Cookbook Helps Fight ALS

GREENVILLE, NC -- The men of St. Timothy's Episcopal Church, Greenville, NC have collected their best recipes and published a cookbook, "Cooking Rites and Rituals:  A Guy's Guide to Good Eats."  The cookbook is dedicated to the memory of Rick Poucher, a former member of St. Timothy's and the Down East ALS Support Group.  The cookbook sold for $12.00 each and a portion of the proceeds was donated to the Catfish Chapter during the Down East ALS Support Group on March 16, 2008. A generous gift of $1,500 was presented to Jerry Dawson, President of the ALS Association at the meeting.

From Left: Tom Harwell, Jerry Dawson (President/CEO, Jim "Catfish" Hunter Chapter), Beckie Poucher (wife of Rick Poucher), and Rev. Mimi Lacy

About ALS 
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a progressive, neuromuscular disease with no known cause or cure. It’s believed that as many as 30,000 Americans currently have ALS. One in 800 men and one in 1,200 women will get ALS in their lifetime, and 90 percent of them will have no family history of the disease. Nearly 5,600 people each year in the United States are diagnosed with ALS, which is five times higher than Huntington’s disease and about equal to Multiple Sclerosis.

About The ALS Association
The ALS Association (www.alsa.org) is the only national not-for-profit, voluntary health organization dedicated solely to the fight against ALS. The mission of The ALS Association is to lead the fight to cure and treat ALS through global, cutting-edge research, and to empower people with Lou Gehrig’s Disease and their families to live fuller lives by providing them with compassionate care and support. The ALS Association supports research, patient and community services, public education, and advocacy to provide help and hope to those facing ALS. In the area of research, The ALS Association’s initiative, Translational Research Advancing Therapy for ALS (TREAT ALS) provides a planning framework for drug discovery and clinical trials. This initiative will accelerate the rate of translational research to enter prioritized, promising treatment candidates into clinical testing in ALS patients. In partnership with academia and biotech, studies such as these will enable rapid testing of novel compounds that may be of benefit in ALS. Jim “Catfish” Hunter, the former World Series Champion and Hall of Famer from eastern North Carolina, lost his battle with ALS in 1999 from complications of the disease. The chapter was later named in his honor. The Jim “Catfish” Hunter Chapter, which serves the state of  North Carolina, is one of 41 chapters of The ALS Association. The Catfish Chapter is the primary funding source for both the Duke and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center ALS Clinics and exists for the benefit of all people living with ALS in North Carolina. The chapter also offers many services including respite care grants, transportation grants, assistive technology grants, flex grants, three durable medical equipment loan closets and a series of ALS specific support groups throughout North Carolina.