Senate Bill sb3048

    Florida Senate - 2007        (NP)                      SR 3048

    By Senator Geller





    31-2479-07

  1                        Senate Resolution

  2         A resolution recognizing the accomplishments of

  3         Lauren Beeson and congratulating her on being

  4         named a recipient of the Points of Light Award

  5         by Governor Charlie Crist.

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  7         WHEREAS, Lauren Beeson was diagnosed at the age of 6

  8  with scleroderma, a chronic, progressive autoimmune disease in

  9  which the body's immune system attacks its own tissues, and

10         WHEREAS, Lauren has linear scleroderma that affects

11  half her body so that, looking at Lauren in profile, on one

12  side she looks "normal" while her other profile shows the

13  ravages of her illness, and

14         WHEREAS, when Lauren and her mother joined the

15  Southeast Florida Chapter of the Scleroderma Foundation, she

16  was asked if they could make her their Poster Child, and

17         WHEREAS, Lauren became much more than a face on a

18  poster, she became a spokesperson for the National Scleroderma

19  Foundation as both the Poster Child and, later, their Teen

20  Ambassador, and

21         WHEREAS, Lauren and her mother traveled the country

22  speaking about her illness and appearing on national and local

23  TV shows; she testified before Congress asking for funding for

24  research; and each year at school she spoke to groups of her

25  peers explaining her illness and its effects on her body and

26  face, and

27         WHEREAS, in spite of her illness and numerous

28  surgeries, Lauren, now an 18-year-old high school senior, is

29  an honor student, and

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    Florida Senate - 2007        (NP)                      SR 3048
    31-2479-07




 1         WHEREAS, Governor Charlie Crist has acknowledged

 2  Lauren's efforts by naming her a recipient of the Points of

 3  Light Award on April 23, 2007, NOW, THEREFORE,

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 5  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:

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 7         That the Florida Senate proudly salutes Lauren Beeson

 8  and extends to her its congratulations on being a recipient of

 9  the Points of Light Award and for her work on behalf of those

10  people suffering from scleroderma.

11         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution,

12  with the Seal of the Senate affixed, be presented to Lauren

13  Beeson as a tangible token of the sentiments of the Florida

14  Senate.

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