Several Brimmer and May students and their family members participated in the three-mile Boston Walk to Defeat ALS Saturday, Oct. 24, which so far has raised over $387,000 to give hope that one day we will defeat the disease.

The walk helped bring hope to those coping with ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects motor neuron cells in the brain and the spinal cord. ”My great uncle lost his fight to ALS, so I went to support him” says Maya Bousek ’19, adding that she felt proactive about joining the cause.

Brimmer and May parent Stephen Winthrop was diagnosed with ALS in 2013. “The walk made me feel great because I felt the opposite of isolated,” he said, noting the tremendous support of participants.

Since receiving his diagnosis, Winthrop has focused on how he wants to spend his life, even as he remains optimistic for a cure. “I have a lot of hope that treatments and cures–in fact not just hope, confidence–are going to come.”

Kaitlin Murphy ’17, co-president of the Community Service Club, led the Brimmer team on the walk. “We’re not going just because we feel like we have to, and we’re not going because we want the community service hours,” she says. “We’re going because we care.” Murphy also says that her club is looking for other ways to raise money to defeat ALS.

Please contact Murphy if you have would like to help raise money to defeat ALS. In the meantime, those interested can still still donate online to the Boston Walk up until the end of December.