Lyme Connection

Lyme Connection, originally created in 2003 as the Town of Ridgefield’s Lyme Disease Tick Task Force, provides a wide range of free support services, educational events and tick-borne disease prevention programming. Patients with Lyme disease and their families can find information via monthly support groups, seminars, newsletters and health fairs.

Lyme Connection’s primary mission is to connect patients, caregivers and professionals in a partnership that helps those impacted by tick-borne diseases make the best possible decisions in their care and recovery. The organization’s volunteers understand the beneficial role wellness activities and validation play in recovery. The group’s May 2015 conference included speakers Dr. Richard Horowitz, Dr. William Lee Cowden, Dr. Eva Sapi and Lyme Disease Association President Pat Smith.

Lyme Connection coordinates a team of volunteer health educators who teach the BLAST Lyme Disease Prevention program. The group’s next event will be its fourth Lyme and Mental Health Conference in November 2015 in Ridgefield. Interested psychiatrists, social workers, psychologists and therapists can sign up online.

For monthly updates about Lyme Connection’s two support groups, seminars, conferences, volunteer opportunities and Lyme events in the region, sign up for the newsletter on Bit.ly/LymeConnectionEmailSignUp. Or email RLDTF@comcast.net for additional information.

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Global Lyme Alliance

Last February, Stamford-based Lyme Research Alliance (LRA) and New York City-based Tick-Borne Disease Alliance (TBDA) merged to become Global Lyme Alliance (GLA). The new organization carries on the mission and important work of both LRA and TBDA: to conquer Lyme and tick-borne diseases through research and education. GLA is now the leading tick-borne disease organization in the nation, allowing for greater resources to be applied to research on urgently needed improvements in diagnostics and treatments, while expanding education programs for the general public and physicians.

The consolidation of LRA’s research expertise and network of medical experts, physicians, researchers and key medical institutions with TBDA’s grassroots awareness campaigns and national fundraising events has created a dynamic organization to advance the fight to end tick-borne diseases.

Plans are underway to move the Stamford office to Greenwich and a new chief executive officer will join the organization in July. GLA is looking for volunteers to serve on committees such as its annual Time for Lyme Gala in Greenwich. GLA plans to hold a major Uniting for a Lyme-Free World fundraiser event in New York City on October 8 at Cipriani’s 42nd Street.

For more information about volunteering or about the upcoming Gala, email [email protected].