Ice Ice Baby!

I have had a very enjoyable summer.  Lots of baseball, lots of work and much needed family time.  That is why I have not posted in almost six weeks.  My actions yesterday warranted me getting back on the blogging circuit.  Yesterday, my wife, my oldest daughter and I took the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.  I was challenged three times in a twenty four hour period so I felt the need to oblige.

The other day a fellow blogger, with whom I am longtime friends with her husband voiced her disapproval of this challenge.  She was almost immediately chastised for her disapproval.  I hate to say it people, she is not alone. There have been many skeptics regarding this fad, questioning the accountability of the challengers and challengees (I don’t even know if that is a word).  I truly see their point and that is why I took a different approach when we did our video. 

As the video was playing I embedded eleven facts about ALS, because it is truly about awareness.  That was part of this fad I was very skeptical about.  All the videos I had seen not one person spoke of ALS other than saying they had accepted the challenge.  Although donations have increased roughly one thousand percent from this time last year, is anyone more aware?

If people really read between the lines of the other bloggers article they would have seen that people suffering from ALS is very personal to her.  She has lived through it and all the ice dumping in the world won't change that and it won't certainly bring back her loved one.  For those of you that don't know me, I was born in Italy with three fingers on each hand.  My parents sacrificed much for me including leaving everything they knew behind to make sure I had the care I needed.  Maybe my parents could have tried something like this when they were scraping up money to see specialists.  Maybe my surgeon at the time did not have to circumvent bureaucracies to keep costs down.  So when I see that same surgeon traveling to Asia in retirement to perform cleft pallet surgeries to poor children in dire need of them I help when I can.  It's just personal.

I made the decision to do it not because I didn't want to be called a chicken or didn't want to spend $100, it is because I too knew Daniel Sloan and he was a wonderful man.  I will be donating my piece to the team that is walking for ALS in his name and I urge everyone I challenged to do the same and even the ones I didn't challenge.

RIP - Robin Williams

3D

If you don't take it from me, ask my wife.