{"id":91335,"date":"2020-10-17T01:39:35","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T22:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/chris-pendergast-als-trailblazer-dead-at-71\/"},"modified":"2020-10-17T01:39:35","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T22:39:35","slug":"chris-pendergast-als-trailblazer-dead-at-71","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/chris-pendergast-als-trailblazer-dead-at-71\/","title":{"rendered":"#Chris Pendergast, ALS trailblazer, dead at 71"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Chris Pendergast, ALS trailblazer, dead at 71<\/strong>”
\n<\/p>\n

\n In 1997, over 15 days, Chris Pendergast rode his wheelchair from Yankee Stadium to Washington, DC, to lobby for awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). On Monday, and down a path lined with his supporters who will cheer to his memory, he\u2019ll take his final ride to his final resting place.<\/p>\n

Pendergast died Wednesday, Oct. 14, surrounded by family at his home in Miller Place on Long Island at age 71 from the nervous-system disease for which he later championed a number of advocacy efforts. Just one day before his death, he entered his 28th year living with the incurable ALS \u2014 the average survival time of which is believed to be three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he was pretty proud of that,\u201d Pendergast\u2019s daughter, 43-year-old Melissa Scriven, told The Post.<\/p>\n

In 1997, Pendergast founded the ALS Ride for Life<\/a> \u2014 an organization that not only holds an annual May wheelchair ride from Long Island to Manhattan to promote awareness of the condition, but has also raised $10 million for services, education and research. Grants help patients put together wills; a mobility program donates wheelchairs to ALS sufferers who can\u2019t afford them; and a college scholarship aims to benefit students whose lives have been impacted by the disease.<\/p>\n

In May, Pendergast published a book, \u201cBlink Spoken Here<\/a>.\u201d The title refers to how it was written \u2014 on an eye-controlled computer without the use of his hands or voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe always said he wanted to earn the time that he was given,\u201d said Scriven. \u201cHe went full steam ahead and really wanted to make a difference. And it\u2019s clear that he did that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pendergast, who was born in New York City, worked as an elementary school teacher in Northport beginning in 1970 and retired in 2003, 10 years after his diagnosis. He also served as the facilitator for students in the Gifted and Talented program for 18 years.<\/p>\n

Pendergast is also survived by his wife, Christine, his son, Buddy, and a grandson, Patrick Scali.<\/p>\n

Social<\/a>ly distant and mask-required visitation services will take place Sunday, Oct. 18, at O.B. Davis Funeral Home in Miller Place from 1-4 p.m., and from 6-8 p.m. Also socially distant and mask-required, the funeral mass will be held Monday, Oct. 19, at 10 a.m. at St. Louis de Montfort Roman Catholic Church in Sound Beach, with livestreaming available on the ALS Ride for Life Facebook page<\/a>. Donations can be made to ALS Ride For Life<\/a> and Hope House Ministries<\/a>.\n <\/div>\n

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For forums sites go to Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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If you want to read more News<\/a> articles, you can visit our News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Chris Pendergast, ALS trailblazer, dead at 71” In 1997, over 15 days, Chris Pendergast rode his wheelchair from Yankee Stadium to Washington, DC, to lobby for awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). On Monday, and down a path lined with his supporters who will cheer to his memory, he\u2019ll take his final ride to his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/10\/christopher-pendergast.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[75999,76138,76139,73461,5200],"class_list":["post-91335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-10-16-20","tag-als","tag-disabilities","tag-diseases","tag-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}