“Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as
"Lou Gehrig's Disease," is a progressive neurodegenerative disease
that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach
from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles
throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS
eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the
brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle
action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may
become totally paralyzed."
Like many people I was leery of this challenge at first, as
the rules as I understood them were that either you donated money to ALS
research or you hammed it up for the camera and dumped a bucket of ice water
over your head. Frankly, I thought these people were kind of dickish to do the
challenge instead of donating. Since then, I’ve pulled my head out of my ass
and realized that most people are doing both, and even if they aren't, the
awareness alone raised by these videos makes these challenges worth it.
According to als.org, ALS organizations have received $41 million in donations,
most of which can be attributed to these challenges. Just under $2 million in
donations were received for the same time period last year. The videos are
working.
ALS is often referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease but my
first awareness of the disease came when actor Michael Zaslow was diagnosed.
Mr. Zaslow played loveable villain, Roger Thorpe, on the soap opera, Guiding
Light. Michael was diagnosed in 1997 after he started having trouble speaking
his lines and passed away from the disease in late 1998. Much closer to home,
my former teacher, Mrs. Linda Salzmann-Kwasniak, was diagnosed in 2012. You can
read Mrs. Kwasniak’s story here: Hope for Linda. If you’re still
not convinced this challenge is worth it, take a few minutes and watch
Anthony’s challenge video, and make sure you watch until the end: Anthony
Carbajal Ice Bucket Challenge
I donated to als.net in honor
of Mrs. Kwasniak. If you’d like to do some good on top of good, you can check
out and considering donating to Let them LOL Let them LOL is a project
dedicated to bringing fresh drinking water to the people of Sierra Leone, Africa.
