When I started volunteering for Ellen one of the hardest things for me was to see photo albums that she had been working on before her diagnosis with ALS left in the same place as when they had last been touched. There are large gaps with unglued pictures that she will never be able to fill. It’s a simple thing that is easy to over look but it gives you a sense of what this family will miss if Ellen doesn’t put up a fight against this disease.

I first met the Sutherland family when I was a Junior in High School and my time spent with them consisted mostly of entertaining the children and doing the odd jobs they just didn’t have time for. I never envisioned how attached I would become to complete strangers. Ellen and her family fascinated me. I had never seen someone in this condition. She knows her future is gray but she refuses to give up. Not just for her sake but for her family and future ALS patients. She wants to know what her kids are doing in school. She tries to keep the house organized from her wheelchair, which should be renamed her command post. Ellen is in touch with her family’s daily lives and very much in charge of the household despite all of her constraints.

Ellen's courage, determination and great sense of humor is contagious and when you combine all of that with her husband John's unrelenting energy, you just have to join the fight to cure ALS. So, what started as a project to obtain my fifteen hours of community service to graduate from high school has now become so much more, it is a passion and a desire to aid Ellen in her quest for a cure.

~Clarissa Odence                                                      How to Make a Donation!