ALTON - The Alton Mayor Brant Walker and Fire Chief Bernie Sebold, other firefighters and community members were present to raise funds and awareness for another Ice Bucket Challenge for the ALS Foundation in Downtown Alton on Saturday.
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Mayor Brant Walker said he thought gathering to once again raise funds in the Ice Bucket Challenge to assist the ALS Foundation was a good decision on Saturday morning in front of the RiverBender.com Community Center on the corner of Belle Street and Third Street. ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
“It is a horrible disease,” Walker said. “This is the second year we have had it in Alton.”
Sebold said the firefighters’ support for the Ice Bucket Challenge and the MS fund-raiser in September are both two things the firemen enjoy doing as part of their service to the community.
“It is such a worthy cause,” he said of the challenge. “We appreciate John Hentrich of RiverBender.com heading this year’s effort to build awareness and raise funds. I hope it continues to raise funds and doesn’t lose its luster in the years ahead.”
Dan Pyle was a co-organizer of the event with Hentrich. Both men said it is something that deserves the community’s support.
Mary Riggs, ALS Director of Services in St. Louis, was in attendance, and she agreed that last year’s Ice Bucket Challenge was an enormous help to raising funds and awareness for the organization and the disease.
Last year’s Ice Bucket Challenge nationwide raised an enormous amount of money to battle ALS. The disease is also named Lou Gehrig’s Disease after the Yankee slugger who died of ALS complications at age 37 on June 2, 1941.
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge went viral last year and videos flooded the Internet with ice bucket challenges. Communities across the globe came together in support of the cause. According to als.org, $220 million was raised in 2014 from around the world for ALS research and patient care. RiverBender.com and coordinators hope for a similar outcome and continue to support the fundraising effort.
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