My dear friend, Timothy LaFollette, is awesome. He is a phenomenal songwriter, a charismatic musician, an excellent video editor, a ridiculously good cook and most of all, a really damn good person. But, he’s also sick. Stupid and unfair and scary and painful sick. The kind of sick that can’t be fixed. I have been watching Tim battle with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) for almost 2 years. It's a horrible, rapidly progressing and fatal neurodegenerative disease that will eventually rob him of all voluntary movement and ultimately his life. For perspective, in October of 2009 he was walking with a cane, and on New Year's 2010 I watched him ‘walk’ down the aisle with his new wife Kaylan in a power wheelchair. In August, he underwent a tracheotomy and is now dependent upon a ventilator to breathe, is basically bound to his hospital bed at home, and has lost the ability to control all voluntary movement of body except his head. He can still talk, though the disease and the tracheotomy have affected his speech greatly, and he now requires 24/7 care. He will be turning 31 on October 11 – what is very possibly the last birthday he will celebrate with us. Though 90-95% of ALS cases are sporadic (not genetic), at least five generations of Tim’s family have died from ALS, including his mother and grandmother, who both died within a year of their diagnoses when Tim was 2 years old. Tim's subtype of ALS has a median survival rate of 12 months. Tim survived his first diagnosis "birthday", but there have been no advances in treatment in the 28 years since his mother's death, or the 70 years since Lou Gehrig’s death for that matter. There is a silver lining to this sad story. Because Tim is one of the most open-hearted, pure, and hilarious people I know, he's able to talk about his decline with phenomenal humor and truthfulness. He has an enormous community of friends fighting to make the rest of his life as wonderful as we possibly can. Words cannot express how lost and powerless we felt when we learned about his diagnosis. We wanted to care for our friend, and support his wife, Kaylan. And so the Often Awesome Army was born – with over 1100 ‘soldiers’. We put on art auctions and benefit shows, make t-shirts and buttons, sign up for care shifts and to bring him food, raised money to get Tim and Kaylan a wheelchair accessible van, and even get tattooed for him (http://www.allacesmedia.com/oftenawesome/2010/03/22/episode-7-birds-of-a-feather/). Tim realized early on that he had a responsibility to spread ALS awareness – he refuses to die a silent death. Tim's quest for spreading ALS awareness has resulted in Often Awesome: The Series (http://www.allacesmedia.com/oftenawesome/), an award-winning, bi-weekly web series (with the help of All Aces Media Company) about his journey with ALS and the Army who supports him. There are 21 episodes so far – and many more to come. To get to know the OA Army, watch this episode http://youtu.be/HWRtLmR9XD0 The prospect of Tim surviving this battle is grim. What we can do though is raise awareness and help to find a cure for this terrible, unforgiving disease so that there is a chance for survival in the future – so the world doesn’t have to lose another Tim. This is where you come in. Deanna’s goal is to raise $600 for her birthday to raise awareness for ALS. All money raised will go towards research to find a cure through ALS TDI (Therapy Development Institute), Tim’s ALS organization of choice, and towards keeping the Often Awesome web series going strong (it is done all by volunteers) so Tim’s story can continue to be told. And if you’re up for more, become part of the movement – like Deanna has done – join the Often Awesome Army on Facebook, and watch and repost the Often Awesome web episodes to help spread the word and raise awareness. Whatever ways you choose to help, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I cannot tell you how much it means to me and how humbled I am by Deanna’s desire to help in this struggle for her birthday wish. -Elise Foster