News release
1/8/05
For immediate release
For more information: Ann Mort, 513-424-2038, RMort@cinci.rr.com
CONCERT AND ART AUCTION TO BENEFIT ALS AND MEDICAL TREATMENT FOR LOIS “TOT” SCHULTZ ASHWORTH
Long-time Middletown resident, community volunteer and retired educator from the Lakota Schools, Lois “Tot” Schultz Ashworth will be the focus as friends, family and guests celebrate her 60th birthday and help in her fight against ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).
A benefit concert and art auction/raffle event will be held at Sorg’s Opera House, 57 S Main Street, downtown Middletown on Saturday, January 22, 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. Many musician and art friends of Lois and Sam Ashworth are donating their time and talents to present an evening of music and art unlike anything else presented in recent Middletown history. Admission tickets are $25 ($75 per family).
Musicians are bringing their current groups to perform throughout the evening and several are also putting together “reunion” bands bringing back sounds from the past. Performers will include Vernon McIntire’s Appalachian Grass, The Pardon Me Boys, Gregg Clark and Friends, Encore, The Wholligans, theatre performers and others. Musical styles will range from bluegrass to jazz, pop and rock. Artist friends are donating their original art works, and businesses are giving items to be included in raffle baskets.
Since the evening’s entertainment stretches over a four hour period, organizers are encouraging guests to “come when you can, leave when you must.”
Lois Schultz Ashworth is well known in the Lakota School community where she taught for 35 years, most recently as a teacher of gifted and talented children, drawing the best from those with special talents. She is known among her friends as the always enthusiastic and upbeat member of any group. “Although her ALS condition has robbed her of her speaking voice and makes eating difficult, she still exudes that same bubbly personality and enthusiasm for life,” said her husband Sam.
Sam Ashworth, is a professional trombone player who has worked with most of the area musicians throughout the past 30 years and is a graphic designer by profession. Both Sam and Lois have been active in the community, serving on volunteer committees, particularly Middfest. Sam also serves as Executive Director of the Middletown Historical Society.
Known to her friends as “Tot,” Lois Schultz Ashworth was diagnosed with the progressively debilitating condition in the summer of 2004. As various symptoms began to appear early in 2004, she visited several doctors, including the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota before learning the diagnosis. The usually fatal condition attacks the body’s nervous system and typically causes death within 3-5 years. Patients are usually given little or no hope from the best of the medical community.
Not content to just accept the inevitable, the Schultz Ashworth family began to research the condition and, through the internet, found a host of ALS survivors, all with stories of aggressive alternative/interactive treatments and positive attitudes.
This research led the Team Tot, as they named their group, to the Progressive Medical Treatment Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where two of her daughters, Lesley and Shannon, and a son-in-law Jay live. Since October, 2004, Lois has been living most of the time in Atlanta and undergoing Chelation Therapy to remove toxins from her system. With the addition of a daily regiment of nutritional supplements, vitamins and protein shakes, her condition has so far stabilized and has not progressed to the delight of her neurologist at University of Cincinnati.
If, in fact, the treatments prove long-term relief from the ravages of ALS, Schultz Ashworth hopes she will have found something that not only helps her live a long and productive life, but helps others do the same.
Friends organizing the evening’s entertainment are Dick and Ann Mort, Susan Phillips, Roger Conner, Marilyn Johnson, Nicki Gividen, Kim and John Minor, Bill Stiehl, Eric Daley and Ginger Bruggeman.
Proceeds from the evening will go toward the mounting medical bills surrounding Lois’ experimental treatment and toward raising awareness of the ALS condition. An account, “Team Tot” has been opened at American Savings Bank on University Blvd.
To purchase tickets by mail or make a donation toward the cause, send checks to “Team Tot,” c/o Ann Mort, 4935 Riverview Avenue, Middletown, OH 45042. Tickets are also available at Middletown Antique Mall, 1607 Central Avenue; Salon Nouveau, 2201 Central Avenue or Capozzi’s Italian Restaurant, 3530 Central Avenue in Middletown. Raffle tickets are available through Flowers by Roger. For information about the event call 513-424-2038.
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