Van4Debbie+
Update
Please help us to continue to raise funds to address the needs presented by Debbie’s ALS
ALS knows no bounds. Our goal to raise money for a van felt lofty at the outset. However, it paled by comparison to the love and support all of you have showered upon Debbie Coleman Ruggiero.
Debbie and her family continue to feel the love and are extremely grateful!!!!!!. We have changed the name of the campaign to Van4Debbie+ to reflect that we will maintain the campaign and the money collected in excess of what is required for the wheelchair accessible van will be deposited in to the Debbie Coleman Ruggiero ALS Fund. This fund is used to address the critical needs that result from Debbie’s ALS. For example:
• She needs professional in-home care to relieve her 77- year- old mother, Rose, who typically provides more than 40 hours of assistance per week while Debbie’s husband, Jimmy, is at work.
• She badly needs safety modifications to her bathroom. The existing doorway is too narrow for Debbie’s power wheelchair to fit in to the bathroom.
Thank you for the unbelievably kind and generous support!!!!!!!!!!!
Summary
In 2009, at the age of forty, Debbie (Coleman) Ruggiero was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. At the time, her daughter, Dana, was just three years old. ALS is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. ALS is characterized by progressive muscle weakness, spasms, and wasting.
The disease has impacted every aspect of Debbie’s life. She requires assistance to perform tasks that the rest of us take for granted: feeding herself, standing, getting dressed, and getting out of bed. Despite such challenges, Debbie is a wonderful mom, a loving wife, and a beloved family member and friend to so many. She and her family continue to be steadfast in their faith.
Debbie thrives on staying active and trying to lead a normal life - and that’s why we are turning to you for help. Her many friends have organized this campaign because we recognize that her zest for life must be supported in every way possible. We continue to be inspired by Debbie and her family’s response to this disease. Their resilience, faith, courage, dedication and love are breathtaking.
Because ALS is progressive, every day brings new challenges - and new dangers -- for Debbie. Without a specially-equipped van, that can accommodate her wheelchair, Debbie faces very limited mobility and a far greater risk of falls due to precarious attempts to transfer her from her wheelchair to a conventional vehicle. Debbie is also in need of some assistance in the home during the day when her husband, Jimmy, is working. Currently, Debbie’s 77 year old mother provides more than 40 hours of assistance. This is not a sustainable model as the disease progresses.
The bathroom needs to be modified to accommodate the power chair for increased safety and prevention of falls.
As her friends, we can see first hand the importance of providing Deb with a wheelchair accessible van so that she can live life to the fullest. We would also like to see her safety and that of her mother maintained. She and her family are proud and self-sufficient people. This was a secret campaign organized by Friends of Debbie.
Please help us raise funds so that Debbie can overcome the many obstacles that ALS has placed in her path. Donate if you are able and please pass along to friends and family.
Should you prefer to send a check please make it out to:
The Debbie Coleman Ruggiero ALS Fund
In Memo: Van4Deb Campaign
Send to:
The Debbie Coleman Ruggiero ALS Fund
c/o Nancy Hughes
90 E Madison Ave
Dumont, NJ 07628
Love,
Friends of Debbie and the Ruggiero family
Organized by Nancy Hughes (Grabstein) and Nancy Harvier Forrester
Videos Shot & Edited by Rick Mowat/SnackPack Prods. - http://snackpacknyc.com/
Uncut Deb Testimonials by Friends: 35 minutes
