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Join the i'm Initiative.
Stay active with the i'm Initiative so you can keep funding the cause that's doing
the work that is most important to you.

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Already have Windows Live Hotmail? Follow the steps below.

If not, sign up for Windows Live Hotmail, our free webmail service, and join the i’m Initiative. Once you've registered, simply follow the directions below.

1. Select the cause you would like to support and click "Save". A special signature will be added when you compose an e-mail.	2. You're now part of the i’m Initiative.

Already have Windows Live Messenger? Follow the steps below.

If not, go to Join Now to download Windows Live Messenger. Once you've installed Windows Live Messenger, simply follow the directions below to join the i’m Initiative.

1. From your Contacts window, click the arrow next to your name and select "Options".	2. Next to your name, type the code, including the asterisk, for the cause you'd like to support and click "OK".	3. You're now part of the i’m Initiative.

Every Message Counts

It's easy to use. So join now and let the giving begin.

Send to a friend

The more people you tell, the more you can help.

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Add Friends from Facebook and other social networks.

Invite your friends

The Pulse

Find Fun, Easy Ways to Help

Multiple sclerosis is a very individual disease; no two people are affected alike.

Fortunately, the movement toward a world free of MS is also very individual. There are so many fun, easy ways to help—start with the one that sounds most appealing to you!

Here are some ideas to get you started:

Make your mark against MS—literally! This special section of the National MS Society’s Web site lets you creatively express how you visualize ending MS. Stomp on MS if you like. Strike it out. Whatever mark you make, it’s your unique way of showing that the first step toward ending MS is to want it to end.

Snag a National MS Society Web button or banner. Show the friends and associates you communicate with how important the MS movement is to you. One click, and they can join the movement too!

Participate or volunteer in Bike MS, Walk MS or Challenge Walk MS. Is it the camaraderie that makes these events so special? The cause? The opportunity to fulfill a personal challenge? A bit of each, we suspect. These events—held in hundreds of locations nationwide—are some of the most successful fundraisers in the nonprofit world. Use the new event finder to sort events by location, terrain, date, and duration. Plan a vacation around one!

Sign up for legislative action alerts. Whether you focus on town hall, the state capital, or Washington, D.C., you’ll soon discover that many issues affect people with MS and other disabilities. At the National MS Society we like to say, “We’re all activists.” Each of us has a duty to nudge policymakers to do the right thing when it comes to funding initiatives that help people with MS lead powerful lives.

Choose the National MS Society for your i’m support! You use Windows Live Messenger; Microsoft makes a donation!

People Making a Difference

Chris Armistead: Word Power!

The National MS Society was created after its founder, Sylvia Lawry, put a classified ad in The New York Times seeking information about the little-understood condition her brother had just been diagnosed with.

Since then, people with MS have seized every communication tool available to expand the MS movement.

Consider Chris Armistead, a 27-year-old software developer in Atlanta. Armistead, who lives with MS, uses instant messaging and social network sites to keep in touch with friends, coworkers, and people he meets at National MS Society events.

At work, Armistead said, IM is the preferred way of communicating with colleagues—even if they’re in a cubicle just a few feet away.

“I guess it would be loud if we made phone calls,” he said. “My company is primarily 20-somethings, so it’s a convenience thing and in some ways a generational thing.”

The i’m Initiative is an amazing way to combine the immediacy of instant messaging with the support and awareness the MS movement needs, Armistead said.

“People might see the logo and ask what it is. It’s great for making a personal connection,” he said.

Armistead relies most heavily on social networking sites for keeping in touch with his National MS Society chapter and other people with MS. “In some ways it’s a lot more personal than e-mail because you can see pictures of people and get little updates about their lives—what’s going on, they’re going on vacation, getting a pet, et cetera.”

Whatever the medium, the message is a great one: a world without MS!