Subject: George V.R. Smith Earns Wings 7/17/08
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:45:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: George Smith <smittyga67@...>
Reply-To: smittyga67@...
To: living-with-als yahoogroups <living-with-als@yahoogroups.com>
CC: islandwoman64@...



Hello All,

If you are receiving this email, you
were in my father's address book on his laptop.

I know many of you personally and many of you through stories told
over the years by my mother and father. Some of you neither my mother or
I have met in person. You were all important to my father in your own
way during my father's life, and our family appreciates the role you
played in his last few years by email. His laptop was his lifeline in
many ways.

On July 17th, at 2am George lost his struggle with ALS, but earned his
wings as they say in the ALS community. He went painlessly and quietly
after watching just one more Red Sox game. George died in Hospice House
in Savannah, Georgia after just one day of residence. His Father's Day
was a happy one, surrounded by his family and grandchildren.

His email addresses above will no longer be checked, but many of you
have Betsy's, and are welcome to communicate with her directly.

To the many PALS who we may not know or have direct addresses for due to
online patient community bulletin boards, if one of you receives this,
will you please post to the whole community the news above? We greatly
appreciate your struggles and your spirit in supporting each other
throughout the progress of this insidious disease.

Most Sincerely, with Appreciation and Love,
The Smith Family

Punta Clara's Dot Pacey dies at 88
Monday, June 23, 2008
By RUSS HENDERSON
Staff Reporter
Dot Pacey, who made candies and jams for more than 50 years after starting up the Punta Clara Candy Kitchen in Point Clear, died Saturday after a years-long battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, family members said.

She was 88. Along with her famous pralines, fudges, jellies and preserves, Dot had been featured nationally on the Food Network and on ABC's "Good Morning America." And in Point Clear, she was at the center of a close-knit, extended family, many of whom grew up working at the candy shop.

"She was definitely the matriarch of the family," said Susan Pacey, Dot's daughter-in-law. "Dot always said it was so good to go to church and see her children, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren. And she was the main reason four generations of Paceys all still live here in the same area."

Dot Pacey also was part of the inspiration for scientific studies begun this year into the causes of rare cancers and neurological disorders in Baldwin County. Lesley Farrey Pacey, Dot's granddaughter-in-law and a Press-Register correspondent, began gathering data years ago when her 4-year-old daughter was afflicted with leukemia. Lesley Farrey Pacey thought it was odd that so many people in her immediate family had cancers or ALS.

Researchers with the University of Arizona, the University of Nebraska and the Alabama Department of Public Health are investigating whether the incidence of rare diseases is higher in some Baldwin County areas, and what the diseases' causes may be.

Paul Pacey Jr., Dot's son and Susan's husband, said his mother had opened the candy shop as a hobby in 1952. The hobby turned into a necessity when her husband, Paul Pacey Sr., died of leukemia in 1972.

"After dad died, she threw her whole self into it, and that was her life. She worked and worked until she couldn't work anymore," Paul Pacey Jr. said.

The family business ? which still operates out of the family's ancestral Victorian home on Scenic U.S. 98 ? is now principally run by Kim Clay, Paul Pacey Jr.'s daughter and Dot's granddaughter.

"The thing she liked most of all was talking to customers," Clay said of her grandmother.

Dot Pacey was diagnosed with ALS in 2002, but kept working at the shop until August 2005, when Hurricane Katrina irreparably damaged her home near the Punta Clara Kitchen, Clay said.

That September, Dot moved into Carroll Place, a Mercy Medical assisted living facility in Fairhope, Clay said. A family member was with her almost every day, Clay said. When Dot's took a turn for the worse in early June, Clay established a schedule that had a family or church member sitting beside Dot 24 hours a day.

Dot Pacey lost the ability to speak years ago, but managed to communicate by pointing to letters on a board, Clay said.

Dozens of people visited Dot over the past month, including former kitchen employees and loyal customers.

"She wanted to know what was going on with everyone. She didn't want to miss anything. She was genuinely interested in everyone's stories," Clay said.

In the end, she died peacefully, Paul Pacey Jr. said.

"One of the great-grandchildren said 'I bet she's in heaven doing cartwheels and smiling,'" Susan Pacey said. "And smiling. She hadn't been able to really smile in a long time."

Bud Pearson and his wife, Bev, discuss the collection of Russian and Soviet impressionist art they are donating to the Lakes Art Center last July. The art center was later renamed the Pearson Lakes Art Center. (Photo by Russ Oechslin)


Pearson leaves legacy of spirit, generosity
By Russ Oechslin, Journal Correspondent

OKOBOJI, Iowa -- Bud Pearson had a great spirit, retired banker and former Lakes Art Center board chairman John Goodenow said Tuesday.

Pearson, 82, died Monday at Lakes Regional Healthcare Center. He had suffered for years from primary lateral sclerosis, which is similar to ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

Visitation will take place after 11 a.m. Friday at the Warner Funeral Home in Spencer, Iowa, with the family present from 5-7 p.m.

A funeral service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, at the Good News Community Church in Okoboji, with burial at Riverside Cemetery in Spencer.

Goodenow met Pearson when he was a banker in Wall Lake, Iowa, helping to finance a cattle feeding operation Pearson was involved with in Clay County more than 40 years ago.

In recent years it was Pearson who recruited Goodenow's participation in the art center that was named for the retired meat packer and philanthropist. Pearson donated millions of dollars not only to the art center in Okoboji but to other area projects as well.

The Pearson Lakes Art Center dedicated its $1 million Pearson Gallery visual arts wing, building and a gifted collection as a part of the University of Okoboji Winter Games XXVIII in January.

The wing was a gift from the Pearson family to house its gift of a $1 million collection of Soviet and Russian Impressionist art, now on permanent display there.

"Bud's philosophy was that charitable giving was 'something you have to catch,' and once you get it you get a great feeling about what you've done," Goodenow said. "I wasn't infected until I met Bud. He made a difference about how my wife and I feel about our community."

"Bud's passing brings a sad day for so many friends, family and individuals in Northwest Iowa," said Tom Tourville, the art center's executive director. "Bud touched the lives of so many people in how he did things in giving of himself and his entire family."

Pearson's son Steve echoed Tourville's thoughts, noting he was most impressed by the number of friends his father had "because he refused to see the bad side of people."

"On our last golf trip to the sand hills of Nebraska four years ago -- and you know golf was his passion -- we had time to sit and reminisce about his good fortune at Spencer Foods (the meat packing plant he founded in 1952 and sold to Land O'Lakes in 1979)." Steve Pearson said.

"All his recollections were positive. And when I asked him if there wasn't even one person he recalled negatively, he just scratched his head and thought a few seconds before telling me with a chuckle, 'Yeah, but I don't remember his name.'"

Pearson and his family owned Brook's Golf Course at Okoboji until 2006, when he sold it to a Des Moines-based group of friends.

Pearson became interested in collecting art when his wife, Bev, took him on tours of museums and galleries in Europe. The couple planned to build an art gallery near their winter home in Arizona but offered instead to contribute $300,000 to erect a new facility in Okoboji to replace the "little red schoolhouse" that was the Art Center's home for decades, if the money could be matched with other contributions.

Former Congressman Berkley Bedell took Pearson up on his challenge and raised the funds "in about a week," Bedell said Tuesday.

"And the new art center has been a tremendous asset to the Okoboji community, with hundreds of events involving thousands of visitors each year, because of the Pearsons' generosity," Bedell said.

Civil rights trailblazer Atkins dies at 69
Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – + By Eric Moskowitz and Mark Feeney
Globe Staff / June 29, 2008


Thomas I. Atkins, a hard-driving champion of racial justice who rose from rural Indiana to become Boston's first black at-large city councilor and faced off against opponents of busing in the 1970s as an NAACP leader, has died at 69.

The Harvard Law School graduate knew that access to education had enabled his rise and fought to secure opportunities for others, first in Boston and later in desegregation cases across the country.

"He was clearly the most brilliant and insightful civil rights lawyer, both in and beyond Boston, to take on the challenges of school desegregation," said Ted Landsmark, who worked with Mr. Atkins in the late 1970s as a lawyer at Mr. Atkins's Boston law firm, Atkins and Brown. "He was a great humanist."

Mr. Atkins died Friday night at a nursing home in Brooklyn, N.Y., after struggling for nearly two decades with the degenerative muscular disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

He was a humanist, but he also had a steely resolve. As a central figure in the city during a turbulent era, he received repeated death threats. He fortified his Roxbury home to protect his family, running chicken wire over windows to block Molotov cocktails and installing spigots throughout the seven- bedroom house to connect hoses for fighting fires, said his son Thomas Jr.

"He was pretty instrumental in what became a pretty tumultuous time in Boston," said the son, who lived with his father for the last eight years.

Mr. Atkins amassed an impressive roster of accomplishments: first black candidate to win citywide office in Boston and first to hold a state Cabinet post; executive secretary and president of Boston's NAACP chapter; mayoral candidate; and lead lawyer for the NAACP nationwide.

But yesterday, when his sons were asked about his legacy, each started with Mr. Atkins's leadership role in Boston's busing case and his fight for education equality.

"It was a cause very near and dear to his heart," said Todd Atkins, Mr. Atkins's oldest son, who lives in North Attleborough. "He realized just how important education was and what a dividing line it set between those who have and those who have not."

Mr. Atkins never shied from controversy. He called Malcolm X's death "as much of a loss to America as that of President Kennedy," and he criticized Cardinal Richard J. Cushing for not doing more "to dispel racial prejudices on the part of church members." He led a sit-in at the office of School Committee chairwoman Louise Day Hicks.

Yet Mr. Atkins had a pragmatic side. Elected to the City Council in 1967, while a Harvard Law student, he emphasized such bread-and-butter issues as trash pickup and constituent services.

"Power is colorless," he liked to say. "It's like water. You can drink it or you can drown in it."

Mayor Thomas M. Menino called Mr. Atkins a political trailblazer who motivated activists but also drew votes from diverse constituencies and worked to help all residents.

"He was just what an elected official should be," Menino said. "Tommy Atkins was about helping people. He didn't care if they were black, white, yellow, or brown."

Not everyone agreed. In his memoir, "While the Music Lasts," former Senate president William M. Bulger described Mr. Atkins as "bright, but flawed by a veiled desire not merely to advantage blacks but, in the process, to revenge them on whites."

To allies, though, he was an unparalleled strategist. "I don't think there was anybody around who was as astute as he was," said Mel King, activist, educator, and former mayoral candidate. "There is no place - and I say this with all due respect to the Creator - there's no place where Tom Atkins wasn't influential, and I'm sure where he is now, they're going to know it."

Mr. Atkins could be a mediator and a negotiator. After urban renewal projects razed neighborhoods in the West End and Roxbury and displaced residents, protesters clustered in a tent city near Dartmouth Street and Columbus Avenue to decry a similar proposal in the South End. Mr. Atkins used his clout as a city councilor to halt the proposal, calm the gathering, and give residents a say in determining the fate of neighborhoods, said Kay Gibbs, who worked as an aide to Mr. Atkins on the City Council.

"He was an extremely brilliant man, but he was also a pioneer in Boston city politics," Gibbs said of Mr. Atkins's at-large win. "He opened the door really to the notion that people of color could in fact be representatives of the whole city and not just of their own community."

Mr. Atkins's powers of persuasion helped minimize unrest in Boston after the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., when other cities erupted into riot. Mr. Atkins persuaded the mayor, Kevin White, to allow a James Brown concert to go on as scheduled at the Boston Garden and to televise it live.

After two terms on the City Council, Mr. Atkins made a quixotic run against White for mayor, then joined the administration of Governor Francis W. Sargent in 1971 as secretary of communities and development.

Mr. Atkins started his career in the mid-1960s as executive secretary of Boston's NAACP office. He returned in 1974 as chapter president, a role he held for six years while also working as a lawyer on school desegregation cases in Detroit, Buffalo, and other cities. He was a natural choice as NAACP general counsel, a job that drew him to New York in 1980.

As president of the Boston NAACP, Mr. Atkins was unflinching in his criticism of busing opponents and political leaders who had refused to address the de facto segregation of the city's schools.

Court-ordered busing, Mr. Atkins said in a 1994 Globe interview, "forced open the lid on Boston's poorly kept, nasty little secret, which was citywide racism. . . . Members of the School Committee placed their own political salvation over the welfare of the city or the school system or the schoolchildren."

Thomas Ignatius Atkins was born in Elkhart, Ind., the son of Norse Pierce Atkins, a Pentecostal minister, and Lillie (Curry), a domestic.

Mr. Atkins contracted polio when he was 5. Told that he would need crutches the rest of his life, he walked unassisted three years later. "One thing [polio] did was convince me that nothing was impossible," he said in a 1982 Globe interview.

Mr. Atkins went to a segregated school in the first and second grades. Then integration came to Elkhart schools by accident: The blacks-only school collapsed, and the town couldn't afford to replace it. Fearing attacks from white classmates, Mr. Atkins carried rocks in his pockets during the first 10 days of third grade.

Instead of attacks, Mr. Atkins drew accolades. He was the first black student body president at Elkhart High School. He made Phi Beta Kappa at Indiana University, where he was the first black class president and first black student body president at a Big 10 school.

Mr. Atkins's race didn't prevent his rise to leadership, but did prevent him from marrying in his home state. Mr. Atkins had been a talented enough saxophonist to be named to the Indiana all-state high school orchestra. There he met his future wife, Sharon Soash. A few years later, they went to Michigan to wed because Indiana outlawed interracial marriage. They separated in 1984 and divorced four years later but remained friendly, Thomas Jr. said.

In addition to their two sons, the couple had a daughter, Trena, who died of breast cancer in 2006. Her death was especially hard on Mr. Atkins, a relentlessly positive individual who remained convinced that he could beat his own disease. He died on the second anniversary of Trena's death.

Though he grew up surrounded by religion, Mr. Atkins was spiritual but not religious. He had a colorful vocabulary and a sharp wit that he employed frequently, such as when he gave the grace at Thanksgiving dinner a few years back, when "The Sixth Sense" was in theaters. Scanning the other bowed heads, he tweaked the movie's signature line, saying, "I see . . . black people."

He worked long hours - often while listening to music, or with the television on in the background - and continued to assist on cases even after he needed his son to translate his slurred speech and a special computer arm to help him peck out sentences. He was never one to be idle. "I am not one to sit around and wait for miracles," Mr. Atkins told the Globe in 1996, a few years after his diagnosis. "I believe miracles are usually man-made."

In addition to his sons and former wife, Mr. Atkins leaves a sister, Anna Jane Millsaps of South Bend, Ind.; a brother, Pierce, of Elkhart; three granddaughters; and one great-granddaughter.

Family and friends are planning a service in his memory in lieu of a funeral.

Former funeral director Zook remembered
By Silva Sevlian, Correspondent
Article Launched: 06/28/2008 10:59:05 PM PDT


MONROVIA - Greg Zook, former funeral director of the Douglass and Zook Mortuary, has died, his family said.

Zook died June 18 of Lou Gehrig's disease. He was 56.

Zook became the state's youngest licensed funeral director in 1973, when he graduated with a degree in mortuary science from California Mortuary College, his wife, Jan said.

Born in Upland, Zook moved with his family to Monrovia when he was 2 years old. He spent the rest of his life in the city, becoming active in its civic life.

Zook met his wife of 34 years while they were both attending Wild Rose Elementary School. They met through their older brothers, who were friends at the school.

It wasn't until the two began attending high school in the summer of 1968 that they started dating. The young couple attended Greg's senior prom at Monrovia High School.

After being together for more than five years, the two wed in 1974.

"He proposed on Easter Day and surprised me with a ring in an Easter basket," Jan said.

Zook worked at his father's mortuary, Douglass and Zook, beginning when he was a teenager. He later became president of the company.

His son Matthew, 24, is the fourth generation in the family business and learned the family trade by working his way from the bottom up, just like his father, the family said.

"My dad started me off at the mortuary washing cars - the same way he started at the business," Matthew recalled.

Aside from his dedication to the family business, Zook was a man of many hobbies. He owned a motorcycle, was an avid cycler, practiced karate, played tennis and liked to ski, his family said.

To celebrate their 40th birthdays, he and his best friend, Brad Bateson, went on a bicycle trip along the West Coast, beginning in Canada and ending in Mexico, relatives said.

The two "created wonderful memories and a few blisters on their back sides on this 1,600 mile trek," his wife recalled.

An adventurous family, the Zooks own three motorcycles, the other two belonging to Greg's wife and son.

Although Zook was very active later in life, he didn't play sports in high school.

"He never played team sports," Jan said. "He always challenged himself."

Nicknamed "McGuyver," Zook was known to always be prepared with a Swiss Army knife and first aid kit. At home he was not only a handyman, he was very organized, family members said.

"There was only one way to do things - and that was Greg's way," Jan said. "He was a perfectionist."

She said his death has been difficult to deal with.

"You know all the details that you need to take care of, but nothing can prepare you for something like this, emotionally," she said.

But Zook had planned ahead. After his death, Jan received flowers, which were sent by his best friend Bateson. But when she read the card, she discovered that Greg had arranged that they be sent to her.

The card read: "Thank you so much for making my life special. Love, Greg."

news.star-news@sgvn.com

James DeVaine McKinney Jr.
Font Sizeefault font sizeLarger font sizeARLINGTON, Va. — James “Jim” DeVaine McKinney Jr., 77, died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at home with his family on June 25, 2008.

Mr. McKinney was born Dec. 13, 1931, and raised in Muscatine.

He graduated from Muscatine High School in 1949. He graduated from the University of Iowa with his bachelor of arts and L.L.B. in 1956 and 1958 respectively, and joined the Washington D.C. law firm of Ross, Marsh and Foster. After three years, he became a partner, serving until 2007.

He represented energy companies, particularly natural gas pipelines, before the Federal Power Commission and its successor, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He successfully presented the case of seven pipeline companies before the United States Supreme Court concerning what they could charge for their own production. The Supreme Court’s decision was five to four in favor of the pipelines, overturning the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission decision. The case was Public Service Commission of the State of New York, Arizona Electric Power Cooperative Inc., Michigan and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Petitioners v. Mid Louisiana Gas Co., et al, 463 U.S. 319, 103 S. Ct. 3024 (1983).

He made numerous factual and educational presentations to Congress, the Federal Power Commission and its successor, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

He was a Korean War veteran.

He is listed in Who’s Who in American Law and Who’s Who in America. He was on the Board of the Energy Bar Association for several years and served as secretary of that organization.

He was a member of the Washington Golf and Country Club, The Metropolitan Club and Ausable Club in St. Huberts, N.Y.

He was a lifelong tennis enthusiast, connoisseur of fine wine, prolific reader and fan of Broadway and classical music.

He was the proud recipient of the Lee Highway Beautification Committee Award.

He is survived by his beloved wife, Betty; brother, Jerry McKinney of Davenport; son, Jim McKinney of Arlington; daughters, Cynthia Drayton of Valley Forge, Pa., and Jennifer Long of Richmond, Va.; and eight grandchildren, Mac, Geoffrey, Heyward, Olivia, Alexander, Annabel, Hannah and Davis.

Phout Chhay
Wednesday, July 02, 2008 The Oregonian
A funeral will be at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, July 5, 2008, in Gresham Memorial Chapel for Phout Chhay, who died July 1 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at age 31.

Phout Chhay was born April 12, 1977, in Surin City, Surin Province, Thailand, and immigrated to Medford and then moved to Portland in 1980. She graduated from Madison High School and was a production worker for F.H. Steinbart. She moved to Fairview in 2007.

Survivors include her companion, Carol Sumaray; daughters, Kayla Pham and Logan Chhay; son, Kyle Sumaray; parents, Laun Say and Chhay Samuth; sisters, Moeuy Chhay, Muon Suebsanh, Phuot Chhay, Chhout Chhay and Alicia Suebsanh; and brothers, Toewy Chhay and Khuot Chhay.


Remembrances to Providence Hospice.

http://www.oregonlive.com:80/obituar...200.xml&coll=7

Former owner of delicatessen
Hinsdale resident published a book that included her favorite recipes and photos of patchwork quilts that she had stitched
By Joan Giangrasse Kates | Special to the Chicago Tribune
July 3, 2008
Growing up in a small Wisconsin town, Grace B. Deal could not have imagined that she would someday own a popular Hinsdale delicatessen, where for more than two decades she would whip up such mouth-watering delights as lemon meringue pie.

Mrs. Deal was a young girl when Chester Beach, co-founder of Hamilton Beach Manufacturing Co., came to live at the beachfront resort in Birchwood, Wis., that her parents owned and operated.

Relatives said her family got a number of household items and kitchen appliances invented by Beach, including the electrical mixer with which she learned to bake.

"For years she used that same mixer to make thousands of cookies, cakes and pies," said her daughter, Beverly Merz Booker.



At 86, Mrs. Deal published a cookbook that included many of her favorite recipes, as well as photos of patchwork quilts she made for family and friends.

"She was a very talented lady, but also a woman way ahead of her time," her daughter said.

Mrs. Deal, 90, of Hinsdale, the former proprietor of Grace's Colonial Deli in Hinsdale, died Thursday, June 26, in her home after a nearly yearlong battle with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

Born and raised in Wisconsin, Mrs. Deal moved to Hinsdale in 1938 to work at the Spinning Wheel Restaurant. In 1940, she married her husband, Harold "Bud" Deal, with whom she had two children. He died in 1963.

In the mid-1950s, Mrs. Deal began baking her signature fresh fruit pies that she sold through a local grocer. In 1959, she opened Grace's Colonial Deli on 1st Street before moving to a quaint storefront location on Village Place about 18 years later.

She closed the delicatessen in 1984 but sold her recipe for potato salad to Kramer's Foods in Hinsdale, which still markets it today, relatives said.

"It was a wonderful little deli with some of the best pies, deviled eggs and sandwiches in the village," said longtime friend Eleanor Patterson. "Her employees just adored her and stayed with her for years."

A longtime member of Union Church of Hinsdale, Mrs. Deal taught Sunday school and participated in Ladies Bible Class. She was an active member of the Woman's Association and helped fund the renovation of the church's Rowell Hall kitchen with the proceeds from her work, "Amazing Grace's Cookbook."

A gardener and flower arranger, Mrs. Deal was a former volunteer in the herbarium at Morton Arboretum in Lisle.

"She was never idle with her hands," Patterson said.

Other survivors include a son, Bill; two sisters, Harriet Martinson Tucker and Bess Knapmiller; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. July 11 in Union Church of Hinsdale, 137 S. Garfield St. A reception will follow at the church.

George S. Dwan
George S. Dwan, 51, of Litchfield, passed away on Sunday, June 29, 2008 after a very brave battle with Lou Gehrig's Disease. Born May 15, 1957, in Torrington, he was the son of Elizabeth "Betty" (Whalen) Dwan and the late William H. Dwan.
George worked as a truck driver and warehouse manager at his family's business, Dwan & Co. Inc. for 32 years and was a member of the Knights of Columbus, St. Anthony's Council #56. He had been a Litchfield Hills Road Race Marshall for 31 years, having missed only one year since its inception. George loved to travel the world, including Ireland, which he visited seven times and was also an avid gardener. He was devoted to his family and will be remembered for his very dry sense of humor.
George is survived by his brothers, William H. Dwan, and his wife, Louise and John K. Dwan, and his wife, Jamie, both of Litchfield, his sisters, Margaret Dwan, Patricia D'Andrea, and her husband, Salvatore, both of Torrington and Mary Sweeney, and her husband David, of Litchfield, and his nieces and nephews, Shelby Stockno, Kevin Dwan, Katie Dwan, Rachel and Hannah Dwan and Benjamin and Nicholas Sweeney.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 6:30 p.m. on July 3 at St. Anthony of Padua Church, Litchfield. There will be no calling hours. Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Village Striders, c/o The Litchfield Community Center, 421 Bantam Road, Litchfield, 06759. The Rowe Funeral Home of Litchfield is entrusted with arrangements.

Dear Friends,
Early in the morning of July 3, my brother Ben Byer lost his battle against ALS. He fought up until the end but his body did not match his spirit.

Funeral services will be held on Tuesday, July 8 at 2:30 pm at Shalom Memorial Park, 1700 W. Rand Road in Arlington Heights, IL.

The party that Ben and I were planning for July 17th, to thank all of you, our supporters and friends, will still happen and we welcome you there if you are in the Chicago area. In addition to celebrating the Chicago Premiere of Indestructible, we will celebrate Ben's life and the legacy he is leaving. He would not want it any other way. Our website has the information and we hope you will come to celebrate his life with us.

I will continue to work toward fulfilling the mission of ALS Film Fund in raising awareness and change for this brutal disease in Ben's name, his memory, his spirit and his honor.

Sincerely,

Rebeccah Rush
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email: alsfilm@gmail.com
phone: 312-848-5919
web: http://www.indestructiblefilm.com