When the Biology Honors class kicked off a special course to learn more about neurological diseases, they turned it into a unified effort to educate their community and raise over $3,000 for ALS research. The ALS Association spoke to some of the folks behind the project.
National Malnutrition Awareness Week kicks off today. The ALS Association has resources available to help make sure people living with ALS do not struggle with malnutrition as the disease progresses.
The ALS Association has awarded $225,000 in scholarships to 45 inaugural recipients of the Jane Calmes ALS Scholarship Fund. The Fund provides financial support to students impacted by ALS.
The ALS Association is pleased to share results from our recent community survey. We were interested in hearing about programs and services that people reported as being important, reasons why people were not accessing some programs, major challenges, and issues around medications. Information gained from the survey will be incorporated in to care services planning activities and will be used to inform strategic planning, priority setting, program outcomes, and program improvements.
Five years ago, I joined millions of people around the world and took the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. The Challenge took America by storm and fueled the biggest social media movement in history. At least 17 million people uploaded videos to Facebook to raise awareness and donate to ALS research, and over $115 million was raised for The ALS Association.
On July 15, 2014, a small gesture of support by professional golfer Chris Kennedy on behalf of a family member living with ALS, went unnoticed by all but a few of his social media followers. Calling out his cousin Jeanette Senerchia of Pelham, NY, in support of her husband Anthony, Kennedy dumped a bucket of ice water on his head and challenged his network to either follow suit or make a donation to fight ALS. It was not until months later that the significance of his Facebook post would be credited as the start of the largest movement in medical history: The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
Today, CNN featured a profile on Larry Falivena, a person living with ALS since 2017. Larry is visiting all 30 Major League Baseball parks in one season to raise awareness of ALS as part of The ALS Association’s Challenge Me campaign. He began his "Iron Horse tour" on May 30.
Eighty years ago on July 4, Lou Gehrig gave one of the most famous speeches in American history. His speech marked his retirement from baseball because of his recent diagnosis of ALS. Gehrig was honored by many on the field that day, and his number 4 was retired, the first time a player had ever had his jersey retired. The New York Times called it “one of the most touching scenes ever witnessed on a ball field.”
The ALS Association has always been committed to transparency, including providing complete and accurate financial information on our website. We continue to receive the highest ratings from charity watchdog groups tasked with reviewing our spending, fundraising, and management.
We launched the Challenge Me campaign last week. Challenge Me picks up where the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge left off. This time, we are challenging the world to do anything and everything they can to help end ALS.
Five years ago, we challenged our friends and family to dump buckets full of ice over their heads to raise awareness and funds for ALS. The rest is history. This year, we have a new message: Challenge Me.
The ALS Association is pleased to announce a new scholarship program that will fund up to $5,000 per year for at least 30 students whose personal or family finances are compromised by the financial burden of ALS. The Jane Calmes ALS Scholarship Fund was established by Mark Calmes, vice chair of The ALS Association’s National Board of Trustees. The scholarship fund is named in honor of his late wife, Jane, who fought ALS for eight years and passed away in August 2017.
The ALS Association is launching a campaign to engage kids and teenagers in the fight against ALS, issuing the ALS Youth Challenge and celebrating the first-ever ALS Youth Action Day. Our chapters across the country will be partnering with youth organizations in their communities to identify future activists and philanthropists who will help to defeat ALS by accepting the ALS Youth Challenge.
Even though ALS is a disease that has its own health implications, people with ALS are not immune from other injuries or medical issues. Individuals with ALS can still get sick or hurt themselves in ways unrelated to the disease. Or, people with ALS might have complications directly related to the disease that warrants a visit to the hospital.
ALS can be confusing, scary, embarrassing, and overwhelming – for people living with the disease as well as for the youth within their families. Young people need age-appropriate details about ALS to help reduce some of the fear and uncertainty surrounding the disease.
This is the fifth in a series of posts from people living with ALS who are featured in our #VoiceYourLove campaign. Lorene composed this message using assistive communication technology with a visual-tracking system. She typed the words, one letter at a time, using her eyes.
This is the fourth in a series of posts from people living with ALS who are featured in our #VoiceYourLove campaign. This time of year brings memories of two important days in my life.
This is the third in a series of posts from people living with ALS who are featured in our #VoiceYourLove campaign. Nanci Ryder, a renowned Hollywood publicist and co-founder of BWR Public Relations, was diagnosed with ALS in 2014. Since then, she has worked tirelessly to raise public awareness about ALS, and to advance the search for effective treatments and cures for ALS, with the help of her many friends and supporters. Along with her family and friends, like Renée Zellweger and Courteney Cox, she has participated in the Los Angeles County Walk to Defeat ALS as “Team Nanci”, raising over $690,000 in support of the ALS community.
Carmen Schentrup had a dream: a world without ALS. Her career aspiration was to become a medical researcher and to be part of The ALS Association’s work to cure ALS. Tragically, Carmen’s life was cut short in the horrific Parkland shooting. However, her dream to contribute to a cure is being realized in a significant way.
