Last week on December 8th (2015), The Augmentative Communication Program (ACP) at Boston Children’s Hospital received a $1.5 million gift in order to establish a program dedicated to improving the lives of adult patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (commonly known as ALS).
ALS is a fatal and progressive neurodegenerative disease with no known treatment. This unique program will promote the development and adoption of comprehensive and proactive technologies, including ‘message banking’, which will allow people with ALS to continue to communicate using their own voice. This enables ALS patients to maintain a critical connection with family and friends as the disease progresses.
The initial gift creating this program was made by Travelers Chairman Jay Fishman and his wife, Randy. Fishman recently announced that he has been diagnosed with ALS. Travelers employees and individual Board members have voluntarily come together to raise more than $500,000 to support this important program. Other initial donors include The ALS Association, JPMorgan Chase and Jamie and Judy Dimon, Loews Corporation and James and Merryl Tisch, Stone Point Capital, Charlie and Amy Scharf, Wasserman Media Group, American Financial Group, Bob and Martha Lipp and Team Gleason.
These contributions, which total nearly $4 million, represent a substantial kickoff of an effort to raise $10 million for the permanent endowment of the program. John Costello, MA, CCC-SLP will be the ACP director.
The Augmentative Communication Program at Boston Children’s Hospital is internationally acclaimed for its work with children and adults who are non-speaking or whose speech is severely impaired. Find out more about the program and the work that they do on their website.
For more details and information regarding this program to preserve the voices of ALS patients across the country, just click here.
Sources
