$100,000 donation to ALS center
January 30, 2008 at 4:15 pm by Alan Wechsler, Business writer


The Michaels Group of Malta has made a $100,000, five-year pledge to St. Peter’s Hospital’s ALS Regional Center.

The center treats amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

The donation was made in the honor of the late James Michaels, founder of The Michaels Group, one of the Capital Region’s largest homebuilders. He was diagnosed with the degenerative neuromuscular disease in 1987, and died in 1992.

“My brother Dave and I are so grateful to the ALS Center … for the support they provided our families during my father’s illness,” said John Michaels, principal of the company. “For the past 18 years, our family, this company and our employees have donated to the center so those encountering the illness can receive the same resources, services and guidance we did.”

Through the years, other financial support from The Michaels Group has enabled the ALS Center to relocate from a small unit on the fifth floor of St. Peter’s Hospital to a large facility five miles away on Warehouse Row. The new location is more accessible to patients, many of whom are wheelchair-bound. It also provides ample storage space for wheelchairs and more than 1,500 pieces of medical equipment.

The ALS Center serves families throughout the 17-county upstate region, where at least one in 20,000 residents has Lou Gehrig’s disease.

http://blogs.timesunion.com/business/?p=2923