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Help improve treatment for ALS - Lou Gehrig's disease

Ten Massachusetts and NH area friends have decided to make a financial contribution to The ALS Massachusetts Chapter by creating a new fundraising event.

This new event is called "50 Miles of Ascutney Mountain Bike Trails for ALS". We will be riding 25 miles per day through hilly and difficult Vermont terrain on the weekend of August 22 and August 23 to raise money and awareness for ALS.

Each rider is chartered with asking friends and family to support them with contributions that will be directly sent to the ALS Massachusetts chapter. We will pay for all of our own costs and 100% of funds raised are used to help ALS researchers, physicians and clinicians, and families with the disease.

Our FIRST YEAR objective is $2000+. It is modest, but worthwhile.

Please make as generous a donation as possible, $50 would be ideal, but $25 would also be appreciated.

Thank you.

More about ALS:

ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that usually attacks both upper and lower motor neurons and causes degeneration throughout the brain and spinal cord.
The onset of ALS is insidious with muscle weakness or stiffness as early symptoms. Progression of weakness, wasting and paralysis of the muscles of the limbs and trunk as well as those that control vital functions such as speech, swallowing and later breathing generally follows.
Life expectancy of an ALS patient averages about two to five years from the time of diagnosis

More people die every year of ALS than of Huntington's disease or Multiple Sclerosis and it occurs two-thirds as frequently as Multiple Sclerosis.

It appears spontaneously and mysteriously, making seemingly random attacks on previously healthy adults. ALS can strike anyone, anytime.

Most commonly, the disease strikes people between the ages of 40 and 70, and as many as 30,000 Americans have the disease at any given time.

Advances in technology and the genetic revolution are aiding researchers in unlocking the ALS mystery. As more scientists focus on this perplexing disease, the outlook for new understanding brightens each day. Stem cell and gene therapy are promising areas of research.
There can be significant costs for medical care, equipment and home health caregiving later in the disease.