Parkinson’s fight is personal for Jackson Family Wines president

Rick Tigner has a lot on his plate. As president of Santa Rosa-based Jackson Family Wines, Tigner is responsible for ensuring the country’s ninth-largest wine company keeps pace with trends in a rapidly changing industry, from environmental concerns to the finicky tastes of millennial consumers.

This is an especially hectic time as most North Coast wineries prepare for the peak of the annual grape harvest, which is off to an unusually early start. Yet Tigner is focusing a significant amount of his attention on another matter: a fundraiser extraordinaire to support the search for a cure to Parkinson’s disease.

The issue is more personal than philanthropic for Tigner, whose wife, Wendy, was diagnosed with the disease in 2006 at the age of 46.

The sales traits Tigner honed at Miller Brewing Co., E&J Gallo and various jobs he’s held as he climbed the executive ladder at Jackson Family Wines are assisting him as he organizes Saturday’s Tour de Fox charity bicycle ride, which is expected to attract up to 500 people.

During an interview in his office with Wendy, Tigner rattles off all the business colleagues and celebrities who are contributing to the event. The ride, which will benefit research for the Michael J. Fox Foundation, will start and finish at the Kendall-Jackson wine center on Fulton Road.

Michael J. Fox Foundation member Sam Fox, who is attempting to raise $1 million for research while reaching the highest peak in each of the lower 48 states in just three months, will visit the winery Saturday on his 14,000-mile biking-and-hiking trek. He is no relation to the actor Michael J. Fox, who has had the disease for 24 years.

Saturday’s event has four different bike rides - from 10 miles to 82 miles - depending on the rider’s level of fitness. Riders can sign up for a $50 registration fee that also includes a festival with post-ride food (chicken paella) and wine and beer.

But Tigner said he is most amazed by the contributions from those he does not know. The top fundraisers for Saturday’s event, which as of Saturday raised $314,000, features ridership teams from established career connections such as Rabobank, Biagi Bros. Transportation and various Jackson employees. But then Tigner reads off participating teams that he has no relationship with at all, one called “Team Berlin” and another called “Team Phil Schilling/Cycle Magazine.”

“I have been amazed at the outpouring,” Tigner said. “The outpouring of people we don’t even know … and people who are afflicted with Parkinson’s are joining the cause.”

The disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system that affects movement and gets worse over time. As many as 1 million Americans have the disease, according to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation. Even if an immediate member of your family doesn’t have it, you likely know someone who does, Tigner notes.

A realization of Parkinson’s pervasiveness came after Tigner appeared on “Undercover Boss,” the CBS reality TV program broadcast in 2012. He went incognito in various jobs at Jackson for a week before his true identity was revealed to employees he worked with. In a snippet in the episode, Rick and Wendy revealed her condition to millions of viewers watching the program.

He was inundated with thousands of emails from viewers offering everything from encouragement to advice on treatment. He even received one on Tuesday, more than three years after the program originally aired.

“That piece for us elevated us from small town and not telling many people to 14 million people watching the show,” he said. “The outpouring has been really positive and that’s where we really made the commitment to continue on with the fundraising thing. … I put my energy into it because it’s about my wife.”

A board member of the Michael J. Fox Foundation, Tigner has helped organize tennis and golf tournaments that have benefited the foundation as well as other charities, but this is his first fundraising event solely on his own. His efforts are part cathartic, to do something positive with Wendy’s condition. But they are also practical, because it helps Tigner keep up with the latest information on treatments, where there has been considerable advancement in the last decade.

By sharing their story, the Tigners hope to help other families as they go through their own struggle with the disease.

“It’s more about awareness than it is about fundraising,” Tigner said. “We are very much in support of support groups. … With this disease alone, there are so many questions you are going to have and going to the Internet as your only source? You need to have a connection or relationship with somebody who does have it.”

Wendy Tigner said she has been aided by a support network of women around her age and with similar life experiences, noting she has raised three children. “It’s a progressive disease and it can be scary,” she said. “It’s scary to look forward sometimes.”

She said a combination of medications and exercise to help spark the neurons in her brain has made a tremendous difference. It also helps to have someone like Michael J. Fox leading the charge in the battle to defeat the disease.

“Parkinson’s could not have picked a better ambassador than Michael J. Fox,” Rick Tigner said. “His attitude is amazing.”

Wendy once was able to sit next to the actor during a foundation dinner in New York, where they bonded over their love of rainbows and shared laughter about the challenges of eating, including “the manipulation of a cherry tomato.”

She remains optimistic after nine years of living with Parkinson’s.

“We don’t dwell on it,” Wendy said. “It doesn’t define me.”

You can reach Staff Writer Bill Swindell at 521-5223 or bill.swindell?@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @BillSwindell.