Raising money & getting soaked to raise awareness for ALS

Last week Rogers Insurance was challenged to take part in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge by Sherif at Sharp Insurance. The crew at Rogers rarely backs down from a challenge, so we happily accepted to help raise awareness & funds for the ALS Society of Alberta. Atop our sixth floor balcony, braving colder than average August temperatures (8 degrees), we proudly watched 25 employees (including our COO Bruce Rabik) from our Calgary office get dunked in ice cold water. (See more pictures here.) They completed the challenge in honour of Victoria Malloy, grandmother to an employee at Rogers Insurance.

With several colleagues looking on in support, we raised close to $2000 for the ALS Society of Alberta.

When all was said and done, we went on to challenge Larry at our Mooney Insurance office in Red Deer (watch his video here), as well as Marshall Sadd at Lloyd Sadd (see their video here.) And it looks like we started a trend because Lloyd Sadd went on to challenge Capri Insurance and CMW Insurance.

We’re incredibly proud of our employees for participating in the challenge and also for their generous donations. Thank you for continuing to prove how Rogers has the best people in the industry! Let’s see how many insurance brokerages will take part & donate to ALS!

Watch employees from Rogers Insurance get dunked during the ALS #IceBucketChallenge.

What is ALS? (From ALS Society  of Alberta website)

ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS is a rapidly degenerative, always fatal neuromuscular disease. It attacks the nerves that the body would normally use to send messages from the brain to the muscle, resulting in weakness and wasting. Eventually, the individual with ALS is left completely immobilized, with loss of speech and eventually an inability to swallow and breathe.

The sensory neurons in people living with ALS continue to function normally so that they will continue to feel the sensations of heat, cold, discomfort etc. The mind often remains completely alert and lucid. The result is often a lively, unimpaired mind trapped in an immobilized body. The average life expectancy from symptom onset is 3 to 5 years; the real challenge in the medical community at large is correctly diagnosing ALS in the early stages, so that the ALS Society of Alberta is able to provide the maximum level of assistance to the person living with ALS and that person’s family.

Approximately 3,000 Canadians live with ALS and two to three Canadians die every day of ALS.

There is no known cause or cure for this devastating disease.