I've spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to add a progress bar to my app without success.  This one seemed pretty straightforward, but I'm having problems.  

Netbeans doesn't recognize barDO from within the run().  I tried using parentClass.barDO - no dice.  The thread class doesn't know anything about the parent class, so it can't access the jProgressBar.  

I tried creating a jPanel from within the thread - it works, but creates a new panel every time my event fires.  I create an event every time a piece of my task completes.  

 How can you access a jProgressBar that exists outside of the thread class?