Some ice cold water is nothing compared to ALS

A cold, freezing, water rush runs down your body. An ice cube is stuck between your shirt and armpit. Suddenly, it is all over. The Gatorade bucket that was once filled with the hypothermic water and ice is now empty. It is now all on you, and you have officially completed the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. This challenge is nothing compared to the effects of Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Many people suffer from ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. This is a disease with no cure. In the United States alone 30,000 people live with ALS, and around 5,600 people are diagnosed every year alone. Most patients who are diagnosed with ALS die within three years of their prognosis. Symptoms include loss of motor skills, tripping and falling, and fatigue. The average age of prognosis is ages forty-five to sixty.

Pete Frates was diagnosed when he was only twenty-seven years old. He attended Boston College where he was an outfielder and captain his senior year at Chestnut Hill. Frates set a Boston College record going 4-for-6 with a grand slam, a three-run homer and an RBI double at Maryland on April 14, 2007. He then graduated in 2007 with a major in communication. In 2012, he was diagnosed with ALS. Since then, he has started the Pete Frates #3 fund to help raise awareness and pay off his health care debts.

Frates is the man who started the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. It originated when a challenge called the Cold Water Challenge was made. The rules were to donate money to any charity. One of Frate’s friends learned about the challenge and accepted it. When he poured the ice on himself he said it was for ALS and Frates. Frates tweeted this, and asked for people to follow his friend’s lead and help out the fight against ALS. Now the entire United States of America would be participating in the challenge.

This challenge started in New England and has spread like wildfire. Starting in Massachusetts it spread through New England down the East Coast and now has captured the country. Julian Edelman of the New England Patriots completed it after practice one day and by the end off the week Lil Wayne and Justin Timberlake were doing the challenge and pledging money to the fight against Lou Gehrig’s disease. It has not just been an event that trends on Facebook, it is a worldwide fight to take on ALS and raise money for research to find a cure. A cure to save the life of Pete Frates, or anybody else who deserves and needs the medicine to kill the disease.

The rules to this challenge are very simple. The participant has twenty-fours hours to complete the challenge after they have been called out. Then, after dumping the ice bucket on yourself you “call out” friends or family to do the challenge also. It is strongly suggested to donate anything from a 5 to 100 dollar donation to the ALS Foundation. This way you are raising awareness about the cause, and completing the challenge.

A baseball player founded this cause, and it has taken off because of the sports community. Millions of dollars have been raised for ALS because of Pete Frates and his fight against ALS. So now Central High School I challenge you to take on the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge! Let’s get this started Central, let’s raise some money, and let’s help fight ALS!

#Baseball #Adversity #ALS #IceBucketChallenge