Founding Webmaster: Erik Sargent

Past Contributor: Marilyn Deacon

HOW THE FIBROMYALGIA PERSONAL SUPPORT CENTER CAME ABOUT

1996

Marilyn Deacon and Erik Sargent had a vision. They saw a need for support for a unique group of people who had aches, pains, insomnia and little understanding from the medical community, not to mention their families, spouses/partners and co-workers. These people had fibromyalgia. Erik and Marilyn started the  FMPSC - a place for fibro folks to post messages - which resided on Erik's server space.

1997

A wallaby contacted Erik and asked him to run a contest to mark International FM Awareness day. Erik told her she could run one if she wanted to. (gulp!) 
She quickly learned enough to cut and paste a page together and ran the first contest. 

Shortly after the contest Erik asked her to help out with trimming the WALL. While trimming, she started to make the addresses that wallabies suggested actual links to the sites. It was a natural next step to collect these links at the top of the page, so they would still be available once the posts were archived. Soon there were so many links that a separate page of suggested links was put in place. 

You can see where this is heading, can't you? :-)

1998

There were many, many links on the links page. It seemed to make sense to sort them into categories and then to make the categories separate pages. Now this wallaby was having a lot of fun and she wanted to share it, so she talked to a group of her WALL friends about helping to maintain the site. They all jumped in and the BLTeam was born.

More wallabies were recruited to help to maintain the pages.

Wallabies chipped in to buy the domain name fmpsc.org!

1999

Lots of learning, otherwise a quiet year.

2000

Until now the FMPSC resided on Erik's server space. 

Erik was there the entire time, listening to us, answering our questions, fixing problems, giving of his time to make sure the WALL stayed up and running. However, he had taken on new responsibilities and partners and was no longer able to give the  FMPSC room on his server, which necessitated the move to a new host.

Wallabies chipped in to pay for the domain name and the site.

2001

Due to the generosity of Wallabies in 2000, there was no need to raise funds to pay for the hosting of the site.
The FMPSC and the WALL offer a safe haven for folks living with FM/MPS and other conditions and will continue to open the doors to newly-diagnosed people looking for a safe port in a storm as well as our old friends who offer support and knowledge.

None of this would have been possible without the initial efforts of Erik.

If you have any suggestions or if you would like to volunteer, please contact the BLTeam at  .
Whether or not you know html or ftp - you can help! Find out more about what volunteers can do here.

Wallabies who give or who have given their time to help maintain the site:
Alison Bonnie Bobbi Callie Candy Carol M/NY
Cyndi Dan in Michigan Deb Reno Dee Diane Mars Jane/Cleveland
Janie W Kathy Kathy in Maine Kathy V Linda Louise
Maggie Michele WV Norma RoseLee Sandi Ohio Terry C
(your name could be in this spot!)

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