ALSA in August

Holy August. Wait, holy middle of August. Crap.

I made a promise to myself that I would find a charitable organization to highlight each month on this here little blog. And I’m starting to suck at it. I am notorious for shifting self-imposed deadlines. I am a procrastinator. And I tend to start things and oftentimes never follow through. But this lack of regularity is simply due to a lack of time. In no way is it a reflection of my waning interest in my initial undertaking. In fact, I am having fun and learning so much about various non-profits and I love sharing them with you. Unfortunately, where I feel like I should have all sorts of extra time, honestly…as summer draws to a close and the chaos of football and back to school preparations and squeezing the last bits of summer out of summer ramps up…time is something I just don’t seem to have enough of.

With the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge sweeping the nation, and specifically my family’s participation in both donating money and dumping ice cold water on our heads while subsequently challenging fifteen people to do the same, not to mention my monumentally annoying constant pleads to donate to our personal St. Baldrick’s fundraiser…I feel asked out. I feel as though if I even suggest making a donation to a new organization this month, whether monetary or otherwise, I’d be overstepping. To be truthful, I feel as though I need a break from making the ask. Even though these monthly posts aren’t really me making the ask; for some reason I feel nervous each time I ask you to consider helping, or encourage you to take a peek and see what each organization is all about.

So this month I’m taking the easy road and will jump on the coattails of some pretty ingenious people and simply encourage each of you to allow yourselves to be swept up in the Ice Bucket Challenge craze. This particular viral challenge started when a Massachusetts resident diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) started posting about it on social media. He was diagnosed in 2012. He is twenty nine. He was an athlete. He is someone’s husband, son, brother, friend; ALS can strike anyone. This disease is presently incurable and at diagnosis there is a 2-5 year life expectancy. So please, donate what you can. Donate if you dump water on your head and donate if you don’t. And if you can’t or don’t want to donate, you can still do good and raise awareness (the ALSA contends that only about half of the general population knows of ALS), by hopping on over to www.alsa.org and read about cutting edge research, learn the personal stories, and acknowledge those who have succumb to this incurable disease.

And watch the videos. You can scroll by, but you should watch them. Cause they’re cute. And funny sometimes. And creative sometimes. And at most take what, two minutes out of your day? They’re a feel-good kinda thing. And they do serve a purpose. Admittedly at first I was confused by them because I had no idea what was going on, sadly something that tends to happen often (I blame my children). But I asked. And I researched and read. And thanks to our daughters' being nominated, we got on board. And it was awesome.

Again, please visit www.alsa.org to find out more about ALS, to donate, or to read about the great Ice Bucket Challenge. It’s a pretty cool story. With a pretty cool outcome, both for awareness and funds raised.

 





 

This poor guy. We had strapped him in to keep track of him as the sisters completed their IBC. But one sister decided to jump out of the way, and all the ice and water landed in his lap.

He was...not happy.