Wow! Another Labor Day weekend! Even though our kids are raised and living elsewhere, I have many memories of this weekend. It was always the weekend to button things up and get ready for school, for both the kids and my wife who taught school.
Besides the memories of getting ready for school, another memory was the annual Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. Oh yes, we would watch it every year for hours on end, seeing how the "tote board" went up and deciding how much to give and who would be making the call to make the pledge.
When we first started watching, I had never known anyone with MD. Then a man I worked with found out that two of his children had a form of this disease. There is no cure - just treatment to a degree. In the end, the result is usually the same - the wasting away to a final good-bye. Once in a while there is someone like Stephen Hawking, who has beaten the odds of dying, but the disease has taken a painful toll on him never the less.
When I was a volunteer for the YMCA, I had the chance to be on the Board of Management and meet people within the community. One of the people I met was the first chair of the Andover Board and a legend within Minnesota - Scott LeDoux. It is hard to find anyone in Minnesota who had not heard about Scott - this tough kid from the Range who made it to the boxing "big time". In his prime, he fought many champions such as Ali, Foreman and countless other challengers.
When I first met Scott, he shook my hand and I thought my hand would disappear. He still had the look of a boxer - he looked tough, he talked gruff, but had an honest spirit and gentle heart.
One day Scott called and asked if I could pick him up at the hospital and give him a ride to a meeting he and I were attending. He was having "the procedure" that many of us older people get. On the way to the event, Scott told me the story of the fights he had with George Foreman. It is always good to hear the story behind the story, and that is what I got from Scott. One time they met outside the ring and some hurtful words were said by Foreman about Scott's character. I asked Scott if he was not tempted to just deck him, even though it was not in the boxing ring. His response - " Since I have the love of Christ in me now, I don't do things like that anymore ". I will never forget that exchange of words - it allowed me to see the gentle heart beating in this mountain of a man.
Scott had run for Anoka County Board and was elected. He was also on the Minnesota Boxing Board. It seemed like most everyone either knew Scott or knew of him. He was a true Minnesota legend, a Minnesota treasure. Not long after Scott got on the Board, he was diagnosed with ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. In the months that followed, this most cruel disease started to rob Scott of not only his health, but also so many of the things he loved to do. Eventually ALS weakened Scott so much he had to leave the Anoka County Board. Sadly, after robbing him of so much, this disease finally took Scott's life.
So Labor Day means something else quite different to me. I understand the historical meaning of the day and I respect it. However, Labor Day to me is all about MDA. The kids are raised, my wife is retired so our back to school blitz is no more. But memories of MDA linger on this weekend. I think of Scott, Bruce's kids, Robin's brothers and countless more victims of this cruel disease that we saw year after year on the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon.
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