Alcott Principal Joseph Uher joined his staff in an ALS ice bucket circle to benefit those stricken with Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Joseph Uher, the new principal at Alcott Elementary School, was evidently not forgotten by his former colleagues at R. Schultz Elementary in Delaware, who encouraged him and his new staff to take the ALS Ice Bucket challenge. They did so with enthusiasm. Thirty-three Alcott staff members gathered in a circle in front of the building on August 29, as students watched, to douse each other with buckets of ice water. Uher, in turn, has challenged Fouse Elementary, under the leadership of new principal Robb Stranges, to take the plunge.
As of September 3, the ALS Association had received $107.4 million in Ice Bucket Challenge donations. ALS, known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Eventually, people with ALS lose the ability to initiate and control muscle movement, which often leads to total paralysis and death within two to five years of diagnosis. There is no cure and only one drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that modestly extends survival.