Making It Happen: Silver Snow Ball

The Newtown Athletic Club (NAC) is hosting the Silver Snow Ball in support of Matt’s Mission ALS Research on Saturday, February 20, 2016 from 7pm – 11pm. This event is open to the community and everyone is welcome.

This is the NAC’s 11th consecutive year raising money for this cause and in 2014 they found that one of their own members, Matt Bellina, was stricken with ALS and participating in the Precision Medicine Program at ALS TDI (Therapy Development Institute).

The path was clear for the Newtown Athletic Club. All their efforts to raise funds for Augie’s Quest would be centered on Matt.

On a sad note, the NAC just learned that another of their “family” was stricken with ALS in the past few months. Frank Mongiello, husband to Marilyn Mongiello (one of their amazing group exercise instructors) with a family of 6 children, is now fighting the disease as well as Matt.

Every penny raised for Matt’s Mission will go to the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI) located in Cambridge, MA. ALS TDI is a nonprofit biotechnology and drug research company that has partnered with MDA in launching the largest privately funded ALS drug development project in history.

This multimillion-dollar collaboration combines the passion and dedication of nonprofit-fueled research with the entrepreneurial spirit and scientific resources of a biotechnology company.

The connection is complete because Matt has received cutting edge stem cell therapeutic programming at ALS TDI. What they learn will lead to research that may help Matt and will undoubtedly help others.

Matt was diagnosed with ALS in April of 2014, though he had shown symptoms of the disease for several years. He graduated from Virginia Tech in May 2005 and received his commission into the US Navy. Matt went through flight training to become a Naval Aviator. Years later, while in the RAG in Whidbey Island, Washington he was medically grounded and thus began the road to the diagnosis he received in 2014.

While he no longer is able to fly naval aircraft, Matt continued to serve in the Navy at the rank of Lieutenant Commander until December 2014.

In October 2014, Matt travelled to ALS TDI in Boston to get a skin biopsy which will be used to clone thousands of copies of his neural cells. TDI will then screen over 50,000 compounds in the hopes that some will normalize his neurons. He will have full access to the results real time as they will post data on a secure web portal. ALS TDI also equipped Matt with four accelerometers in order to measure day to day disease progression. This process gives the ALS community very strong hope for finding a cure.

The Silver Snow Ball in honor of Matt Bellina and Frank Mongiello is open to everyone. Buy tickets or to donate online at www.NewtownAthletic.com/MattsMissionALS.