Page 5 - MidWeek Kauai - Oct 27, 2021

“We also started a couple more unusual things. We started up a choir. It’s been very successful,” he adds.
Many drug treatment trials never get off the ground due to lack of volunteers, “which is one of the things that moti- vates me to volunteer for the trials,” Boster notes.
“Boxing for Parkinson’s is different from a regular boxing class at a gym. Many times, it is one-on-one with just the instructor and the person with Parkinson’s. The workout is all about building strength, dexterity and stami- na, not actually boxing in the ring against somebody else,” he notes.
He calculates that the es- timated economic burden to the state is around $52,000 per Parkinson’s patient, or $350 million total as of 2019.
(Above) Exercise physiologist Amber Curtiss encourages patient Raymond Kurosu to keep his eyes fixed on the moving hand pads. (Inset) In his time as president of Hawai‘i Parkinson Association, Jerry Boster has increased membership, support and more.
During his tenure as pres- ident, Boster has increased support, membership and more for the association. His efforts culminated with last year’s establishment of the Hawai‘i Parkinson’s Asso- ciation Resource Center. Lo- cated at St. Francis Medical Center of Hawaiʻi in Liliha, the center offers free infor- mation for new and existing patients.
“The other thing we’re trying to do is expand the number of support groups that we have — talk-sto- ry, caregiver and exercise groups — to reach out to as many Parkinson’s patients as we can in Hawai‘i. There’s about 7,000 diagnosed pa- tients and we estimate about 3,000 undiagnosed patients,” he explains.
“One in 8 Parkinson’s pa- tients is a veteran like my- self,” he shares.
Originally from Southern California, Boster has called the ‘Āhuimanu neighborhood in Windward O‘ahu home for the past 13 years.
“We came here for the mil- itary, but we stayed because of the people and the ‘āina,” he notes. “We’ve become part of our community, and part of that is giving back.”
“Jerry Boster epitomizes that definition every day of his life.”
He remembers how diffi- cult it was for him personally that there was no such infor- mation center available at the time of his diagnosis in 2013.
made him and his wife feel like ‘ohana.
“The New Oxford Ameri- can Dictionary defines a hero as ʻa person who is admired or idealized for courage, out- standing achievements, or noble qualities,’” emphasizes Bowden.
Military veterans suffering traumatic brain injuries from explosives, along with the ex- tensive use of insecticides and pesticides, have been linked with Parkinson’s symptoms, according to Boster.
Boster emphasizes the “able” in disable, and seeks to raise awareness about the condition.
wai‘i football fans who
ball tailgate party for the UH Warriors.
Boster has worked at the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command as a federal civilian employ- ee for the past seven years, and his current job is as an analyst there. October is Na- tional Disability Employment Awareness Month, and in 2018, Boster was selected for the Secretary of the Defense Award for Outstanding Civil- ians with Disabilities award. When giving presentations,
Soon after moving to the islands, Boster joined a group of University of Ha-
Tim Bowden first came to know Boster and his wife over a decade ago at a foot-
OCTOBER 27, 2021
KAUA‘I MIDWEEK 5
Boster Keeps Battling For Parkinson’s Patients
FROM PAGE 4
work), and pushes for ongo- ing research into a cure for Parkinson’s.
and-mortar resource cen- ter, a time right in the mid- dle of COVID. It’s a place where people — especially the newly diagnosed — can come and get information. When you’re trying to accept a condition like Parkinson’s, or any other major medical condition, you’re struggling. And you don’t want to have to deal with trying to do all this stuff on your own,” Boster shares.
the condition, including par- ticipating in a drug trial.
“I’ ve been president for about four-and-a-half years, and the biggest thing we did in November of last year, was we opened up a brick-
When he was diagnosed as a Parkinson’s patient, he firmly decided to “make things happen” and joined the effort to find a cure for
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