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Lou
Gehrig walk set for Saturday Associate Editor
Those
wishing to do something to help find a cure for Lou Gehrig's Disease
will have the opportunity Saturday. The
Walk to De'Feet Amyotothic Lateral Sclerosis will be held at 11 a.m. at
Phelps Grove Park in Springfield. There will be several teams from
southwest and central Missouri participating in the event, and all
proceeds stay in the area. Fred
Rosenberg, Joplin team captain and longtime volunteer for the ALS
Foundation, said he expects the event to be helpful to the cause of
finding a cure. "It's
very important that we do everything we can to find a cure," he
said. "When people go to Hospice, they are usually near the end. I
don't handle death well. It's a very sad thing to watch, and I feel
volunteering is extremely important to this worthy cause." According
to Kim Gobel, information director at the Springfield ALS Foundation,
researchers are making great progress in their studies. Scientists
recently discovered a gene in hereditary cases of ALS. However,
only 20 percent of all cases are believed to be exclusively hereditary.
Most researchers believe ALS is caused by a combination of genetics,
environment and viruses.
"I
wish I could say we're close but I really don't know, to be
honest," Rosenberg said. "I was at a meeting recently, and
there was a doctor speaking, and they mentioned something about finding
what causes it, but they still don't have a cure for it." Gobel
said she remains optimistic about a cure as well. I
hope we ll see a cure in my lifetime, but I m not sure, she said.
It s very promising. Rosenberg
said he became passionate about the cause of ALS when one of the first
people he worked with as a volunteer, Jay Waltz, died of the disease. He
named his Joplin team the Jay Waltz-ers in honor of his memory. "(Waltz)
was a very outgoing person, and a very family-oriented kind of
person," Rosenberg said. "We all dream of seeing our kids
growing up, progressing through life - it just seemed so unfortunate
with him being so full of life and his ambitions. He was a sharp,
generally nice person. Someone I was honored to know and call a
friend." ALS
is very similar to muscular dystrophy. It affects all the muscles in the
body and finally stops the brain. It was dubbed Lou Gehrig's Disease
when the baseball great died of the illness in 1941. All
money from the walk goes to the ALS Foundation, where it is used for
finding a cure and helping the families of those who have the disease. For more information, Rosenberg can be contacted at (417) 623-2499. |