The year was 1999 and I was in the "computer room" of a college dorm searching on the internet what a disease called "spinal muscular atrophy" SMA was.   Like ALS, SMA is a motor neuron disease and my toddler-niece, Linsay, was diagnosed with it.   I walked away from the computer screen in tears because at the time it was a death sentence.   Depending on the classification of the disease, most kids didn't make beyond 12 months old.   Some make it to 2 or 3years, and the very few who were able to make it past that could live maybe to 13.   Lindsay would never walk, and odds are that she wouldn't live to even understand that reality.

Lindsay is now 27 years old and it has been a long - long road for her and her parents.   New developments in medicine and treatment due to organizations similar to ALS United has made it so SMA is no longer the death sentence it was back in 1999.  Kids born now with SMA even have a good chance of not being wheel-chair bound...   It is amazing.

Lindsay is in a wheelchair and lives life to the fullest.  She went to college and is now employed in HR at Michaels Excavating.   She's an avid sportsman and owns a pontoon fishing boat.   She hunts deer each year, turkey, and has even harvested a bear.   Lindsay has also found a sport she loves in wheelchair soccer.   She trains with a travelling team out of Minnesota and has been selected as part of the national team heading to the Copa America Cup in 2025.

Donating to organizations like this matters even though we don't see the immediate results.   Doctors continue to make breakthroughs both small and large in part due to this kind of funding. 

Please help make a difference now so that 27 years from now we can say, "I remember when ALS was a debilitating disease".

Thank you,

Tom Schrauth