Unfortunately People Won't Pay To Sit To Defeat ALS

Many years ago I was at a meeting where an ALS fundraiser was being discussed.  It was to be a lovely gala in a beautiful location.  There would be delightful hors d'oeuvres, drinks, and desserts in an evening of dancing.  Something bothered me about raising funds that way for a disease that steals your ability to eat and drink and dance and dress yourself in party clothes.  I understand the realities of fundraising, but the ironies of celebrating a cause that way still bother me. 

Perhaps sometime we should have an new kind of fundraiser where healthy people would pay to sit for three hours in a wheelchair without moving.  There could be dinner fundraisers where hungry guests would dine on puree and assorted vintages of chilled Ensure.  Or maybe some olympic-style events where individuals lift others off the floor and back into a chair.  Ah, the gravity games. The possibilities are limitless.

The realities of fundraising are that certain kinds of events like walks and galas work.  It still bothers me.  ALS is a disease like no other.  Perhaps it needs some new ways to raise funds and attention like no other.

Perhaps.