Walkers raise funds to fight ALS
By Shelly Schweizer Contributing Writer

Participants PHOTO/COURTESY OF THE ALS ASSOCIATION MASSACHUSETTS CHAPTER from last year's Central Massachusetts ALS Walk raised $45,000 for national research and to support local individuals afflicted by the disease.

Westborough - On Sept. 29, several hundred area residents will lace up their sneakers to raise funds to fight a disease for which there is no cure, when the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Association Massachusetts Chapter holds its third annual Walk to D'Feet ALS at Westborough High School.

Last year, 250 walkers raised $45,000. Event organizers are hoping to surpass that.

One of two walks held statewide, the central Massachusetts walk is part of the ALS Association's national eff ort to raise funds for research, promote awareness about the disease, and provide local patient and family services.

ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks neurons in the brain and spinal cord, causing muscle weakness and atrophy. The causes of the disease are only partially understood, but there is currently no cure.

ALS aff ects an estimated 30,000 people in the United States between the ages of 40 and 70. Baseball player Lou Gehrig brought national attention to the disease when he was forced to retired from the New York Yankees in 1939 because of the illness.

Many participants in the Walk to D'Feet have a personal stake in the fund-raiser. The walk's site and volunteer coordinator, Brenda Nikas-Hayes of Westborough, said that she became involved three years ago while working on a fundraiser for Larry Gilligan, the former assistant principal of the Gibbons Middle School, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2004. Nikas-Hayes first contacted the Massachusetts ALS Association Chapter for help with the event.

Rick Arrowood, president of the Massachusetts ALS Association Chapter, attended the fund-raiser for Gilligan and later approached Nikas- Hayes about wanting to create an ALS walk in central Massachusetts. She jumped at the chance.

"My brother-in-law had multiple sclerosis. He had the kind that mimicked ALS, in the fact that it was a degenerative disease," she said. "When I heard about Larry, I knew what his family was going through, and so knowing Larry too, I just said, 'There's got to be something more I can do to help.'"

Evan Sigel, president of the senior class at Westborough High School, is also planning to walk in memory of his grandfather, who succumbed to the disease two and a half years ago.

"My grand was a remarkable person. He did much for me and for others throughout the course of his life and he was also very active in charities," Sigel said. "It's great to be able to do something that not only is for a charity he would have approved of and encouraged but its special because it is in memory and in honor of him since he had ALS."

Sigel, an aspiring filmmaker, created a public service announcement (PSA) to help promote the event, to be shown on local cable television.

"The PSA is to generate publicity and to inform people about the walk and the disease," he said. "It's a unique way that I could contribute."

Nikas-Hayes said that organizers hope to attract more participants from central Massachusetts. She pointed out that ALS research is being done at the UMass Medical School in Worcester.

"Unlike cancer, there's no cure for this," she said. "Important research is being done right in our back yard."

Visit www.TheALSWalk.org or call 1-888-CURE-ALS to register for the event.