WASHINGTON —聽It’s time to get your ice bucket challenge on.聽 In Round 2 of the ALS ice bucket challenge, the new mantra is, “Every August until a cure.”
Major League Baseball is taking the challenge. The goal is 30 teams in 30 days, hitting every ballpark across the country during the month, with each major league team accepting the challenge from the team before them.
Washington聽Nationals players Tanner Roark, Danny Espinosa and their wives took the on Aug.聽4, accepting the challenge from the Houston Astros. 聽The Racing Presidents, along with Screech, the Nats mascot,聽helped聽dump聽ice聽water over the heads of聽the players and the their wives, who then challenged the Los Angeles Angels.
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“We鈥檙e extremely grateful to Major League Baseball for stepping up this year and supporting the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge,” said聽Brian Frederick, chief of staff at the ALS聽Association in Washington, D.C.
Major League Baseball (MLB) has a long history with ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis)聽because of Lou Gehrig,” Frederick said.聽聽ALS is often called Lou Gehrig鈥檚 disease.聽聽Gehrig was a Hall of Fame MLB player who played first base for the New York Yankees (1923-1939).聽 He was diagnosed with ALS in 1939 and died in 1941.
Frederick said聽that聽last summer’s聽ice bucket challenge became a global phenomenon聽raising $220 million dollars聽around the world and $115 million dollars in the U.S.
“That鈥檚 enabled us to triple the amount of money we spend on ALS聽research and increase funding for our certified treatment centers of excellence for people living with ALS,” Frederick said. 聽He added that bringing a new treatment to market could聽cost a couple billion dollars.
“So we鈥檙e really hopeful that people will take round two and get involved cause we still have a long way to go to in this fight,” Frederick said.
ALS is聽a progressive nervous system disease that’s fatal.聽聽It leads to paralysis and death within two to five years of being diagnosed.聽 There’s no cure and only聽one drug (with FDA approval) that slightly extends a person鈥檚 life.聽聽The ALS association said it聽is not sure why, but veterans are two-times more likely to develop the disease compared with聽the general public.
