All the Things

A blog by Holly Papa.

Purple Day Challenge & Book Giveaway 2011: Supporting Epilepsy Awareness Around the World on March 26th

by | Mar 7, 2011 | Giveaways | 12 comments

Bookscoops is again thrilled to announce that we are participating in Purple Day, an international day to promote epilepsy awareness this year. For those of you new to our blog, we are two sisters – Cari and Holly who read and review books to promote literacy. Cari’s daughter was diagnosed with epilepsy in October of 2009 and this has been an interesting journey as her family and daughter have come to terms with diagnosis and what it means. Our whole family plans to celebrate Purple Day again this year and one of our brother’s is getting married on Purple Day.

Why Bookscoops is going purple?

Well like we said, Cari’s oldest daughter was diagnosed with epilepsy almost a year and half ago. She has Generalized Seizure Disorder and experiences Tonic-Clonic Seizures, formerly known as Grand Mal as well as Absence Seizures. She is very bright and full of potential. Epilepsy is only part of her as a human being as she loves to read and is bi-literate in English and Spanish. She also enjoys spending time with friends, swimming and playing the violin. Recently, she started karate and enjoys practicing her kicks and punches around the house.  One of my biggest frustrations is the lack of information and misconceptions surrounding this disorder and particularly the lack of funding it receives. I feel that one of the best ways to help her deal with this is to raise awareness. Her life with epilepsy can be made easier and safer as more people know about this common disorder and learn how to respond with appropriate first aid.

Photo of Cari's daughter by Jessie Lynne Photography, click on photo to visit her website

In addition, we wanted to raise awareness about epilepsy because it is the second most common reason people see a neurologist behind migraine. Epilepsy affects 50 million people world wide and about 3 million people living in the United States have epilepsy. More people have this condition than multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and Parkinson’s disease combined and every year more people will die of epilepsy than breast cancer. Unfortunately, a lot of myths and false ideas are still being perpetuated about epilepsy (such as it is a mental condition or that epilepsy is contagious). Some of these misconceptions have caused many people to become isolated and live in fear and shame that someone will find out about their condition and many people have faced discrimination based on their medical diagnosis.

Who Can Participate and How to Participate?

There are number of ways to participate in our second annual Purple Day Challenge and because we love to promote literacy we are combining both reading and Purple Day starting on Monday Mar 7th and ending on Sunday, March 27th. While our blog focuses on children and adolescent literature we are inviting anyone to go purple!!!! So that means any person, author, book blogger or blogger who wants to promote Purple Day may participate. To make this easy on you (and us) choose any or all of the following.

1. Post the Purple Day Button on your blog, facebook or tweet about our challenge on Twitter, starting on Monday, March 7th through Sunday March 27th and write a post promoting Purple Day. Please note we have received permission to use the Purple Day logo as part of this challenge. If you choose this option you must read and agree to the copyright notice on the Purple Day website by using the logo you are stating that you have read and agree to their terms of use. Two sizes of buttons are at the bottom of this post.

2. Read a book about epilepsy and post a review. For a list of books for children go to Epilepsy.Com. Use the Reading for Purple Day Button to declare your participation & link to this post.

3. Read a book by or about a famous person with epilepsy and post a review. Don’t forget to use the Reading for Epilepsy Awareness button. Cari’s daughter’s favorite so far is The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story Behind Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors, which also is a Cybils winner for 2009. Some names you might know are Harriet Tubman, Alfred Nobel and Charles Dickens and more recently actor Danny Glover, football player Alan Faneca and track star, Florence Griffin Joyner known as Flo Jo. For a more complete list visit The Epilepsy Foundation or if you’re a fan of Wikipedia see the List of Famous people with Epilepsy, which to be honest seems to be the best documented list we’ve found so far.

4. Read a book that promotes self-confidence and acceptance in children and post a review. Suggested books so far with a very appropriate title, Purplicious by Victoria Kann and Elizabeth Kann and Little Skink’s Tail by Janet Halfmann, illustrated by Laurie Allen Klein & again don’t forget the Reading for Epilepsy Awareness Button.

5. If you or a family has dealt with epilepsy write a post sharing your experience.

6. Wear purple on March 26th and tell people why you are wearing purple.

7. Click on the link to watch a short interview with Katie Couric and write about what the things that you learned you in a blog post, or if you don’t have a blog put it in the comments for this post.

8. Have an idea not listed above submit it and we’ll give you another entry. So if you think of something put a comment in the comments below.

For every entry we receive, Cari will donate 25¢ per entry for a total of fifty dollars to a non-profit organization that works towards epilepsy awareness and/or research and Holly will match Cari’s donation. Multiple entries are possible. One entry equals doing one of the seven items listed above.

Our Goals for this Challenge

Our goal is three-fold 1) to promote Purple Day and raise epilepsy awareness, 2) to dispel myths surrounding epilepsy and 3) to compile a more comprehensive list of books that portray epilepsy and/or people with epilepsy accurately, especially for children. Finally we do hope to raise some money for epilepsy awareness.

How to Enter and When Does it End?

Sign-up in the comments below telling us who you are and what you are planning on doing to participate. Make sure you leave a link to your blog. If you post about this challenge please leave us a link in the comments to your post and we will put together a list of everyone who participated with links to their blog posts as the week progresses. The Purple Day mini-challenge begins on March 7th and ends March 27th , midnight MST.

Rewards for this Challenge:


  • For everyone who participates we will enter them in a book give away for When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, the 2010 Newberry Winner as well as the Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story Behind Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors, which also is a Cybils winner for 2009. Both books have characters with seizures. Please note: This open to continental U.S. residents and international participants where it would cost less than $10.00 to ship & ends on March 31st mountain standard time.
  • The good feeling that you are helping other people become aware of a disorder that affects millions of people world wide.
  • Last year we raised $50.00 to donate to CURE. This year we would like to raise more, remember Cari is willing to donate .25¢ up to a total of fifty dollars and Holly will match her donation to a non-profit organization that works towards epilepsy awareness and/or research for each person who commits to participate by doing any of the 8 options above. See above for details of how to enter and participate.

Interested in sponsoring our Literacy and Purple Day challenge?

If you are an author/publicist and have a book that you think would go well with Purple Day we will consider doing a review of your book and/or host a giveaway. Please contact us at caribookscoops (at) ymail  (dot) com or hollybookscoops (at) ymail(dot)com.

Non-profit Groups that promote Epilepsy Awareness, Education and Fund Research

Consider donating to one of the groups below:

Purple Day – Founded by Cassidy Megan, a child with epilepsy to promote global epilepsy awareness.

CURE Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy – raises money for epilepsy research.

Epilepsy Foundation an organization dedicated to advocacy, education and research.

Epilepsy Association of Utah – The group in Cari’s state dedicated to educating the public and supporting persons and their families with epilepsy.

Anita Kaufman Foundation – Dedicated to educating the public to not fear epilepsy.

Purple Day Button

We have provided two sizes for the button. If you would like to use the Purple Day Button you must read and agree to the copyright notice on the Purple Day website by using the logo you are stating that you have read and agree to their terms of use.

12 Comments

  1. Jessica

    I posted about the challenge on Facebook, and posted about the challenge and Purple Day on my blog. I plan to wear purple and tell people why I am wearing purple on March 26th.

    Reply
  2. Jacob

    I wear purple on March 26th and tell people why i am wearing purple. I may also research the use of lacosamide in the treatment of status epilepticus and how I can help a person if a see them having a seizure.

    Reply
  3. Jacob

    My comment should have said, “I will wear purple.” Sorry I don’t know where the will went to???

    Reply
  4. Kim

    Sorry it took me so long to get my post up about Purple Day. It’s now up and when I’m done with everthing I plan to do, I’ll let you know. Thank you for doing this.

    Reply
  5. Annette W

    I’ll be sharing my son’s story.

    Thanks so much!

    Reply
  6. caribookscoops

    Jessica – Thank you for supporting our family again this year.

    Jacob – No worries about the typo and yeah you are wearing purple

    Kim – So excited you are participating

    Annette W – Thank you for sharing your story

    Reply
  7. Cristina (Bertrand's mom)

    Hey Cari and Holly! Thanks for promoting Purple Day again this year! This is fantastic! 🙂 Here are our entries:

    1. We wrote a post about Purple Day, including the Purple Day emblem and link to the Purple Day website, on our blog.

    2. We keep an entire blog dedicated to dealing with our son’s epilepsy, among other medical issues.

    3. We’ll be wearing purple all weekend long and talking about it! 🙂

    4. We’re participating as virtual walkers in the National Walk for Epilepsy, raising funds for epilepsy awareness and research.

    Reply
  8. caribookscoops

    Cristina (Bertrand’s Mom) – Thank you for all you do to promote awareness about Purple Day. I am thinking of being having my daughter be a virtual walker next year. I think it is too late for this year.

    Amy – I am thrilled that you are handing out purple ribbons at your salon. Awareness is so important and am glad your daughter is feeling not so alone. It is hard. My daughter sometimes goes to school late because she needs a ton of sleep and she hates missing school.

    Reply
  9. Janice Wing

    Hi!
    Cari and Holly, you rock! I am currently in an Epilepsy Monitoring Unit in Toronto ON. I am sharing awareness and hopefully dispelling some of the misconceptions around epilepsy.

    Reply
  10. Gone Bananas

    Great giveaway! We love books and have read Taking Epilepsy To School, Mommy I Feel Funny and others! We’ve done two posts about Purple Day, one is a giveaway too! My blog has some posts about our daughter and her experiences with epilepsy! Happy Purple Day!

    Reply
  11. Cindy

    Much belated comment. I just wanted to go on record that I wore a purple ribbon and talked about what it was for on Epilepsy Awareness Day.

    Reply
  12. Cindy

    And I love the picture of your daughter in purple.

    Reply

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. A Mini Challenge for Purple Day: Supporting Epilepsy Awareness Around the World on March 26 « Bookscoops - [...] Posts Purple Day Challenge & Book Giveaway 2011: Supporting Epilepsy Awareness Around the World on Mar...A Mini Challenge for…
  2. Book Giveaway for Purple Day: The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors By Chris Barton, Illustrated by Tony Persiani « Bookscoops - [...] Posts Purple Day Challenge & Book Giveaway 2011: Supporting Epilepsy Awareness Around the World on Mar...A Mini Challenge for…

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