By AMY SARA CLARK
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: June 17, 2004)

LARCHMONT — Angel pendants are suddenly popular in Larchmont as the community rallies around Claire Gormley Collier, a 41-year-old mother of three with Lou Gehrig's disease.

Collier, who grew up in Larchmont and now lives in Stamford, Conn., with her husband, Bill, and three young children, used to run nearly 12 miles a week. Now, she hardly can climb a flight of stairs and can't hold a hair dryer. Soon, she will need to walk with braces.

"I tripped one day," Collier said in a telephone interview Monday from her home, "and I couldn't pull myself up."

She was diagnosed last October with what is officially known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. The disease damages nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, leading to a progressive weakening of the muscles, paralysis, and eventually death. Most patients die within two to five years of contracting the disease.

Because Collier wishes to raise awareness of the disease, and because medical expenses have nearly depleted her family's savings, several of Collier's lifelong friends, most of whom are from Larchmont, started a not-for-profit organization called "Friends of Claire" eight weeks ago. The group now has more than a dozen committee members and many more who have volunteered their time in various ways.

The organization already has raised more than $100,000. It also is pushing for changes to rules that deny Collier and many other stay-at-home moms Social Security disability benefits.

"We decided we wanted to support her and help her fight her fight," said committee member Irish Benson of Larchmont, who has been friends with Collier since high school. The group's first major fund-raising effort culminates tonight — a sold-out dinner-dance for 600 at the Italian Center in Stamford.

The dinner includes a silent auction. Items include a gown donated by television personality Kathie Lee Gifford. Christine Gardner, one of Collier's close friends and a vice president of Gifford's production company, told Gifford about Collier.

Eighteen-year-old Katherine Gagliardi of New Rochelle donated a silver cross pendant for tonight's silent auction. She spent two months making it in her high school art class.

"I wanted to help out in some way," she said, "and I figured that might be a nice way of doing it — putting in something that I made and took a lot of time on."

In addition to the dinner, artist Lisa Gagliardi of Larchmont, Katherine Gagliardi's aunt, designed the angel pendants the group is selling to help raise money. Although they are sold in just one store, The Catery in Larchmont, nearly 100 have been bought at $40 each. And the group expects to sell even more.

"It's just the beginning," said Benson. "People are just starting to understand what these mean."

An estimated 30,000 people in the United States have Lou Gehrig's disease, and about 5,000 more are diagnosed with it each year. But it isn't well understood.

ALS is most commonly associated with Lou Gehrig, the Hall of Fame first baseman for the New York Yankees. He was diagnosed with ALS in 1939, and he retired from baseball that same year. He died in 1941.

"If you mention Lou Gehrig's disease or ALS to someone they're like, 'Oh, OK,' " Collier said, "but they don't understand what it is."

Benson said nearly everyone who has heard of Collier's situation has offered to help in some way.

"A big touch point is that she's a mother," Benson said. "People just want to support her as a fellow woman and fellow mother and fellow wife."

Besides helping with Claire Collier's medical expenses, the money will be used to help support ALS research, and eventually to assist other families coping with the disease.

"For any family that has an ALS patient," Bill Collier said, "the financial burden is devastating." Although the Colliers have health insurance, there are still out-of-pocket expenses, and Claire Collier is close to hitting the maximum amount of money her insurance company will give her, said her husband, who is vice president of sales at Premier Retail Network, a television network. The family already has spent more than $10,000 of their own money.

Claire Collier, who worked for more than 15 years as an events planner, does not qualify for Social Security disability benefits — even though she paid Social Security and Medicare taxes for more than 15 years — because she has not worked enough in recent years, her husband added.

To qualify for benefits, a person must have worked five out of the last 10 years, said Karyl Richson, a spokeswoman for the Social Security Administration in Baltimore.

An individual also has to earn enough credits to be eligible for benefits, Richson added. A 41-year-old would need 20 credits. Currently, a person receives one credit for each $900 of earnings, up to the maximum of four credits per year.

The Colliers say these rules unfairly penalize women who choose to stay home with their children, and more than anything else, they hope the legacy of their organization will be to change the rules.

Richson, though, said the program was not intended to support stay-at-home mothers.

"The rationale is it is to replace lost current income," she said, "and if they're not working there's not a loss to the income."

The outpouring of support inspired by Friends of Claire has Claire Collier overwhelmed.

"It's quite humbling," she said. "I just can't believe that there's that many people who really want to do so much."