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Alabama and the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

What do Kermit The Frog, Alabama Coach Nick Saban, and Lady Gaga all have in common? Each of these celebrities stepped up to take what’s called the A-L-S ice bucket challenge. By August of last year, the internet based fundraising campaign for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease was credited with generating over one hundred million dollars for research and care. APR’s MacKenzie Bates headed to Huntsville to see how getting ice cold water dumped on your head is helping people with the disease…

It’s a hot, August day in Huntsville.  The temperature is in the 90’s, the sun is glaring down on the pool at the Midtowne on the Park neighborhood. And, Rick Isaacs is about to cool off.

“Hi this is Rick Isaacs and I’m here today with Team Rick…”

Rick was diagnosed with ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease back in November of 2013.

“I came home from the doctor… my wife didn’t know I was seeing a doctor about ALS.  Neither did I quite frankly.”

“I came home from a long day of work and there was a big bouquet of flowers on the table.”
That’s Rick’s wife, Cindy. The flowers were meant to cushion the blow of his diagnosis. ALS is a progressive, fatal and neuromuscular disease that attacks and eventually kills the nerve cells responsible for controlling voluntary muscles.  There is no cause or cure for this disease.

Isaacs is slowly losing function throughout his body.

“My voice is getting a little different and it’s harder and harder for me to swallow.”

“Knock on wood, my legs are pretty strong.  I can still walk, not long distances and I can’t stand for very long.  But I’m blessed with the slow-progression of the disease.”

Isaacs’ job was working on Blackhawk helicopters in Huntsville.  He tried staying on after his diagnosis but as the disease progressed, he had to retire.

Cindy also retired from her job to help take care of her husband.

“He’ll get up and I’ll make his coffee and I’ll get a straw for it.  I’ll make him breakfast which will take a while because I will feed him.  He has no use of his hands of his arms.  He has to be careful swallowing.”

After breakfast, it’s time for him to get a shower.

“He sits in his wheelchair and brushes his teeth.  I help him rinse with mouthwash and I always have a glass handy with a straw… And then shampoo his hair, help soap him up, dry him off and help him get dressed.”

Both Rick and Cindy bring buckets and ice to the pool.  Several friends from the community are coming together to take part in the Ice Bucket Challenge.

The ALS Ice Bucket challenge took the nation by storm last year in the month of August. 

“And people said, what’s ALS?  And I would say, you know!  Lou Gehrig’s Disease.”

That’s Cassie Barber, the Executive Director of the ALS Association Alabama Chapter. 

Celebrities, friends and family of ALS patients and many others all took the plunge, getting the shock to their system with how cold the water was. 

“I don’t have to say that anymore.”

In addition to raising awareness for the disease, donations poured in.  More than $115 Million was raised in a six week period.

“The Ice Bucket Challenge gave us a level of public awareness of this disease that we never would have had otherwise, in addition to the incredible donations that people made all across this nation and around the world.”

One-by-one, friends and family of Isaacs, wearing a red “Team Rick” shirt dumped ice-cold water on their heads. 

That shows Isaacs, he is not alone in his fight.

“When I see my friends all come out to help me… It really… Sorry…. It makes a difference.”

While there is no cure, Isaacs is confident one will be found.

“Maybe it won’t be in my lifetime but I’m hoping that someone will be saved… because of what we’ve done.”

The money raised in the ice bucket challenge in Alabama, Barber says, goes to research in finding a cure.  It helped more than 200 families with care for someone diagnosed with ALS.

“This is a very expensive disease.  It can cost 200-thousand dollars a year to care for someone with this disease.  So the Alabama chapter does everything that we can to support families and provide resources to them all at no-cost to the family.”

In the meantime, Isaacs says he will remain positive…

“I still got a lot of time to go, I think.  And I’m not going to let this disease to consume me, because I want to enjoy what time I’ve got left.”

After Isaacs and his friends and family finished their challenge, there was one more person to get dunked.

My brother-in-law, Michael Jaillet died of ALS last December.  So I took part in the Ice Bucket Challenge in his memory, along with Isaacs to do my part to help raise awareness for ALS.

For APR News, I’m MacKenzie Bates, in Huntsville, Alabama.

Rick Isaacs and Team Rick taking the Ice Bucket Challenge:

MacKenzie Bates taking the Ice Bucket Challenge:

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