Kicking off the month of May!

Kicking off the month of May! May 1, 2008

Most of you know my favorite expression is when you give you will always get twice in return. My payback came yesterday fourfold or more as the golf tournament Coca-Cola presents the OPGA Shootout for ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) hosted by Creekside Golf Club, my club, and Jim Culveyhouse, Founding Member and Oregon State spokesperson for the MDA-ALS division took place. There were 10 statewide PGA pros who participated in a golf shootout who had secured per hole pledges from their members on how far they could last. It was a wonderful event, fun to watch, the pros were great and a lot of “ribbing” went on. The best part was over $23,000 was raised for my cause – ALS research. Click here for to see pictures from the April 30th Shootout.
Today is a new day. Much more important is that it Is a special day. Thousands of people that read these updates and if I asked you what day today is, I’d bet not even 1% of you would know. Today, May 1 is the start of ALS Awareness Month and our event yesterday was the kick off event. Why is that people don’t know of ALS Awareness Month? That’s a good question and one that has bothered me for some time. Breast Cancer, Prostrate Cancer (I know, I had it and beat it), MS, etc are all terrible things and people are aware of them. Few people are aware of ALS also know as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Named after the famous Yankee ballplayer who was diagnosed in 1939 and gave a moving speech at Yankee Stadium. He died less than 2 years later. But what other famous people have died of the disease? Well, if you’re a golfer you know of Bruce Edwards, Champion golfer Tom Watson’s caddy. But ALS has affected many more people than you might be aware of.

Let me list a few names you might have heard of:
Ezzard Charles, World Boxing Champion in 1950 who beat Jersey Joe Walcott
David Niven, the actor
Jacob Javits, New York State Senator for 24 years
Jon Stone, Creator of Sesame Street
Eddie Adams, Pulitzer Prize winning photographer
Dennis Day, singer and TV personality and former Mouseketeer
Jim “Catfish” Hunter, one of baseball’s great pitchers
Jason Becker, Rock guitarist with David Lee Roth
Jeff Julian, Professional Golf Association Golfer
General Maxwell Taylor, General Commander; US Army
Mao Tse Tung, Revolutionary leader of China
Henry Miller, Vice President in the Roosevelt Administration
Charlie Wedemeyer, NFL Football player
George Yardley, NBA Basketball Hall of Famer
Michael Zazlow, Emmy winning daytime actor

So why is this horrible, incurable, disease so little known and under funded? I have a close friend whose husband died of ALS. She’s a smart lady that I respect and she finally gave me an answer that made sense and made me understand. One, ALS is incurable, most other diseases are to the most extent curable or can be treated, and ALS can’t.

ALS has a very short life span after diagnosis, most others there’s at least a chance. If you were raising funds for yourself for a transplant or something similar, that’s tangible. ALS is not, there is no cure, and funds go to research which is intangible, big difference for people giving money. Research is faceless, it doesn’t pull at people’s hearts the way making a donation to a face does. Research to a lot of people is too far removed. This close friend of mine has hit the nail on the head with my frustrations of hard it is to secure donations. I understand it; I said she’s one smart lady.

That’s why I’m including “current” pictures of me on the sight. I’m no longer that strong, athletic, full of life, always “up” and ready to do anything, anytime. I am what I am, a guy who has lost over 30 pounds, has not eaten a solid piece of food in over a year, has a very difficult time walking, is extremely hard to understand because of my slurred speech, has very little stamina, my passionate golf game is almost gone, I need a breathing machine while I sleep, etc. and all in all I feel my body deteriorating almost everyday. That’s the facts. I’m still “up” when I’m around people because I refuse to let this beat me down.

In the jobs I’ve had and contacts with friends and people I have given a lot of advice to them on a variety of matters. Now I’m asking for something in return, which isn’t my style and you all know it if you know me at all. I appreciate all the people that have donated to my fundraising campaign to raise funds for research for this horrible, incurable, little known, under funded, disease that affects not only the inflicted one but their friends and families as well. This disease is a tough one, emotionally for all around and extremely expensive and we have made in roads but not what we should have since Lou Gehrig in 1941. That’s inexcusable for a great country like America.

I’m asking sometime this month to use a little of that tax refund you might have received, or that federal rebate that everyone is getting from the government, or go to one less movie, one less Starbucks, one less good cigar, one less candy bar, one less cocktail, one less lunch out, one less pizza, etc. There are so many “little things” that you can easily give up just once or twice or three times throughout the month and give a donation to ALS research for $5 or $10 or $20 or more. In my business career I dealt in people’s personal and business cash flows on their inflow and outgo of money on a monthly basis and I never in all those years didn’t find something that every person could cut back a little if they really wanted to. That’s what I’m asking you to do for me. Remember whatever you give you get “twice in return”. Make yourself feel better and go to http://www.jimculveyhouse.com/ and give something.

Everybody can do it, I’m hoping you do.

God bless.

(Anything donated is 100% tax deductible and 100% goes to ALS research as there are no administrative costs, just my time)