Here’s an inside look at the incredible work of the Live Like Lou Foundation over the past quarter. Enjoy updates from our volunteers and researchers, and check out how our donors help us leave ALS better than we found it in honor of our namesake and baseball Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig and the more than 30,000 people living with Lou Gehrig’s disease across North America.

To further Lou Gehrig’s legacy and his storied baseball career that began at the collegiate level at Columbia University, the Live Like Lou Foundation is pleased to partner with Lou's college fraternity, Phi Delta Theta, to launch the Lou Gehrig Community Impact Team to annually recognize the giving character and community impact of collegiate baseball players.  

The inaugural Lou Gehrig Community Impact Team will be announced in February 2024, and it will celebrate nine collegiate baseball players from various levels, including NCAA Division 1, Division 2, Division 3, and NAIA. All nominations for the inaugural team are due by December 15, 2023. Please help us spread the word by sharing the nomination form with your favorite college or university.

The player with the most votes will be named the team's captain, and an ALS family in his community will receive $4,000 in support through one of Live Like Lou’s programs. Learn more!

A moment in Lou Gehrig's history with perfect timing: this image is believed to be the last home run Lou Gehrig hit in a World Series. It was October 9, 1937, and it was game four.

Lou finished that season hitting .351 with 37 homers and 158 RBIs. The Yankees lost that day but finished the Series winning in five games for their sixth championship in 15 years.

The Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at John Hopkins University and the Live Like Lou Foundation have announced plans to jointly fund a one-year research grant for Payam Mohassel, MD, PhD, Johns Hopkins, to study cellular and animal models of SPTLC1-related juvenile ALS. Recent work in his lab led to the discovery of a new genetic form of ALS that stems from excessive activity of an enzyme called serine palmitoyltransferase. This study seeks to create cellular and animal models of this new form of ALS to enable future studies to help better understand and to test candidate therapies.  

Learn more about this exciting joint grant to advance ALS discovery among emerging ALS investigators.

“Positive mental attitude,” or “PMA,” is a way of life for Marc Williams and his family.

In July 2020, Marc was diagnosed with ALS. With his wife, Mary, and four sons by his side, Marc began the fight of his life. With their faith, community, and a lot of perseverance and humility, the Williams family has become strong advocates in the ALS community and true friends of the Live Like Lou Foundation.

By sharing their experiences through journal entries, community events, and an annual Team Willie Strong walk to benefit Live Like Lou, they have raised more than $35,000 in the past two years! Thank you, Williams family, for leaving ALS better than you found it!

In 2018, when Live Like Lou launched its ALS family service program, now called Connect and Serve, the Collins family from Madison, Georgia, was among the first families to be served by our volunteers. Phi Delts from the University of Georgia began serving Preston Collins and his family, his wife Lara, and their daughter, Alana, and these guys have continued to show up for the family over the years. Read more about this heartwarming story!

Don’t miss your chance to win a Live Like Lou baseball! Follow Live Like Lou on social media and tag a friend in a comment or share our post, and you’ll have a chance to win. Enter before the end of the day on November 6, and we’ll announce winners (one for each platform) on November 7:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Twitter/X

As we wrap up this quarter’s In the Dugout, we reflect on an incredible few months of progress, activity, and devotion for Live Like Lou. Here are just a few of the many additional highlights of what we’ve been up to:

• Our staff is growing! Please help us find the newest member of our team to develop content, strengthen our visibility and brand, and expand the reach of our programs and mission. We're hiring for a Communications Specialist!
• Check out our new peer-to-peer fundraising platform! Any special occasion can become a fundraiser to benefit Live Like Lou and generate more awareness for ALS. From birthdays and anniversaries to hosting a fun event, don't hesitate to contact us if we can answer any questions or help get you started.
• Giving Tuesday falls on November 28 and is a global day of generosity that harnesses the collective power of individuals, communities, and organizations to celebrate kindness and encourage giving. Join Live Like Lou as we lean on our community to keep us strong—just like the stitches in a baseball keep it together.
• Do you know a gym looking to rally around a great cause? Join us for our second annual The Lou CrossFit signature workout. We have 83 gyms (and counting!) signed up to participate in this specialty workout on January 27, 2024. Click “start a fundraiser” in the upper right, and create your gym's page today!
• If you are in the market to send or receive flowers, Live Like Lou is one of the first nonprofits to partner with Crayola Flowers. This program sends flowers to those you love (or yourself!), and ten percent of all purchases are donated to Live Like Lou. Win-win!

We’ll be back in touch in a few months with even more good news. Thank you for being interested in the Live Like Lou Foundation and our work to leave ALS better than we found it.