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Kaukauna couple's 25th wedding anniversary used to help ALS research

By J.E. Espino
Post-Crescent staff writer

KAUKAUNA — When doctors diagnosed Kaukauna resident Peggy Driessen with Lou Gehrig's disease four years ago, living to see her daughter graduate from high school seemed impossible, but she made it.


She and her husband, Jerry, recently accompanied their daughter, Lynsi, to college orientation in Eau Claire. Like other parents leaving letters for their children, Peggy wrote a note despite not having the ability to grasp or pinch.


She labored for nearly three hours to write three legible sentences for Lynsi: "You made a good choice. You will succeed. Don't expect me to write, please call."


This week, the Driessens celebrate their 25th anniversary in a large, public way. They are using Saturday's gathering to hold a benefit, requiring 250 volunteers, in support of research for Lou Gehrig's disease, also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The family anticipates a crowd of more than 2,000 at Hollandtown Community Park.


The goal of the benefit is to raise $100,000 for the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation.


If it raises awareness in the community about the progressive neuromuscular disease, the benefit will have served its purpose. "We want them to be a part of the solution," Peggy said.


Patients who have ALS typically are given a life expectancy of two to five years after diagnosis. All 13 members of a support group she started out with have since died, she said.


It was believed the disease did not have hereditary patterns, said Driessen's sister, Cathy Kettner of the Freedom area, but their family is an example that suggests otherwise.


Their father, Art Weber, died at 72 of ALS in 1999, nearly two years after his diagnosis. Two of Weber's cousins also died of ALS.


"If our father had lived, he would've done everything he could have to help find a cure," said Driessen, one of nine children born to Art and Annabelle Weber.


Already more than 100 relatives have given blood samples for research.


It has taken friends and families months to organize Saturday's benefit.


"It's not a pity party for her," Kettner said of her sister. "We notice the decline, but you never hear it from Peggy. You have to see it."


For Peggy, who says she lived many years in sports parks and bleachers, cheering her two sons, Mike and Eric, and Lynsi, that means not letting her condition cheat her out of making the most of life's special celebrations.


"My next goal is to see them get married," she said.

J.E. Espino: 920-993-1000, ext. 426, or jespino@postcrescent.com
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