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Mount Kisco Closet Designer Takes Strides for ALS

“Doing It For Debbie” was more than a team name. It is a cause that Mount Kisco closet designer Suzanne Slansky created to help her friend Debbie Berniker of White Plains and all those suffering with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

In 2002, a total of 250 people joined the Doing It For Debbie team to walk at Tibbetts Brook Park the week before Father’s Day. Slansky said Debbie participated that day, even though she was on a respirator at the time. “It was really great for her. We have been doing it every year since. We are able to raise considerable amounts of money for the ALS Association Greater New York Chapter

Slansky praised the participants. “The walk is an amazing experience. There are patients that come in their wheelchairs. There are families that come to remember their children, their husbands, their wives.” Slansky pointed to the support that Neil, Debbie’s husband, received from the Horace Mann High School community, the school where he teaches and coaches. She said students and teachers joined in the walk.

“Now we have a core of 30 to 35 people that walk. … It’s a nice way to remember [Debbie],” Slansky, a Millwood resident, said of her friend of more than 40 years. “We meet the same families every year, although there are more every year.”

Slansky called ALS “a horrible, horrible disease,” and said the funds are used for research, support services and hospital equipment. She said patients sometimes go from needing a walker to a wheelchair to a hospital bed.

Slansky shrugged off the title of local hero. “All I do is walk and try to get people to come.” She pointed to those who organized the walk such as Program Director Allison Lardner as a real hero. “They are the heart of the community,” Slansky said.

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