Wendland Receives Honorary Life Member Award

May 6, 2009 - PRLog -- TORONTO, CANADA.  Ben Wendland of Richmond, BC, received the ALS Society of Canada Honorary Life Member Award at an awards ceremony in Toronto on May 2, 2009, in recognition of his volunteer contributions to the ALS community of Canada.

For more than 10 years, Wendland has been a key member of the ALS community. He has served in many capacities — he has been a donor and has participated in workshops and other awareness activities. He has been a volunteer on both the provincial and the national levels: he initially served as president and executive committee member of the ALS Society of British Columbia, and, from 2007 to 2009, as chair of the board of directors of the ALS Society of Canada. He brought a wealth of experience in human resources and management to these roles.

“Ben has said that the contributions you make to organizations like the ALS Society consist of both tangibles and intangibles—funds for research to find a cure for ALS would be a tangible; the gift of hope that this research gives to people living with ALS, as well as the heightened awareness of the effects of ALS that such research creates in the general public, would be intangibles. Ben’s personal contribution to our cause has incorporated both these aspects of giving,” says Doretta Thompson, member of the executive committee of the board of directors of ALS Canada.

Honorary Life Members are named in recognition of an extraordinary volunteer contribution to the ALS community in Canada.

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About ALS:
ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rapidly progressive and fatal neuromuscular disease that causes the degeneration of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. ALS can affect men and women of any ethnic origin at any age. Approximately 2,500 to 3,000 Canadians are living with the disease. And 80 per cent of those affected will die within two to five years of diagnosis.

About the ALS Society of Canada:
The ALS Society of Canada, founded in 1977, is the only national voluntary health organization dedicated solely to the fight against ALS and support for those living with ALS. ALS Canada funds research towards a cure for ALS, supports the provincial ALS societies in the provision of quality care for those living with ALS, and provides information to build public awareness about the disease. The vision of the ALS Society of Canada is to find a cure for ALS.