What Gives?

I was challenged and I rarely step away from a challenge.

So, I did it. I did the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS, like so many other people have done all over the world. But I can’t stop thinking that it’s just not enough. Getting freezing cold water dumped on your head makes for good video, but how can that possibly be enough? Awareness is great, but ALS needs so much more than attention. ALS needs funds to do research in order to eradicate this horrible disease that is essentially a death sentence. ALS, which is short for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or “Lou Gherig’s”‘ disease is a “progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal chord”.  It’s victims are generally between 40-70, both men and women, with about 30,000 Americans affected at any given time. http://www.alsa.org/

My husband and I often talk about teaching our sons how important it is to appreciate what they have. We don’t want them to feel entitled and to understand how fortunate they are to have their health and to prioritize what is important. While we haven’t personally been touched by ALS, we have been affected by other sickness and disease, and we understand how fortunate we are for the life we get to live. We also realize that everything can change in a split second, with the jerk of a steering wheel, a diagnosis, or a phone call relaying bad news. We know how lucky and blessed we are because we have both lost people way too young or too early, and have seen good people suffer.

After I did the Ice bucket Challenge, I couldn’t stop thinking that I should do more, I need to give more, donate more, give back more. So, I’ve decided that from now until October, I’ll donate half of the profits from my books sales to ALS. Then during the month of October, I’ll donate to Susan G. Komen, Race for the Cure.

I have to be clear and forthcoming, here. I’m not a New York Times Bestselling Author or a USA Today Bestselling Author. I only have three published books and I’m not very well known. I haven’t sold millions of books and the only reason I’ve published my books is because it’s been a lifelong dream, and because I love to write. But, I’ll continue to market, and share, and encourage those who would share my work with others to do it especially during the next few months because they’ll also be contributing to finding a cure for ALS and Breast cancer.

Whether I donate five dollars or fifty, it will be more than what I was donating before, from my book sales. Now I can do something I love and also know I’m giving to something far more important than me, even if it’s just a little.

And that is a whole lot warmer than having an ice cold bucket of water dumped on my head!