Pete Frates

And, um, I wanna talk to you about it because I wanna talk in the context of someone right here in our midst, someone that I have a feeling you're already guessing who it might be.

Um, of course, Pete Frates, um, had ALS.

He was a young man who was diagnosed at a very young age, and, um, he was a baseball player from right here in this area, and we all watched Pete bravely face this disease, uh, alongside his beautiful young wife and baby, and his parents.

And I am so happy that now Pete's mother, who by the way drives the freight train, if you will, Nancy Frates, is joining me.

It's good to see you.

Nice to see you, Kim.

... thanks to that relationship over at Saint John's Prep.

That's right.

Today, when people hear the name Lou Gehrig, they're, I think m- they're more likely to think not of his, like, you know, slugging powers or his skilled fielding abilities, you know, the things that landed him in the Baseball Hall of Fame, but of his strength and resilience when faced with a devastating diagnosis.

I mean, and many people may not even know that he was a baseball player.

Right.

Or like- They just have heard of Lou Gehrig's disease ...

[laughs]

Yeah.

So the origins of the Ice Bucket Challenge are, like, somewhat murky, but at least, um, the former Boston College baseball player Pete Frates is credited with really blowing it up and turning it vi- viral, and he was diagnosed with ALS a couple of years earlier at the age of 27.

And in case you don't remember the Ice Bucket Challenge, it was the summer months of 2014.

And, hey, be- before you go, the Captain's Ball is coming up pretty soon, Ray.

Yeah, it's a week from today, and it's, uh, it's our fifth, uh, year of, um, celebrating, um, Pete Frates', uh, amazing life, um, and, and keeping his memory alive.

Um, five years ago, five years ago after Pete passed, um, my wife and I approached the Frates and asked if they wanted to team up and, uh, keep Pete's memory alive and honor him every year with, uh, the Captain's Ball.

That my wife said that, you know, our events is a road race, a walk, we have a golf tournament, and she said, "Why don't we have something that has nothing to do with sports where girls could get all dolled up and, and dress and, and just go out and have an amazing night?" And we created, uh, the Captain's Ball that now five years in.