AARDA Blog

AARDA is pleased to announce that Virginia Ladd, AARDA's President and Executive Director has received the prestigious Heritage Award of the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association.  The award was presented during the 2011 Honors and Awards ceremony, at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, by Michael J. Klag, M.D., M.P.H., Dean.

The JHU Heritage Award reflects gratitude and appreciation to those alumni and members of the Hopkins family who have contributed outstanding service to the progress of the University over an extended period of time.  A letter to Mrs. Ladd signed by Ronald J. Daniels, President, Johns Hopkins University, and Raymond W. Snow, President, Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association, states, "Your dedication to the continuing progress of the Johns Hopkins University has created a lasting legacy for Johns Hopkins and future students."

In accepting this Johns Hopkins Heritage Award, Mrs. Ladd acknowledged the assistance of dedicated individuals, medical professionals and others, who have made possible these years of her own support for Johns Hopkins University in the areas of autoimmune disease research and medical student education.

What would you do if you were bedridden with days and days of nothing to do?  Would you explore every crack in the ceiling?  Would you watch shadows come and go?  Author Elisabeth Tova Bailey had a much more interesting diversion.  She became acquainted with a snail who came as a gift along with a potted wild violet plant.  Ms. Bailey says, "The isolation and limits of illness can be very tough, something even tougher than illness itself.  She adds, "The snail was very critical in getting me through a hard time.  I think each of us, in surviving any difficult life challenge, has to find a way to stay connected to the world as that connection is what sustains us."

What led Ms. Bailey to write the book?  She explains, "I felt I owed the snail a biographical thank you and partly because I felt the story would be of help to other people going through a rough time."  Readers will learn that Ms. Bailey and her little visitor have much in common: both are confined to their homes and are greatly curious, both make the most of it by exploring the magic of the world around them, both move slowly and accomplish much.

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, though a book of natural history--the life and culture of an individual wild snail--profoundly captures the author's life with a debilitating chronic illness.

--Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, a division of Workman Publishing, New York, hard cover, 191 pp., $18.95

---Author website: www.elisabethtovabailey.net

Book Reveiw by Eula Hoover, AARDA

Once more AARDA has sponsored diversity summer interns in a program at Johns Hopkins University.  This past summer five young students had an opportunity to study, thanks to grants from AARDA.

One of the students, Bobby Brooke Herrera, has written to AARDA Executive Director Virginia Ladd: "On behalf of the interns, I would like to thank you for your hard work and consideration.  The AARDA is not only a positive organization but also an outlet that has allowed my companions and myself to participate in a wonderful program at Johns Hopkins University.  I think I can say that we are all very interested in autoimmune related diseases and hope to continue successful research in the field."

Thanks to our generous donors, we are able to lend support to these young students who, it is hoped, will be the autoimmune researchers and physicians of the future.  We are grateful not only to our donors but also to the Johns Hopkins University staff, especially Dr. Noel R. Rose, Director, Center for Autoimmune Disease Research, for designing and facilitating this program.