Ride For Life

Copyright 2003 The Morning Call, Inc.
Morning Call (Allentown, PA)
October 1, 2003 Wednesday EIGHTH EDITION
SECTION: COMMUNITY REPORT, Pg. B4
LENGTH: 544 words
BYLINE: By Julia Zappei Of The Morning Call

Dressed in a pastel-blue outfit matching her light-blue eye shadow, Ruth Lichtenwalner, 72, smiles as she rises from the brown leather couch in her Schnecksville home.

She can still stand up and walk. She can still iron. And she can still go grocery shopping and play cards with her husband, Donald.

"She is still doing the things she likes to do," Holly Bennett, her granddaughter, said.

But Lichtenwalner has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, a fatal illness that attacks and paralyzes the body's voluntary muscles. While the mind stays sharp, the body gradually loses many of its basic functions.

Lichtenwalner can no longer talk or swallow and is in pain when she stands up. Her stomach aches from a feeding tube that was recently implanted.

"We just take it day by day, one day at a time. We're a very close family," Bennett said. "It's like any other family, we make the best of the situation."

So instead of offering just emotional support, Bennett, a Nazareth resident and director of library sciences at Allentown Business School, is organizing an ALS walkathon for Oct. 11.

Called Walk to d'feet ALS, it will be the first walk in the Lehigh Valley for ALS. The Greater Philadelphia Chapter of the ALS Association has four annual walks, but none so far in the Lehigh Valley.

"We were hoping to put a walk in the area and [Holly] was looking to do something," said Allison Walker, special events coordinator for the chapter.

So far, Bennett said, she received about 530 registrations for the three-mile course that starts and ends at the new Center Valley campus of Allentown Business School.

"We are hoping to maybe reach 600 [participants], as long as the weather is nice," Bennett said.

Registration is free and people can register the day of the walk, which will start at 10 a.m. Many are walking in teams, but people can also walk alone.

Bennett's team will comprise about 60 people wearing T-shirts to support her grandmother, who will be watching from the sidelines with her husband of 55 years.

After the walk there will be massages for the walkers, a moon bounce and face painting for children, a bake sale and live music. If it rains, the event can be moved inside the business school.

Bennett said she hopes to raise around $50,000. Donors can decide if they want their money to go toward ALS research or toward further improving and furnishing services to ALS patients. Bennett's team is aiming to raise $3,000.

"We're doing it for Ruthie," Bennett said.

After undergoing tests for eight months, Lichtenwalner was diagnosed with ALS last New Year's Eve.

"We knew about [the disease], but we didn't know what it entailed, how bad it was going to be," Bennett said.

More than 5,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with ALS each year. People of all ages and both sexes may be affected. There is no cure for ALS and its causes remain largely unknown.

ALS patients live an average of two to five years after diagnosis. According to the ALS Association, 30,000 Americans have ALS and it is projected that more than 300,000 Americans alive today will die from ALS. For information on the Oct. 11 walk, call 215-643-5434.