First ALS Walk in Bangor Maine - August 2008
On August 23, 2008, hundreds of people gathered at Hayford Park in Bangor for the first Walk to Defeat ALS ever held in northern Maine. Organized by relatives of local ALS patients, with support from the ALS 
Association’s Northern New England Chapter (ALSANNE), the event raised more than $25,000—more than double the organizers’ goal.
Two Jackson Laboratory employees were on the event’s planning committee. Hampden, Maine, residents Janice Von Brook and her daughter, Carol Lamb, both executive assistants to top Laboratory officials, were inspired to help launch the new event as a tribute to Janice’s husband, “Farmer George” Miller, an ALS patient. They joined committee chair Lisa Kingsbury of Bangor, herself the wife of ALS patient Jim Kingsbury.
Speakers at the event included former U.S. Representative Tom Allen and then-ALSANNE Executive Director Jim Hamel. Dr. Greg Cox, a Jackson ALS researcher, also spoke to the gathered walkers, before “walking the walk” with his wife, his three sons and his entire laboratory group, including collaborator Dr. Kevin Seburn. Jackson scientist Cat Lutz, whose mother died of ALS, came with her family and walked along with dozens of other Jackson employees.
The 2009 Walk to Defeat ALS has been scheduled for Saturday, August 29. For more information on how to support the walk, contact Lisa Kingsbury at 207-659-5019 or visit www.alsanne.org.
