Kathy Rogan, a painter, world traveler, and mother of two, is preparing for her first ever Team Fox event. On Saturday, May 19, she is hosting an art show at Anna’s Walk Club House in Athens, GA, selling her own original oil paintings to benefit Parkinson’s research. To say the cause is close to her heart is an understatement. Kathy’s family has been affected by the disease on many levels. Her paternal grandmother, her father and her father’s brother all had Parkinson’s, as do two of her sisters. On top of all of this, her husband—who has no PD in his extended family—lived with the disease for about five years.

She started painting more than 30 years ago, with items displayed in private collections across the United States and abroad. A handful of paintings will be on sale at her upcoming Team Fox event. Her largest work, a painting of Venice, Italy’s Piazza San Marco, will be up for silent auction.

Kathy explains, “Parkinson’s has been in my family for many generations. I wanted to put this event together in hopes of raising as much money as I can. It is important to me that research continues and a cure is found. My children and my grandchildren are heading down this path with the rest of my family, so at this point I will do just about anything.”

Kathy’s support certainly extends the realm of Team Fox—and she isn’t the only one in her family who is contributing to Parkinson’s research. Her sisters’ symptoms have progressed so rapidly that Kathy has stepped in as pseudo mother and grandmother to her sisters’ children and grandchildren. Her father’s brain was donated to research after he passed away, and one of her sisters is going to donate hers as well. It is the dedication of people like Kathy, her father and her sister that helps bring us closer to a cure.

For those near Athens, GA, be sure to check out the art sale from noon – 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 19. Email artrogan@gmail.com for directions and/or questions.