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The Wellsboro Hornets Varsity Football Team takes the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge to help find a cure for ALS – and they challenge others, by name, today on Wellsboro Home Page.

Thousands of people are taking the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. This is a campaign driven largely by social media to raise awareness about ALS and to help raise money for a cure. A significant number of people taking the challenge are athletes. ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, and is often referred to as Lou Gehrigs’s Disease. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord, and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.

Is the ice bucket challenge really working? As of Monday, August 25, The ALS Association has received $79.7 million in donations, compared to $2.5 million during the same time period last year. These donations have come from existing donors as well as 1.7 million new donors to The Association.

While many pro-life organizations are saddened by the fact that, at times, the ALS Association relies on embryonic Stem Cell research, everyone applauds the effort to heighten awareness and find a cure. According to information on ALSA.org, efforts are being made to embrace alternate sources of stem cells. A direct quote from ALSA.org states, “An intriguing discovery is that bone marrow cells (which are able to develop into all the cells of the blood system) transplanted into mice can migrate into the brain and develop into cells that appear to be neurons. These studies suggest that bone marrow may be a readily available source of neural cells with the potential for treating neurological disorders that would overcome the ethical issues.” Wellsboro Home Page stands among the organizations encouraging the ALS Association to seek alternate stem cell sources.

It’s great to see people from all over the country coming together to fight ALS. We are extremely proud of our Wellsboro Hornets for taking the challenge and helping to raise money to find a cure for ALS. Thanks again to the Wellsboro Volunteer Fire Department for their assistance in helping our Hornets fight ALS. For more information on how you can help, go to ALSA.org.