AREA ALS ORGANIZERS WANT TO KEEP DONATIONS IN WISCONSIN
The ice bucket challenge has become a slam dunk in raising money for treating those with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, but how much of it will go to help your friends or family in Wisconsin who may be affected by it?
Area organizers want people to know how to make sure their donations stay in the state.
The national ALS Association announced it's seen more than $53 million in donations over the past three weeks, compared to $2.2 million during the same period last year.
But local organizers said the only way to make sure your donations help Wisconsin ALS patients is to make your donations on the ALS Wisconsin website.
Wisconsinites have embraced the ice bucket challenge to raise awareness and money to fight ALS.
"Manna from heaven. This has been an absolutely unexpected blessing," ALS Wisconsin board president Tom Kettler said.
Kettler said despite all those donations, the national association hasn't decided how much will come back to Wisconsin to help the nearly 400 patients who have been diagnosed with the fatal degenerative nerve disease.
"We don't know yet how these funds are going to be shared," Kettler said.
But Kettler said there is a way for donors to ensure they're helping Wisconsin patients and that's by making their ice bucket donations directly on the ALS Wisconsin webpage.
"They're going to be split evenly. Fifty percent will go to research, and 50 percent will go to patient services," Kettler said.
Kettler said local dollars will help patients get high-tech wheelchairs and speech equipment as well as transportation to and from the ALS clinic at Froedtert Hospital.
If anyone wishes to donate, visit www.alsawi.org.