On Thursday, August 15, 2014, Mayor Ras J. Baraka took up the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge,” joining celebrities across the nation to help raise awareness of and funds to fight Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, often known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.” Like the many other celebrities who have taken the challenge between July 29 and August 12, Mayor Baraka had a bucket of ice water dumped on his head, with Deputy Mayor Rahman Muhammad and residents of the Georgia King Village Housing Complex. Celebrities who have included Ethel Kennedy, widow of Senator Robert Kennedy, Facebook founder and CEO Marc Zuckerberg, actress Elizabeth Banks, cooking and lifestyle guru Martha Stewart, singer Justin Timberlake, NBC Today show host Matt Lauer, and the cast of Saturday Night Live. Mayor Baraka was challenged by US Senator Cory A. Booker, and accepted the challenge at Georgia King Village, during the “Summer Fun in the City” movie night being held there. The challenge was devised by former Boston College baseball player Pete Frates, who has been living with ALS since 2012, and the ALS Association, which reports that the association and its 38 chapters have received $4 million in donations, compared to $1.12 million during the same time period last year. Funds are used to provide quality care for people living with the disease and efforts to find a cure. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles and throughout the body, sometimes leading to paralysis and death. Its most famous victim is New York Yankee Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig, but others felled by it include Senator Jacob Javits, Yankees and Oakland Athletics Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter, photographer Eddie Adams, and World War II hero and US Army General Maxwell Taylor. #icebucketchallenge #Newark
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 21:44:20 +0000
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