ALS ride kicks off in Riverhead

More than a hundred students walked behind Christopher Pendergast, 62, in his motorized wheelchair Monday morning to Riverhead Town Hall, where Pendergast will begin his 12-day trip to Manhattan to raise funds for Lou Gehrig's disease.

Pendergast expects a dozen other patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative condition Pendergast was diagnosed with in 1993, to join him for part of the ride to Manhattan, which he calls the "River to River Ride."

The march to town hall Monday morning was led by the Riverhead High School honor society, though most of the students wore green Mercy High School sweatshirts. They were 7th and 8th graders, and many worked to raise $2,000 this year which will go to create a scholarship in Pendergast's name.

"Chris is a Mercy alumni ... he's a 1996 graduate," said Debbie Kneidl, the school's director of institutional advancement, who was walking with the group.

Pendergast and other ALS patients created Ride For Life in 1998, which has raised nearly $2 million for ALS research since it began.

There is no cure for ALS, and 90 percent of the patients who contract it die within five years. The disease is named after former New York Yankee Lou Gehrig. The baseball legend had the disease, which causes patients to lose control of their voluntary muscles. About 30,000 people in the United States suffer from ALS, according to the not-for-profit Ride For Life corporation.