ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Progress

 
Every Drop Adds Up

 

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Every Act

By Nancy Frates

My son Pete was diagnosed with ALS four years ago. He was only 27.

Being a baseball family, we knew of Lou Gehrig’s Disease, but that’s all we knew.

As the former captain of his college baseball team, Pete has always been a leader and an agent for change. So, when we went back to the doctor a month later, he looked at her and asked what it would take to cure this disease. She said without blinking:

“One billion dollars.”

A billion dollars. I thought that sounded impossible, but Pete was up to the challenge.

Six months later, ALS had already taken Pete’s ability to walk, eat, and speak to his wife, who was nine months pregnant at the time.

But Pete never planned to back down. Quite the opposite – he helped inspire the world to dump buckets of ice water over their heads to raise awareness and support for the disease that was taking his life.

His simple act turned into the phenomenon we all know as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which raised over $220 million around the world to fight ALS!

The Ice Bucket Challenge was a game changer. It showed us that when each of us contributes – even just one small act – it adds up and accelerates our pathway toward a treatment for ALS.

You see, Every Drop Adds Up, and for people like my son and our family, we have more work to do. Please, help us fill those famous buckets as we work toward a treatment and cure!

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Every Drop Adds Up

 

Share this Story

Every Act

By Nancy Frates

My son Pete was diagnosed with ALS four years ago. He was only 27.

Being a baseball family, we knew of Lou Gehrig’s Disease, but that’s all we knew.

As the former captain of his college baseball team, Pete has always been a leader and an agent for change. So, when we went back to the doctor a month later, he looked at her and asked what it would take to cure this disease. She said without blinking:

“One billion dollars.”

A billion dollars. I thought that sounded impossible, but Pete was up to the challenge.

Six months later, ALS had already taken Pete’s ability to walk, eat, and speak to his wife, who was nine months pregnant at the time.

But Pete never planned to back down. Quite the opposite – he helped inspire the world to dump buckets of ice water over their heads to raise awareness and support for the disease that was taking his life.

His simple act turned into the phenomenon we all know as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which raised over $220 million around the world to fight ALS!

The Ice Bucket Challenge was a game changer. It showed us that when each of us contributes – even just one small act – it adds up and accelerates our pathway toward a treatment for ALS.

You see, Every Drop Adds Up, and for people like my son and our family, we have more work to do. Please, help us fill those famous buckets as we work toward a treatment and cure!

Other featured stories