saldana, Margaret Gallardo Dr. Suzanne Pontow, Dr. Jan Nolta, Katie Jackson, Kayla Horton

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O ur exhibitors were fabulous, educational and inspirational: Stanford HOPES, GPI, UI Kids-

HD/Kids-JHD, UCI HD Care, Farmers Insurance, CIRM, Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals,

UC Davis Stem Cell Research

W e are grateful and give thanks for the generosity of our sponsors: Auspex Pharmaceuti-

cals, the Griffin Foundation, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Raptor Pharmaceuticals, who

have invested millions of dollars into drug discovery, clinical trials and care for Hunting-

ton’s disease. We give them much appreciation and praise for helping our HD community. Without

our sponsors dedication and commitment to helping our HD individuals, we will not have viable

drugs, treatments, therapies or the cure.

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T he opening address was given by Congresswoman Lois Capps. Lois is an inspiration to all for

her tenacity and perseverance, her professional, educational and nursing experience and especially

her mission to serve the underserved and under-heard. She has weathered many storms in her life

and has prevailed and triumphed through it all. She is a woman of integrity, wisdom and grace.

In honor of Woody Guthrie, the opening song was “This Land Is Your Land”. We paid homage to the man

who we consider the father of Huntington’s disease advocacy and awareness. Then, we honored Sister Ja-

net Corcoran who provided a grant which started Help 4 HD on its mission. A Franciscan Sister, and VP of

Missions at Marian Medical Center, Sr. Janet saw the potential in 2008 when Help 4 HD founder, Melissa

Biliardi came to her with the project to serve the Huntington’s disease community. A center of excellence for

Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease is planned for sometime next year in

Santa Maria, thanks to Sr. Janet’s encouragement and the “Nun’s Fund”. Thank you Sr. Janet and God!

has long been an advocate for earth causes and has even earned the title "Green Franciscan Sister" by her supporters.

"I treasure every moment and I think each day is a learning experience. We're called to be the core of love and servitude."

That's why Sister Corcoran says she tries to spend each of her 80,400 seconds a day serving others.

THE KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

Professor of Neurology, Pharmacol-

ogy at Georgetown University, Founder HSG/PSG. From

1990 until 2011, Dr. Shoulson was the Louis C. Lasagna

Professor of Experimental Therapeutics and Professor of

Neurology, Pharmacology and Medicine at the University

of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry in Rochester,

New York, where he currently holds adjunct appointments

as Professor of Neurology, Pharmacology & Physiology.

Dr. Shoulson founded the Parkinson Study Group

(www.parkinson-study-group.org) in 1985 and the Hun-

tington Study Group (www.huntington-study-group.org) in

1994

Dr. Shoulson presented “The Connection between Clinical

Care and Clinical Research: Huntington Disease as a Pro-

totype” and talked about the goal of this Help 4 HD Sym-

posium and the need to illustrate the need and potential

for expert clinical care and clinical (trial) research to serve

the HD community.

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H ow did we choose our keynote speakers? Each of our keynote speakers were selected

specifically for this inaugural symposium for their superior and outstanding service in

research and care for our Huntington’s disease community from the most prestigious insti-

tutions and organizations around the country. Each have either appeared on Help 4 HD Radio or

have been a featured speaker for the most credible organizations in the world. Many have dedicated

their entire life’s work and careers to Huntington’s disease research and care, and they hold very

high-level positions within their institutions and organizations. These are our Huntington heroes.

Professor of Neurology and Co-

Director, Center for Human Experi-

mental Therapeutics at the Universi-

ty of Rochester Medical Center. He

is the PI for a new clinical study

Connect.Huntington (Telemedicine

Study), connecting anyone any-

where to care. He is also the New

President of HSG (Huntington Study

Group).

,

Co-Director, Umbilical Cord

Blood Collection Program, UC Da-

vis Stem Cell Program. Suzanne

Pontow, PhD, is a cell biologist fo-

cusing her research on neonatal

stem cells at the Institute for Regen-

erative Cures within the UC Davis

Health System in Sacramento. Dr.

Pontow received her BS in General

Sciences from University of Iowa in

1985, and her PhD in Cell and Mo-

lecular Biology from Washington

University School of Medicine in

1995. After 11 years studying how

HIV infects cells, Dr. Pontow joined

the laboratory of Jan Nolta, PhD, Di-

rector of the Institute for Regenera-

tive Cures. The move to UC Davis

allowed Dr. Pontow to pursue an in-

terest in the remarkable stem cells

that are routinely discarded with the

placenta and umbilical cord following

birth. In 2010, Dr. Pontow and Jon

Walker, CLS were named Co-

directors of the Umbilical Cord Blood

Collection Program for the state of

California, which is administered from

the UC Davis Health System.

Professor of Psychiatry, Neurolo-

gy, Pediatrics, University of Iowa

Carver College of Medicine; Kids-HD/

Kids-JHD. Peg Nopoulos received a

Bachelor of Science degree from the

University of Iowa in 1985 and a M.D.

degree from the University of Iowa

Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College

of Medicine in 1989. She remained at

the University of Iowa to complete an

internship and residency in psychiatry

and a fellowship in neuropsychi-

atry. In 1993, she became a Fel-

low Associate at the University of

Iowa Hospitals’ Department of

Psychiatry, Assistant Professor

in 1994, Associate Professor in

2000, and Professor in 2005. In

2001 she developed a program,

the Iowa Medical Student Re-

search Program and continues to

direct that program. In 2009 she

was awarded the Kate Daum

Research Professorship. Dr.

Nopoulos’ clinical work focused

on the care of patients with

Schizophrenia and other major

mental illnesses for the first dec-

ade of her career. She then

turned her attention to the care

of patients with Huntington’s Dis-

ease (HD). Since 2003, her pri-

mary clinical work has been

working in the HD Center of Ex-

cellence at the University of Iowa

Hospitals and Clinics.

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Associate Director GPI (Genetics

Policy Institute) Alan has focused his career on ad-

vancing stem cell sciences and the

field of regenerative medicine since

2006. While working with Burrill &

Company, he began working with

GPI on the 2007 Stem Cell Summit

with the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

He then joined the Genetics Policy

Institute full-time in 2008.

Alan's skills in business development

and marketing were cultivated at

companies like Dow Jones, Ziff Da-

vis and Burrill & Company. Earlier in

his career, Alan worked in technolo-

gy and grassroots business commu-

nications, working for start-ups and

mid-sized companies, including a

network of 139 regional business

publications called the National Busi-

ness Network (NBN).

Alan's background serves the global scope of GPI well. Alan has lived in Austria, Chile, England, France, Ro-

mania and Switzerland. Alan's fond-ness for different cultures and rela-tionships across the world assists GPI in expanding its international

network of stem cell and regenera-tive medicine advocates and innova-tors.

is the Director of the Stem Cell Pro-gram at UC Davis School of Medi-

cine, and directs the new Institute for

Regenerative Cures. The UC Davis

stem cell program has over 150 faculty members collaborating to work toward stem cell-related cures for a spectrum of diseases and injuries. The current

research in Dr. Nolta’s laboratory is focused on developing therapies that will use mesenchymal stem cells to deliver factors for treating Huntington’s disease. Her group focuses on “bench

to the bedside” research, and she has been involved in numerous clinical tri-als of gene and cell therapy. In 1994 she developed her passion for cellular

therapy by performing the first cord blood stem cell gene therapy trials for newborns with “bubble baby disease”, with her mentor Donald Kohn at the

University of Southern California. A scientist with 25 years’ experience with human stem cells, Dr. Nolta has pub-lished over 100 manuscripts in the stem cell field and has authored 25

book chapters. She has served on over 200 review panels for the National Insti-tutes of Health and other grant-funding agencies, is Editor for the Journal

“Stem Cells” and was editor of the Book "Genetic Engineering of Mesen-chymal Stem Cells". Dr. Nolta was in-spired by HD patients and patient advo-cates to focus her laboratory work to try

to help make an impact on HD. From 1987 to 2007, she had used adult bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (often referred to as “the para-

medics of the body”) to produce growth factors that would cause dying cells to survive and to heal tissues. She had worked on using the engineered cells

to heal many organs, but all were

outside of the brain. After moving back to UC Davis and meeting Dr. Vicki Wheelock, Director of the HD center of excellence, and many HD

patients, Dr. Nolta was moved to focus the majority of her own labor-atory work toward developing future clinical trials for HD using cell and gene therapy. The HD community,

friends and lab members who are at risk provide daily inspiration.

Mr. McCormack is the communica-

tions director at the stem cell agen-

cy, the California Institute for Re-

generative Medicine. Kevin sees his

role as being the "official translator"

for the agency, taking complex sci-

ence and turning it into plain Eng-

lish so everyone, including himself,

can understand it. He says his fa-

vorite part of the job is working with

the Patient Advocate community to

raise awareness about the tremen-

dous progress being made in stem

cell research. Before joining the

stem cell agency Kevin worked in

media relations at California Pacific

Medical Center, a four-campus hos-

pital in San Francisco. Prior to that

he spent more than 20 years as a

journalist both here in the US, at

San Francisco's KRON-TV as a

health and medical producer, and in

the UK.

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is a California Institute for Regener-

ative Medicine Bridges to Stem Cell

Research Graduate student at Uni-

versity of California, Davis and Cali-

fornia State University, Sacramento.

Her current research project is aimed

at developing a non-invasive method

of delivering Mesenchymal stem cell

(MSC) therapeutics for the treatment

of central nervous system disorders,

such as Huntington’s disease, Parkin-

son’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease,

and spinal cord injuries. This re-

search is done in the Martinez

Cerdeno laboratory in Shriners Hos-

pital for Children at the Institute for

Pediatric Regenerative Medicine. My

love for regenerative medicine stems

from my hope for a brighter future for

my little brother (who has Cystic Fi-

brosis), my brother in law (who has

HD) and my nieces and nephews

(whom are at risk for HD). Their pas-

sion for life, despite their daily battles

and fears, has shaped me into the

curious scientist that I am today.

Nurse Practitioner

HDSA Center of Excellence

University of California Davis Health

System

Terry is an Adult Nurse Practitioner, a

Huntingtons Study Group Coordina-

tor, ENROLL Investigator, and the

Clinical Project Manager for the UC

Davis Stem Cell trial. She is Co-

Director of the HDSA Center of

Excellence at UC Davis. She has

been an advanced practice nurse

for over 35 years and has cared

for HD families for 16 years. You

can find Terry in the HD Clinic, or

at the UC Davis research site con-

ducting clinical trials in HD. Her

primary focus is to be a part of the

effort to find a meaningful treat-

ment for Huntington’s Disease,

and to help families navigate their

HD journey .

Senior Vice President, Research

and Development

California Institute for Regenera-

tive Medicine Dr. Ellen G. Feigal is the Senior

Vice President, Research and De-

velopment at the California Insti-

tute for Regenerative Medicine

(CIRM). In this role, she is re-

sponsible for the scientific leader-

ship and implementation of the

development programs, and inte-

gration of the interface with busi-

ness development, research and

development, of this three billion

dollar, California voter-initiative,

whose mission is to advance stem

cell research for the discovery and

development of cures, therapies,

diagnostics and research technol-

ogies for patients with chronic dis-

eases and injuries.

Prior to joining CIRM in January,

2011, Dr. Feigal was Executive

Medical Director, Global Develop-

ment, at Amgen, where her prima-

ry focus was in clinical develop-

ment of therapeutics in hematolo-

gy/oncology. She also led the sci-

entific/clinical interface with patient

advocacy organizations, formal-

ized the company’s policy on ex-

panded access to therapies for

those with limited or no treatment

options, and led the cross-

functional teams to the company’s

first collaborative research and

development agreement with the

National Cancer Institute. From

2007 until joining CIRM, Dr. Feigal

was adjunct professor and found-

ing Director of the American

Course on Drug Development and

Regulatory Sciences, UC San

Francisco, School of Pharmacy.

The course, developed under her

leadership as a collaborative effort

with the FDA, UCSF’s Department

of Bioengineering and Therapeutic

Sciences, its Center for Drug De-

velopment Sciences and the Euro-

pean Center of Pharmaceutical

Medicine at the University of Ba-

sel, was launched in 2007. It is

taught in Washington, D.C. with a

separate parallel course in San

Francisco.

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The first 35 years of my career was spent in the practice of Internal Medicine. The past

decade I have focused exclusively on Huntington’s disease, and presently care for about 50

Huntington’s patients. I have demonstrated leadership in the HD community by initiating the

project to create guidelines for the pharmacologic treatment of symptoms of HD. During this

project an international core group of HD expert clinicians were surveyed for preferred pre-

scribing patterns. The results led to publication of best treatment paradigms for Huntington’s

and guideline recommendations for pharmacologic management of chorea, irritability and

obsessive and compulsive behaviors. I have successfully completed projects for HD involv-

ing clinical research education in HD support groups, which accessed awareness and willing-

ness to participate in clinical studies and trials. As an extension of that project, I compared

the success of different strategies for recruitment in the HART clinical trial offered at Ever-

green Neuroscience Center. During this effort, and those that have followed, I have demon-

strated the ability to aid in recruitment of participants. Www.HDDrugWorks.org

Dr. Nathan Goodman, a computer scientist by training, has been working in biology for more

than twenty years. He is presently a Senior Research Scientist in Lee Hood’s laboratory at

the Institute for Systems Biology; his current research is on Huntington’s disease looking pri-

marily for early molecular effects in mouse models. Previously, he ran a group developing

public disease-centric websites that integrate omic data and present the information in a form

useful to scientists with limited omic expertise; his group developed such websites for type 1

diabetes, glioblastoma, and prion disease. During his first year at ISB, Dr. Goodman served

as an Affiliate Professor of Bioinformatics at the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center at the

University of Alaska in Fairbanks where he helped establish a bioinformatics research pro-

gram for the university. He is also founder and Vice President of Huntington’s Disease Drug

Works, a nonprofit, patient-led organization that provides information and care for people

with Huntington’s disease.

Previously, he was a founding member of the Whitehead Institute / MIT Center for Genome

Research, one of the nation’s first and most illustrious genome centers, and ran the center’s

bioinformatics group from 1991-1996. He subsequently ran his own bioinformatics research

group at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine where he worked on information sys-

tems for large scale biological laboratories and mining of large biological datasets. He has

also worked in the bioinformatics industry, heading a technical marketing group at Compaq

Computer Corporation focused on bioinformatics applications in the pharmaceutical industry,

and serving as a bioinformatics consultant.

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Katie Jackson

Melissa Biliardi

Congresswoman

Lois Capps

Dr. Ira Shoulson

Dr. Ray Dorsey

SESSION 1

15

Set design by Julie Carr

Dr. Suzanne Pontow

Dr. Peg Nopoulos

Alan Fernandez

16

Dr. Jan Nolta

Kevin McCormack

Kayla Horton

17

Teresa Tempkin, RNC

Dr. Ellen Feigal

Dr. LaVonne Goodman Dr. Nathan Goodman

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Daniel has brought a tremendous amount of energy and compassion to Help 4 HD Interna-tional by reaching out to our international friends in Mexico and other countries. He intro-duced our dear friends and fellow HD organi-zations and advocates here in the US and from Mexico City, Mexico.

May 19, 2012 was the date that my HD jour-ney began. At that time I was attending my first HD event. As I was learning about the disease, I was also learning the names of those people that were afflicted by it. One name in particular kept coming up time and time again…Frances Saldana! At that time I had no clue that she would play such an important role in my growth as an HD advocate. The following year we had a brief conversation at another HD event that was held on April 27, 2013 and where we exchanged contact information. It was not until August 2nd of that same year that the seed of our friendship really blossomed. As I got to know Frances at a personal level, my admiration for her grew even more. Frances has been such a passionate HD advocate for the past 20 years and continues going strong. She is a survivor that has endured hardships that would be unbearable for most of us. Frances is always looking for new ways to im-prove the lives of those in our HD community. Her versatility as an advocate is evident in all that she has accomplished and the lives she

has touched in the process. She leaves no stone unturned and will find some way to pursue a mission once she sets her mind to it. I don’t understand how she finds time to do all the things that she does! Over the past 12 years, she has worked full time as an Assistant Direc-tor for Corporate Relations at the Paul Merage School of Business at UCI, while at the same time being a caregiver to her children and also advocating for HD in all areas. Over the past 2 years she has served as the president and is the co-founder of the non-profit HD organization, UCI-HD CARE. She is also the wife of a very supportive husband.

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I remember that first time I heard the name Margaret D’Aiuto Gallardo. It was brought to my attention several months ago by Help4Hd Am-bassador, Griselda Barbosa. She told me how several years ago a Mexican television station broadcasted a report about a lady in her 80’s named Margaret that was the founder and pres-ident of a Mexican HD Organization. In this report, Margaret spoke of how HD patients and their families were able to attend an Adult Day Center in which therapies and other compre-hensive services were provided in order to make their lives more sustainable. Soon after that I decided to contact Margaret. I will never forget our first conversation, she was so over-joyed to hear that an American HD organization was contacting her or as she put it, “Nobody from the US has ever contacted us before.” Not long after that we had Margaret on our Podcast Radio show sharing her extraordinary life jour-ney. We learned that she has cared for those affected with HD for over 43 years. She is also a pioneer that 22 years ago founded the first Mexican HD organization- Asociacion Mexicana de la Enfermedad de Huntington. At the age of 90 she is still highly motivated and going strong. She has led the way in making her or-ganization and Adult Day Center a model that other HD organizations around the world should emulate.

“My name is Veronica Ruiz and I am the President of Fundacion Veronica Ruiz, which we founded in 2014. In 2005 I was diagnosed with Huntington’s Dis-ease. I declared myself a lucky and blessed person from that moment on. I decided to have a life full of miracles and magic, with success and not the victim of circumstances. I decided to improve my quality of life, using alterna-tive medicine, eating foods with lots of antioxidants, meditation, exercise and I started learning more about the dis-ease. Armed with wisdom, support and confidence, the benefits of it being an incurable disease is that you can try anything.

I run marathons to become the woman that inspires and I run for those who can no longer do so. These are the mara-thons I have participated in- 2007 Chi-cago, 2008 Toronto, 2009 Montreal, 2010 San Antonio, 2011 Locally in Mex-ico, 2012 Berlin where I made an im-pact, the media wrote Exemplary Mexi-can running for a cause. In 2013 in Chile the governor recognizes me as example of hope and inspiration for the people of Chile. In 2014 I am planning on running a marathon in Costa Rica, 2015 in Brasil and 2016 in Jerusalem. We not only run but we give confer-ences, visit those afflicted by Hunting-ton’s and invite the locals to join us by wearing blue shirts in support of our

cause.”

When Brenda Vega initiated her nonprofit organization in 2011 she knew it wasn’t going to be an easy task, but her desire to help the Mexican HD community over-shadowed any and all obstacles she would encounter. Brenda Vega is the President of Fundacion Huntington Mexi-co. When I first spoke to Brenda several months ago, I knew there would be no limitations on the goals she set out to accomplish. Her all out approach includes educating the public and HD community on prevention, research, nutrition, medi-cations, alternative medicine, therapies and spiritual relaxation. She understands how difficult it is to live with HD because her and her family have been affected by it. Her doors are always open for those that seek guidance or help of any kind, but she hopes one day in the near future to open an Adult Day Center that will fa-cilitate the implementation of her pro-grams. Don’t let Brenda’s demeanor fool you, even though she’s low key, she’s a go getter. She does not shy away from an opportunity to appear on any media outlet that will help spread her message. Be-sides running an organization, Brenda is also a dedicated wife and mother. That’s why I thank her for being here today.

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21

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T hank you Gary Burk and Jenay

at Costa de Oro Winery for

pouring incredible wines at our VIP

Reception on Friday night. Visit

their unique tasting room located at: 1331 S. Nichol-

son Ave, Santa Maria, CA 93454. For more infor-

mation visit: www.cdowinery.com. Call 805-922-

1468, and be sure to tell them Help 4 HD International sent you. Open

daily 11-6 pm, Friday 11-8:00 pm. Stop by the tasting room for “Friday

Wine Down” every Friday from 5-8:00 pm for live entertainment and lots

of fun with “The Paisleys Brothers”, Gary Burks’ coastal CA based trio

(sometimes quartet) performing fun music and originals on the Central

Coast. CDO also has a fab wine club.

T hank you Nick and Coley for

running the Hospitality

Suite. They traveled all the way

from Brentwood, California to

save the day by keeping us and

the suite stocked and everyone

well fed and beveraged-up. This

was a crucial function for the en-

tire Help 4 HD team and all the

guests and VIP’s. You both are

a valuable part of H4HD.

T hank you to our most dearest friends,

Meta Orear, Lizanne Lawrence (Exec

Committees) and Betty Hogan (pictured

right), for holding down the merchandise

and registration tables and for wo-manning

the card machines among other duties and

responsibilities. Without your hard work and

dedication the event would not have been

as successful. Everyone deserve a spa day.

You are our dearest friends and we appreci-

ate you more than you know.

T hank you

Nate Sparks

for the wonderful

array of photo-

graphs from which

we were able to

illustrate and docu-

ment this amazing

symposium. With-

out your beautiful

photography, we

would not have

been able to show

the world what we

are doing and how

successful our in-

augural symposi-

um was. You are a

Help 4 HD Hero!

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T hank you Koch family of Eufloria Flowers in Nipomo, California for graciously donating 150 stems of your premiere pure white rose

“Akito”. Lizanne Lawerence, Nan Meek and Meta Orear, feverishly and painstakingly sprayed some of these roses our signature HD blue with special floral spray. They also arranged 24 vases to decorate sever-al rooms at the Santa Maria Inn for the 2-day event. It was a beautiful display and accented the décor for the entire weekend. Thank you Chad Nelson at Eufloria for making this happen for us. Order your flowers from Eufloria Flowers at 805-929-4683 or toll free: 866-929-4683. Visit their website: www.eufloriaflowers.com

T hank you Julie Carr for the most awe-inspiring, incredible set design

and for all the labor you put into making our event XX special. Your

creativity is so amazing. You know exactly what design is appropriate for

every event you touch. You are AMAZING! Thank you Fred Carr for

transporting all the panels and for helping us too. You are definitely the

dynamic duo. Will you travel with us?

T hank you Santa Maria Inn for providing a beautiful venue to hold our inaugural sympo-

sium. All of our VIP’s and special guest who trav-eled from all over the nation and Mexico were ex-tremely well taken care of from the moment they walked into your lobby until they checked out.

Chef Alex Araizaga’s cuisine (Santa Maria Style BBQ) was fantastic! Thank you so very much Sarah Klinesmith, Catering Sales manager for handling last-minute changes; Kristen Palera, Director of Sales and Mar-keting for making sure all of our rooms were pristine and all the details handled; Chris Wood for making sure we had access to all the amenities, and staff who always had a smile to go along with superior service. For events, call Kristen at: 805-346-7900. For banquets, call Sarah at: 805-346-7952. Call or visit The Historic Santa Maria Inn located at 801 South Broadway, Santa Maria, CA 93454.

Visit: www.SantaMariaInn.com.

A special thanks to a very spe-cial person to

everyone at Help 4 HD. Nan Meek, of Dark Horse Media Biz, drove clear from Montara, California just to help her “Swisster” President Melissa Biliardi with everything and any-thing that needed to be done. From the minute she arrived on Friday afternoon until Sunday morn-ing she was on task, making copies, ar-ranging flowers and chauffeuring mom and Melissa’s son James (Jimbo) from home to hotel. Addi-tional thanks too for her expert help and advice on publicity for the event. We are so lucky to have her on our team!