[BobbyB]

Benefit set for Navy veteran
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
By MIKE PLAISANCE
mplaisance@repub.com

SPRINGFIELD - Martin C. Dunn is at the center of two events this week, neither of which he would have chosen for himself.

Today, Dunn, a lawyer and former commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, is marshal of the city's Veterans Day Parade.

On Thursday, Dunn is the honoree at a benefit friends organized after he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral schlerosis, commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, after the New York Yankee slugger who died from it in 1941.


No cure exists for the disease, which causes degeneration of the brain and spinal cord and impairs breathing and use of limbs and other bodily functions.

The benefit is at 6 p.m. at the Basketball Hall of Fame's MassMutual Room on West Columbus Avenue.

Tickets are $40, with Dunn's family and the local ALS association sharing the proceeds.

Dunn, 48, of East Longmeadow, said Monday he received the diagnosis Aug. 29.

His first symptoms have been difficulty speaking. He knows eventually he will lose control over his body, he said.

"It's kind of a horrible thing. You just learn to take everything a day at a time and learn to enjoy things as they happen, your family, your friends," he said.

The diagnosis has dominated his thoughts.

"You spend all your free time thinking about it, but when you're at work, too, you Google it and hope for the miracle cure to happen that day," he said.

Dunn, who is no relation to the former Holyoke mayor of the same name, was born and raised in Sixteen Acres and East Forest Park.

He and his wife, Anne Marie, have two children, Kellis, 16, and Ryan, 11.

The benefit was organized by colleagues at TurboCare Inc. in Chicopee, a maker of turbines and electrical machinery where Dunn is counsel, and former colleagues of Dunn at the Bacon and Wilson law firm here and those who work with his wife at Comcast.

"Marty's the type of guy, no matter what it was, he was always there to help someone out," said Douglas R. Guthrie, regional vice president with Comcast, who is helping organize the benefit.

For information call (860) 478-0203.

Donations by check can be sent payable to the Dunn Family either to Nuvo Bank and Trust Co., 1500 Main St., Springfield, MA, 01115 or Comcast, 222 New Park Drive, Berlin, Conn., 06037.

Dunn said he has health insurance and other benefits through work and from being a veteran. Money from the benefit will go to his children's college education, he said.

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