» Donation gives greater visibility to UMass-ALS Champion Fund
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Donation gives greater visibility to UMass ALS Champion Fund ALS donation
Clear Channel Outdoor gives seven highway billboards to support ALS research at UMMS

Bryan Goodchild
UMass Medical School Communications 		October 6, 2011


Clear Channel Outdoor has joined former Massachusetts Governor and U.S. Ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci in his fight against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The company has donated seven highway billboards promoting the UMass ALS Champion Fund, a campaign Gov. Cellucci is leading to benefit ALS research at UMass Medical School. 

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Robert Platt, business consultant and CEO of National Consulting, LLC, left; Stephen Ross, Clear Channel Outdoor Boston division president, right; and former Gov. Paul Cellucci show off the UMass ALS billboards.

Photo by Rob Carlin
“We are enormously grateful to Clear Channel Outdoor for making such a generous donation to this important cause,” said Gov. Cellucci during an unveiling of the billboard design at UMMS. “The research taking place at UMass is giving hope to so many people with ALS. These billboards will help spread that message of hope.” 

Earlier this year, Governor Cellucci announced that he had been diagnosed with ALS. He is under the care of Robert H. Brown Jr., DPhil, MD, chair and professor of neurology and one of the world’s leading ALS researchers. Money from the UMass ALS Champion Fund will go directly to Dr. Brown’s lab.

“We are proud to help build awareness around this noble effort,” said Stephen Ross, president of Clear Channel Outdoor’s Boston division. “We are moved by Governor Cellucci’s courage and we applaud his determination to use his own story to build support for the impressive work UMass Medical School is doing around ALS.”

The billboards can be seen on the Southeast Expressway in Boston and Route 290 in Worcester. Digital versions are also located on Route 93 north of Boston and Route 495 in Lawrence. The donation of materials and advertising space has a value of nearly $100,000.

“The Champion Fund is about all of us coming together to help fund Dr. Brown and his colleagues as they pursue leads and breakthroughs now that might otherwise take years to fund through traditional sources,” said Chancellor Michael F. Collins. “As a result, this fund will make us better prepared to seize the moment when highly promising ALS discoveries are made. We are privileged to have Clear Channel supporting this effort.”

Related links on UMassMedNow:

Cellucci takes ALS fight to center field at Fenway
A pitch to raise millions for ALS research