To Steve in Montana and hello to all! *** PLEASE READ ***
I can help! I work for the ALS Association Evergreen Chapter (www.alsa-ec.org). Our Chapter covers Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska and there are ALS Chapters all across the county to help assist patients and families with ALS. I'm located in Spokane, WA and we are currently trying to build our "Strike Out ALS" nights with baseball teams and we need all the volunteers we can get not only for our chapter but across the country to make this happen! We need people like you to help volunteer. Please contact me at jenniferh@alsa-ec.org for further information. I also lost my mom to ALS in Montana over 16 years ago so it is my passion to work on building our programs and services for ALS patients and finding a CURE!
Warmly,
Jennifer Hanson
Development Associate, The ALS Association Evergreen Chapter
Batting for the Cure
Diagnosed with a deadly but uncommon illness, I call upon the game of my youth to take action.
Email To A Friend
Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.
I received my death sentence in September 2006 when doctors told me I had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressively paralyzing neuromuscular disorder. There is no cure. Commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease after the Yankee Hall of Famer who died of it, ALS is so uncommon that medical researchers consider it an "orphan" illness—so few people have it that pharmaceutical companies lack financial incentive to invest in finding a cure.
Customize the Newsweek homepage to feature the latest word from your favorite columnists.
The public also pays scant attention to ALS. (May 2008 was ALS Awareness Month. Who knew?) Public attention and contributions understandably go to more widespread killers like cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
All this means that ALS patients must seize the initiative for funding research. Of course, the vast majority of ALS patients are too sick and incapacitated to take such steps. I am one of the lucky ones. My neuromuscular decline has been steady, but slow enough to let me lead a reasonably normal life. After holding endless pity parties for myself, I decided—not entirely successfully—to transform myself from victim to ALS funding advocate.
Lacking any fundraising experience (I've rarely even asked for a pay raise), I took some time off and returned to my childhood roots: the baseball field. While I still had the strength to hold a bat, I attended a Baltimore Orioles fantasy baseball camp. Some might call it Old Man's Little League, but I reveled in what would likely be my last chance to play the game of my youth. And as a lifetime Orioles fan, this particular camp held special appeal to me.
I expected to have a good time. I did not expect to find the potential solution to my ALS fundraising problem. But I did.
If Little League makes men out of boys, Orioles camp makes boys out of men. The games were highly competitive, but they were also marked by youthful enthusiasm, pure joy and moments of compassion. When my teammates saw me struggling to swing a standard bat, they bought me a lighter one that could still generate power (this helped, but often I just missed the pitch faster).
- 1
- 2
- Next Page »
Discuss