Parkinson's conference comes back to Colby
Sloane Enninga, Colby Free Press
Sep 6, 2023
Thomas County Community Foundation generously donates $4,000 in support of the Parkinson's Families of Northwest Kansas second annual "Moving to Live" Fall Conference, to be held at the City Limits Convention Center September 16.
The second annual Parkinson’s Moving to Live Conference is coming back to Colby from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, September 16 at the City Limits Convention Center.
Organizer Elaine Ptacek, said about 75 people attended the inaugural Fall Conference in 2022. This year, she is hoping there will be at least 100 attendees.
There will be three speakers this year, including Scott Rider from Parkinson’s Across America, Dr. Amy Amara, M.D., PhD, Professor of Neurology at the University of Colorado, and Dr. Michael Korsmo, M.D., movement disorder specialist.
Like the previous year, there will be exercise breaks in between speakers. This will teach attendees how movement and exercise can help Parkinson’s and essential tremors, Ptacek said.
The entire event is free, with lunch provided, she added.
“This is a medical desert,” Ptacek said, “and less than six percent of the people with Parkinson's see a movement specialist. A movement specialist is someone who's a neurologist, and then they go another year of training, and two years of residency.”
To register for the free event, she asked people to call or text her at 785-443-3439. She said it’s exciting to be able to bring something like this to the area as an educational resource.
