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Challenge Accepted

.Have you heard of Ice Bucket challenge? It is an activity that somebody started to promote  ALS awareness and to challenge friends and family to contribute monetary donations to help fund research to find a cure for ALS. Well, it appears to have taken off like wildfire, or should I say, gone viral, through social media thanks to Facebook and Twitter. And most recently, thanks to celebrities, sports figures and teams, musicians,.Local news teams, major networks, etc. This is such a boon to the ALS community! We need the exposure so desperately. This disease not only devastates the sufferer physically, but emotionally, and financially as well. Generally the sufferer declines so rapidly, family and friends have trouble keeping up with the changes.

Charitable contributions most often go to higher profile diseases who are also deserving, but ALS has no treatment nor cure. Only a series of unrelenting declines. ALS is considered a relatively rare disease as 30,000 people in the U.S. At any given time have the disease. However, approximately 5,000 new cases are diagnosed each year and sadly, about that many die each year.It is believed that ALS is not incurable, just underfunded. The underfunding is due to a lack of understanding of the disease. The interest generated by this exposure is invaluable not to mention the money raised which will go directly to research to battle the deadly disease.

On that note, I want to do my part and am announcing my intention to participate in the challenge. Of course, I will need help since the ability to hold and lift an ice bucket has long since left me. .Wouldn't you know, the first caregiver I asked to help me, was thrilled to also do the challenge and thought we should invite other caregivers as well as management. Next thing I knew the executive director is at my side offering to support and participate in the challenge. Woo-hoo! The date is set...

Friday, August 22, 2014
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Location: Federal Way, WA, USA

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