Triad ALS patient hopes to revive Ice Bucket Challenge momentum 10 years later

GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — Ten years ago this month, the Ice Bucket Challenge took the nation by storm.

Participants would record themselves pouring ice water over their heads, share the videos and challenge others to join in. Many also pledged to donate to an ALS organization.

“It’s very cool to see what’s happened in that ten years,” Development Director for ALS United North Carolina Amy Lynn Clark. “We’ve had 12 new genes that have been identified. Two new treatments have come out.”

At the time, it was the first time many Americans had heard about the particulars of the disease, which is otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

“People were talking about ALS who had never talked about it before,” Clark said.

Debbie Dickerson was one of them.

“At the time, I didn’t know anything about ALS,” she said.

That changed about two-and-a-half years ago when Dickerson was officially diagnosed with it.

“One of the first things I thought was, ‘I may never know what it’s like to be a grandmother,’” Dickerson said.

In the years since, she’s used her diagnosis as a platform for advocacy. She’s gone to national events, participated in local walks and detailed her progression for FOX8 every step of the way to create more awareness.

Thankfully, that progression has been a slow one.

“I still have the exhaustion and the muscle spasms. Muscle twitches are constant,” she said.

Unfortunately, the ALS family Dickerson formed during her battle has both grown and diminished.

“28 people that I’ve met and talked to either in person or online … have now lost the battle with ALS,” she said

Dickerson did, however, find out what life is like as a grandmother. She is awaiting the arrival of a grandson and has been spending much of her time with her one-year-old granddaughter who is now in the early stages of learning the things Dickerson wants to keep doing.

“I’m still walking. I’m still talking,” she said.

This month, Debbie traveled to First National Bank Field, which is the home of the Greensboro Grasshoppers, in the hope of reviving the challenge that helped gather so much momentum in the fight against ALS.

“We’re not going to do ice today. We’re going to do something even more special,” Dickerson said while holding a bucket of string confetti.

With her granddaughter in the arm in which Debbie suffers from what’s described as “frozen shoulder,” which she can only lift to about shoulder height, she lifted the bucket and poured the confetti over the head of the Grasshoppers Mascot Guilford.

“Say, ‘End ALS,’” Dickerson said as she and her granddaughter clapped. “Right?”

It’s a gesture she and the rest of the ALS community hope will reignite the movement that started with ice ten years ago.

“You can’t do things year after year, but you can do things in a ten-year interval,” Clark said.

First National Bank Field will host this year’s Walk ALS Greensboro event on Oct. 26. For more information on how to join, click here.

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