2018 Fundraiser
Last year, with your help, we raised $116,000 for ALS patient care and research. Of that, $30,000 supported the Les Turner ALS Foundation’s Walter Boughton Foundation Patient and Family Services Grant Program, which helps those diagnosed with ALS to afford equipment and home modifications to help the cope with the disease. The rest of last year’s funds went to the Les Turner ALS Foundation/ Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine ALS research labs. There are now three labs at Northwestern working to find the cause and cure for ALS.
Since 2013, the Walter Boughton Foundation has been working with the Les Turner ALS Foundation to support these researchers and patients with ALS. Combined with the earlier efforts of the Wally Boughton ALS Research Fund, we have now surpassed $1,000,000 in donations, 100% of which go to ALS research and patient care. Now, we’re turning to the next million, in the hope that, by the time we reach that goal, patients diagnosed with ALS will still have access to the amazing care and support from the Les Turner ALS Foundation and its patient services programs, but will also have access to a cure.
In the 25 years since Wally’s death, his friends and family have raised over $1,000,000 for ALS patient care and research. Working closely with the Les Turner ALS Foundation in Chicago, the Walter Boughton Foundation
Checks can be made payable to the Walter Boughton Foundation and mailed to 6480-B Reservation Rd., Yorkville, IL 60560. For more information, contact us at (630) 962-8895 or walterboughtonfoundation@gmail.com. You can also visit our Facebook page or our website, thewalterboughtonfoundation.org. As always, 100% of your donation will go to helping patients diagnosed with ALS and the researchers searching for a cure.
Teeing Up for ALS
September is ALS Awareness Month at Blackberry Oaks Golf Course in Bristol, IL. Blackberry Oaks was created by Walter Boughton and Gary Blocker. The golf course opened in 1993, just three weeks before Wally died of ALS. This September, visit Blackberry Oaks, where $1 from all green fees will be donated to ALS patient care and research. The golf course will also be holding a raffle. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased in the golf shop or by phone at (630) 553-7170. Prize winners will be announced on October 3. Blackberry Oaks is also hosting the Wally Boughton Senior Open on September 25-26. Visit blackberryoaks.com to register and find out more about the golf course’s ALS fundraising efforts.
New ALS podcast on Breakthroughs
Recently, Breakthroughs, a podcast from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, published “What Causes ALS?” The episode features Dr. Robert Kalb, professor of neurology at Northwestern, the division chief for neuromuscular medicine and the director of the Les Turner ALS Center. Dr. Kalb discusses the future of ALS research and how the disease is related to other adult-onset nerve cell disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s. But it is the relationship between ALS and Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a childhood motor neuron disease, that may hold the most promising treatment for ALS patients. Dr. Kalb notes how antisense oligonucleotides, or ASOs, are currently helping children with SMA to feel stronger by targeting toxic genes and lessening the overall toxicity of the disease. To learn more about how ASOs could potentially help patients with ALS, visit https://bit.ly/2urme48.
2017 Raffle Winners
Thank you to everyone who gave their support this September and to everyone at Blackberry Oaks Golf Course in Bristol, IL. Congratulations to our 2017 raffle winners!
50 Inch TV--Payton Lincoln
Custom Cooler--Sherri Farley
Ping Driver--Ann Reaves
$200 Gift Card--Greg Jonsson
$200 Gift Card--Vince Ferry
2018 Classic Golf Membership--Rick Miller
2017 Fundraiser
Because ALS is 100% fatal, we are again asking for your support this year, and there are many ways you can help.
Walter Boughton and his best friend, Gary Blocker, partnered to open Blackberry Oaks Golf Course in Bristol, IL, in 1993. Now, our friends at Blackberry Oaks have named September ALS Awareness Month. Along with the annual Wally Boughton Senior Open from September 26-27, raffle tickets will be available all month. The grand prize is a one-year membership at Blackberry Oaks. Other prizes include a Ping G400 custom fit putter, $200 gift cards to the Pro Shop at Blackberry Oaks, a custom cooler, and a 50” TV! Visit Blackberry Oaks any time in September to help support ALS research and patient care.
We welcome you to join us at Blackberry Oaks, but more importantly, we are asking for donations from individuals, families, and companies. This has been a great year for ALS research, and we hope to see many more advancements. In the mean time, help us support individuals and families who have been diagnosed with ALS.
Visit our fundraising page to donate or contact us for more information. We greatly appreciate your help as we start raising the next million dollars in support of ALS patients and researchers.
You can view our 2017 fundraising letter here.
The First Million
Thanks to our donors, The Walter Boughton Foundation raised over $95,000 for ALS patient care and research last year! In just four years, we have raised over $250,000--an impressive milestone we could not have expected just a few short years ago. What's even better, though, is that our quarter of a million dollars, combined with the funds raised by the Walter Boughton ALS Research Fund, means that the friends and family of Wally Boughton have raised over $1,000,000 in his memory for ALS research and patient care! We hope you will help us reach the next million. 100% of the money we raise directly benefits patients and researchers through the Les Turner ALS Foundation and Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine.
New ALS Treatment Available--Radicava
The FDA approved the first ALS-related drug, Riluzole, 22 years ago. This May, the FDA approved a second drug, Radicava™. In clinical trials, Radicava slowed the loss of function in participants by 33% in six months. This new intravenous drug was largely well-tolerated by patients. While we still do not know a lot about this new drug, the ALS community is hopeful about its success, as well as the success of many other drugs that are currently being developed. As of August 8, Radicava is available for treatment in the United States
To find out more about Radicava and other ALS news, visit the Les Turner ALS Foundation here.
New Gene Identified in ALS Research
Researchers from the Les Turner ALS Research and Patient Center at Northwestern Medicine and the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago have identified a new gene in ALS. The newly discovered gene variation causes the buildup of the protein beta catenin, leading to structural weakness in motor neurons and potentially contributing to the degeneration of these neurons in ALS. To learn more about this research, click here or read the EurekAlert article here.
