The Global Genes Project is a grassroots effort to raise awareness and support for literally millions of children and adults who suffer from various rare genetic disorders – diseases with fewer than 200,000 reported cases worldwide. In all, 7,000 rare diseases have been identified, affecting more than 30 million Americans.

The basic idea behind the campaign is to make jeans and jeans ribbons synonymous with rare gene disorders in much the same way pink is associated with breast cancer awareness. For diseases that literally have only hundreds of reported cases like Joubert Syndrome or Niemann-Pick Type C, it’s incredibly difficult for parents and others to make their voices heard. By rallying around jeans and jeans ribbons, this will hopefully change in the future.

Sunday, February 28th, was World Rare Disease Day 2010 and two Milwaukee Sting teams – 15 Gold and 16 Black – joined the Global Genes Project effort by wearing jeans ribbons on their warm-ups. Coaches Doug Hext and Pat Houk also wore jeans as they coached. The sign that the players are holding says, “Hope – It’s in our genes.”

http://www.milwaukeestingvb.org/07Index.asp