Maze! Toy!

D L
D

F 1

A dedicated
Multiple Sclerosis
volunteer dedicates
her birthday to a
fund-raiser.

AMY MINDELL
Special to The Jewish News

r

or more than two decades,
Ina Cohen has contributed a
lot to the local Multiple
Sclerosis Society, but as far as
anyone can recall this is the first time
someone donated a birthday.
When Cohen, a Huntington Woods
attorney, discovered that last weekend's
annual MS Society fundraising walk fell
upon her 50th birthday, she decided to
use the opportunity to enlist family and
friends to join the fight against MS.
'1 knew someone would do some-
thing for me, and instead of focusing
attention on myself, I decided to ask
my friends to either walk with me or
pledge money," said Cohen.
Cohen gathered nearly $2,000 and
walked with 17 members of a "Birthday
Brigade" that included friends from
across the state, members of her bowl-
ing league and a niece from California.
After the walk, Cohen hosted a
birthday party in the gym at Seaholm
High School in Birmingham, the site of
one of the 14 Michigan weekend MS
walks that attracted 7,000 walkers.
"And yes," Cohen said. "There
was cake.
Cohen knows the effects of MS. Her
husband, the late Jonathan Kopit, was
diagnosed with the disease in 1973 and
died in 1993 from complications.
Although symptoms of MS,
which strikes between ages 20 and
40, can be mild, they cannot be pre-
dicted in any one person and can
become quite severe.
People with MS suffer no mental
degradation, but physical symptoms can
include blindness, loss of coordination,
slurred speech and fatigue.
"I dedicate my time because I saw
what MS can do first-hand. We were

Ina Cohen, in center, and friends- walk for MS.

lucky because we had (resources), but
I knew that the average person struck
by this disease doesn't know how to
cope," she said.
"MS is very disruptive to families.
A lot of people don't know where to
turn. This disease infiltrates their lives
in so many ways. And as a society we
are just not good at keeping disabled
people integrated and involved in soci-
ety," Cohen said.
In addition to her work for the
MS Society, where she serves as a

member of the board of trustees,
Cohen counsels many people with
MS. Over time, her law practice has
come to consist mostly of people
with MS and she performs a variety
of legal necessities that range from
disability law, simple wills, contracts
and leases, and unfortunately, she
says, quite a few divorces. There are
some 15,000 Michiganians with the
disease, and some 300,000 across the
nation.
According to Elana Chrisman, direc-

tor of communications for the local
chapter, Cohen "embodies the spirit of
doing things for other people."
Last year Cohen sued the U.S. Postal
Service on behalf of the MS Society and
won a policy-setting victory that now
ensures non-profit organizations receive
the postage exemptions mandated by
federal law.
"She has gone out of her way to help
people with MS," Chrisman said. "She
really understands what people with
MS need." Fl

4/23
1999

Detroit Jewish News

55