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Fitch students organize ALS walk for Sunday
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
A class project has turned into a community walk to raise awareness for ALS.
Garen Gibson, a senior at Austintown Fitch, spearheaded the project, Polar Run, in which patrons can run or walk, from 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday on the Fitch track, 4650 Falcon Drive. Early registration closed last Friday for the event, which had 82 people sign up at that time.
“Are you kidding me? It was 40 this morning [last Friday],” fellow senior Josh Potkanowicz said to Gibson. That number increased to 94 earlier this week.
Gibson, Potkanowicz and fellow senior Taylor Phan are all in Honors English and have handled the project. Their teacher said anyone who wasn’t yet part of a community project by the class deadline could join their project.
The reason they wanted to do something associated with ALS — amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease — was because the class recently was reading the book “Tuesdays with Morrie.”
“It just got huge all of a sudden. It’s not huge or anything, just bigger than we expected,” Gibson said. “She’s all for it, but she’s surprised at how far it’s gone.”
ALS is a progressive neuro-degenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. No known cause or cure has been found.
All three students remarked how impressed their teacher, Cindy McCutcheon, has been by the project.
Potkanowicz and Gibson said they participate in Panerathon every year with the cross country team.
“It’s awesome. After you do it, it just feels really good to help people. ... You are actually making an impact,” Gibson said.
The cost to sign up is $20 the day of the event. That includes a T-shirt. The reason it is at night and during the winter is to make people uncomfortable for a period of time.
“This race will be cold and uncomfortable. However, after a few minutes, we can all go back to normalcy. This isn’t the case for ALS patients. This is only a small sacrifice in comparison to what they suffer through on a daily basis,” Gibson said.
Other events, such as the Polar Plunge, when people go into bodies of water during the winter months, and the Ice Bucket Challenge, when someone dumps a bucket of ice water on their head after being challenged to do so or challenging someone else, are other cold-water activities used as fundraisers for ALS.
Local businesses have joined for sponsorships. Those are Rulli Brothers, Latone’s Superior Auto Body, Something Unique Florist, Austintown Podiatry Associates, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Giant Eagle in Boardman, Manfredi’s Pizza, Rasor’s Painting, Billet’s Barber Shop and Lifebanc.
The proceeds will benefit the ALS Foundation and Christine Terlesky, a former Boardman teacher diagnosed with the disease and a sister of an Austintown teacher. “After reading up on her, there was no question about splitting it up half and half,” Gibson said.