Recognition to Steve Gleason, Congressional Gold Medal recipient, Team Gleason for Crescent City Classic 10 K Race, April 11, 2020.

I am writing to give early kudos to everyone's hero, Steve Gleason, who will be receiving the Congressional Gold Medal today, January 15, 2020, the first NFL player ever - not long before the national recognition on 1/20/20 for Martin Luther King, Jr. - who received the award posthumously in 2004!

What a blessing it has been to run in the past as a member with Team (Steve) Gleason in the Crescent City Classic, as I plan to do on Holy Saturday, 4/11/2020 in New Orleans to help support him and others dealing with ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease - a progressive nervous system disease that causes loss of muscle control.

Who can forget in 2006 when Steve blocked a punt on the opening drive of the Saints' first game against the Atlanta Falcons back in the Mercedes Benz Super-dome - after it was damaged and had housed evacuees during Hurricane Katrina!

What an inspiration Steve is to me, the clients I know also diagnosed with this diagnosis and their families whom I have been blessed to work with as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker.