NORTHAMPTON — A friendly rivalry among Northampton first responders to see who could raise the most money for research into Lou Gehrig’s disease culminated Sunday in an ice bucket challenge, drawing dozens of cheering spectators to the parking lot of Miss Florence Diner and JJ’s Tavern as police officers, firefighters and ALS activists had buckets of ice water poured over their heads.
The Northampton police and fire departments, Massachusetts State Police and Smith College Campus Safety worked to raise money for the ALS Association’s research and support efforts. In exchange for a $10 donation, anyone could dump a bucket of ice water over a first responder of their choice.
“It was significantly colder than I thought it was going to be, but it was a lot of fun,” Officer Heather Longley, a Northampton police community liaison who helped to launch the effort, said. “They said ‘first annual,’ so I’m hoping this is the first of many.”
Longley said that she and Sgt. Honora Sullivan-Chin, the supervisor of the liaison program, spread the word among local first responder agencies and “it just kept getting bigger and bigger.” She pointed out that “pretty much all” of the participants attended Sunday’s event on a rare day off and many brought their families.
“Each group of us raised money online. … We raised over $600 prior to this, just from the police department,” Longley said, and the link to donate is still available online and on social media.
May is ALS Awareness Month. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig’s disease, is an incurable illness that attacks nerve cells that control muscles throughout the body. Massachusetts native Pete Frates, a former college baseball player whose battle with the disease helped to popularize the ice bucket challenge in 2014, is credited with inspiring more than $200 million worth of donations to the cause. He died in 2019.
The efforts of Frates and others are “now paying off,” John Hedstrom, the association’s New England territory executive, said on Sunday. “Investing in research and having new drugs, new therapies in the pipeline coming forward. … Obviously, there’s still no cure, we still need more drugs, but we as an organization recently announced that we want to make ALS a livable disease by 2030.”
Hedstrom said that turning ALS from fatal to survivable is “a rather ambitious, audacious goal” that is made possible by fundraisers like the one in Florence.
The event served as a fundraiser for the Western Massachusetts Walk to Defeat ALS, which is set for Sept. 11 at Look Park and, according to Hedstrom, typically raises $80,000 to $100,000. Proceeds provide no-cost care for families in Massachusetts that are battling ALS and help them gain access to physical and mental health resources, technology, equipment and more.
Tara Gottlieb, who works for the ALS Association and reached out to Northampton police two months ago with the idea for an ice bucket challenge, said she joined the fight against ALS after her father died six months after his diagnosis last May. His symptoms progressed so quickly that he had gone from using a cane to using a walker, to using a wheelchair, in just three weeks and needed a feeding tube after a month.
“About a year ago, I had no idea what ALS was. I had heard about the ice bucket challenge. I knew it was a disease, but that was it,” Gottlieb said. “After he passed away, I went to the ALS Association, asked them for a job and they hired me. I feel like this is what I am meant to do for the rest of my life. … I wanted to do all I could to help find a cure for the disease.”
Gottlieb, who is married to Smith College Campus Safety Cpl. Irma Lopez-Gottlieb, presented Miss Florence Diner owner Georgie Brunton with an award for her work with the ALS Association.
A team of Brunton’s employees and friends, along with the first responders, donated a total of $1,000 for Brunton to have ice water poured over her.
“It was breathtaking,” Brunton said of the experience. “I did a Polar Plunge three years ago … and that was cold. This was, like, a longer cold. It was cold. It was cold.”
She said Gottlieb is “a very good friend of mine” and that it was “heartbreaking” to watch her father’s health decline.
“I believe that the community should always come together and support any drive to help ALS because it can be a livable disease,” Brunton said. “Whatever we can do to help this, I’m right there, and the diner and JJ’s Tavern. They were right there with us.”
Brian Steele can be reached at bsteele@gazettenet.com.