“Do petitions really work?” I get this question a lot when I forward, post, or ask people to sign petitions. The most honest answer is sometimes. I think personally-signed, written petitions do seem more powerful, and snopes.com will tell you that e-petitions do not work (though I think their research is largely based on the forward-type, email petitions that people circulate and never deliver to anyone, rather than the ones sponsored by legitimate websites that do deliver them). Petitions seem to work best at the local level, at least from my experience. However, when large amounts of people show support for—or displeasure against—something, change can and does sometimes occur.

Personally, I’d rather take the sometimes chance that a petition will work rather than dismiss it believing that it won’t. In fact, I think that if everyone who dismissed petitions would sign them, the numbers would double—or increase even more—so much that attention would have to be paid to the people! Of course, I’m ever the optimist, for the most part. Like most people, I do realize that my voice carries the most volume when I vote with my dollars at the cash register. But petitions do unite us in our causes, help gather voices together from across the nation—and sometimes the world—and, like I said, can make change.

The Breast Cancer Site—one of my favorite “click to donate” sites—is hosting a petition to make Alzheimer’s Disease a national priority, for example. Will I sign? You bet. I actually already did sign. Will it work? I dunno. But with the numbers as they are, I’m not going to refuse to sign it just because it might not help.

According to the site, about 5 million people in America have Alzheimer’s. If you are familiar with it, you know what a scary, sad disease it is. I’ve never had a loved one with it—cancer is my family’s big enemy—but I did have a friend with a loved one with Alzheimer’s, and it was just horrible to witness. Experts estimate that the number of patients with this disease may increase to as many as 16 million people by 2050. That’s just terrifying.

The petition calls for research, improved care planning and diagnosis efforts, as well as a national plan to “overcome the disease.” We do know that many factors—like exercise, diet, and mental stimulation, for example—can help reduce one’s risk of Alzheimer’s. Imagine how much the public could be empowered by such knowledge. If you do believe in petitions (I think of Peter Pan here—“I do believe in e-campaigns! I do! I do!”) like me, please consider signing this petition and asking for these very much-needed actions to take place.

Who knows? It just might work.