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Living With ALS

May 1, 2015
Michael & Son
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Living With ALS

Anyone with a Facebook account remembers the “ice bucket challenge”, you may have participated yourself. Basically, it involved someone making a video of having a bucket of ice water dumped over there head and then challenging a friend to do the same. The whole point was to spread awareness about ALS but the sad fact is many people didn’t really understand why they were doing it or what ALS actually is. Another important point missed during the entire challenge was the fund raising aspect; most people just wanted to make a fun video for their Facebook page. At the end of the day, the challenge raised awareness and a good deal of money but what about the people who suffer with ALS and their families? Before we go in to that aspect, let’s cover some basics…

What is ALS?

Before Facebook, ALS was widely known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease” and is a relatively rare disease with approximately 30,000 diagnosed people in the U.S. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a progressive degeneration of the nerve and brain cells that communicate with the brain and facilitate movement. As the disease progresses, patients began to lose muscle control and can eventually become totally paralyzed.

Challenges of ALS

ALS presents a myriad of issues for the patient and their families. Physical suffering, mental anguish and finical ruin are just some of the ways a disease like ALS can affect a patient and their family. As the disease makes its way through the nervous system, the patient begins to lose mobility and suffer excruciating pain. Day to day life becomes an ever growing challenge and the most basic human function, like taking a single step, becomes a monumental under taking. As the patient takes on these grim milestones, their homes need to be altered along the ADA (Americans with Disability Act) guidelines and that can be very expensive.

Everything from bathrooms, stairs, the kitchens, bedrooms and anywhere the patient frequents needs to be made accessible for someone with limited to no mobility. Without help from an outside organization, making a home accessible for someone with disabilities is nearly impossible for most families. Watching a loved one’s physical health literally deteriorate is extraordinarily tolling on the family and can have a dramatic affect on young children. Coupled with finical stresses, the entire family must learn to adapt to significant changes that alter not only the patient’s life but theirs as well.

Meet the Murray’s

The Murray family is no stranger to the struggles of living with ALS. When Mike Murray received his diagnosis, he and his wife Dena knew their lives dramatically change. They also knew that they would need help. After meeting others families who were living with ALS, the Murray’s learned the true extent of the finical cost they would incur beyond medical bills. When Michael began to require 24 hour a day oxygen, the family worried about losing during a storms, which frequently occurred in the rural area of Virginia where they live. Then, on an especially stormy night, the family’s worst fear was realized. After a loud crash of thunder, the homes lights went out and a loud alarm rang out from Mike’s monitors. Mike’s oxygen was cut off and he was unable to breath, Dena dashed to call 911 as she prayed he would survive. Because of the distance from their home to the hospital, Mike was taken by helicopter to the emergency room.

As Dena watched her home disappear in the distance from the helicopter window, she began to wonder if Mike would come home, and if he did, would he survive the next power outage? Dena began investigating residential backup generators and quickly learned it was something the family would not be able to afford. She began to look for help and reached out to a dozen different not for profit organization and businesses but kept hitting brick walls.

After watching Helping Hands on NBC, Dena reached out to the Michael & Son Cares program. Find out what happened next by tuning into the upcoming season of Helping Hands. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our YouTube page to find out more information about the upcoming season of Helping Hands.

Living with ALS - Michael and Son Blog Living with ALS - Michael and Son Blog Living with ALS - Michael and Son Blog

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Season 4 Finale; Helping Hands

March 30, 2015
Michael & Son
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Over the past 5 years, I’ve had the privilege of working with families in our community as the head of the Michael & Son Cares Program. If you have not already heard of us, we are a local home improvement company that helps disadvantaged families with essential home repairs they cannot afford. From restoring heat to cold homes to surprise visits from celebrities; the Michael & Son Cares Program has brought smiles, tears and hope to dozens of recipients in the D.C., M.D., and V.A area. Not unlike Michael & Son Services, The Cares program has grown by leaps and bounds over the past 5 years. One of our proudest achievements regarding the Cares Program is the creation of the Helping Hands T.V. show, which documents the charitable work of the Cares Program.

The Cares Program, like Michael & Son Services, has modest beginnings. Today you can hardly drive a mile without seeing a signature blue Michael & Son truck. It was not always that way; in fact it all began with one van and a two man team. In 1968, Mousa “Mike” Mansour came to this country with a vision, to build a family business that his children could one day inherit. An electrician from an early age, Mousa’s natural inclination towards the trade was apparent in his work and he landed a Union Electrician job. On weekends and nights Mousa worked side jobs with his 6 year old son, Basim, tagging along as his pint sized apprentice. It was during those impressionable years of watching his father work that Basim Mansour learned the meaning of hard work, dedication and punctuality. He also learned the importance of giving back to the community that kept him in business. Mousa was not a wealthy man but a generous man nonetheless. He would never leave a family without power on a cold night because they couldn’t afford cost. To him, the smiles on the faces of those families he helped was worth far more than any amount of money. These instances that were witnessed by Basim left an indelible impression on him that would influence the way he would one day run his own business.

On June 1st 1990 Mousa “Mike” Mansour suffered a fatal heart attack, leaving his family and community devastated. At the young age of 19, Basim picked up where his father left off and began his own business, Michael & Son Services. Today the company has over 200 employees, offers comprehensive home services and spans four states and our nations capitol. As the business has grown, so has the number of Cares Program recipients. The CaresProgram reaches thousands of people each week through the local TV program “Helping Hands”, however, we hope to inspire more businesses and individuals to give back to their communities in any way they can. If you or someone you know is in need of assistance, please visit michaelandsonhelpinghands.com for more information.

Pulaskifamily mikegreencares1

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Charlie Crohare; Bean Bag Extraordinaire

January 26, 2015
Michael & Son
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Charlie Crohare; Bean Bag Extraordinaire

In Helping Hands Season 4, Episode 4 our story features April Crohare, a strong mother of two, who balances volunteering work at her son’s school, being a member of the PTA, and helps other local families with disabilities navigate through agencies, to obtain the correct medical products. She uses her experience to uplift and assist other people, and that we find to be, truly incredible!

The star of this episode however, is her eldest son Charlie, an incredibly brave six year old, who has a disorder extremely similar to that of Miller Dieker syndrome. He has the brain development of a two-month year old baby, and with that, suffers from daily seizures (some lasting up to forty-five minutes at a time.) On top of this, he also suffers from hypothermia, is color blind, and is confined to a wheel chair. Charlie has outlived his diagnosis by many years, and is a ray of hope who inspires us all! Charlie has a younger brother, Mathew, to

The Crohare family had an extension built on to the home, and it’s where Charlie spends most of his waking hours. The room has a wood burning stove that not only irritates Charlie’s respiratory system, but eventually caused a fire, – luckily no one was hurt. When the owner of Michael and Son, Basim Mansour, heard of Charlie’s condition, he knew we had to help. The HVAC department installed a mini split in the room, allowing Charlie to breathe much easier!

We are so thankful to the people who donated their goods to Charlie, and helped to make this episode a true example of Helping Hands. Ahh Bean Bags – who donated a bean bag chair (below is an image of Charlie enjoying his chair), and to Go Bananas who generously donated a music board.

April Crohare found out about the Michael and Son Cares Project after watching an episode of “Helping Hands.” She contacted our Project Manager, Shadi Tahrawi for help, and he was quick to get her information in front of our owner.

If you or anyone you know needs home repairs done by the way of: plumbing, electrical, heating, air conditioning – please contact Shadi at: shadi.tahrawi@michaelandson.com.

Tune in Saturday January 31st at 9am on NBC 4 to see how Michael & Son came to the aid of a family in need. 

Click here to watch this episode!

Washington DC WRC NBC4 

1/31       9:00 – 9:30 AM

2/7         9:30 – 10:00 AM

2/21       9:30 – 10:00 AM

2/28       9:30 – 10:00 AM

3/14       10:00  – 10:30 AM

3/21       10:00 – 10:30 AM

Norfolk: WVEC

1/31       9:00 AM

2/7         9:00 AM

2/21       9:00 AM

2/28       9:00 AM

3/14       9:00 AM

3/21       9:00 AM

Richmond WTVR

2/1         11:30 PM

2/8         11:30 PM

2/22       11:30 PM

2/29       11:30 PM

3/15       11:30 PM

3/22       11:30 PM

Baltimore WMAR

1/31       6:30 PM

2/7         6:30 PM

2/21       6:30 PM

2/28       6:30 PM

3/14       6:30 PM

3/21       6:30 PM

Charlottesville WVIR

1/31       9:00 – 9:30 AM

2/7         9:30 – 10:00 AM

2/21       9:30 – 10:00 AM

2/28       9:30 – 10:00 AM

3/14       10:00  – 10:30 AM

3/21       10:00 – 10:30 AM

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Helping Hands: Season 3, Episode 3

December 8, 2014
Michael & Son
0 Comments

The Moore Family

The Moore Family’s two 3 year old twins sons suffer from Miller Dykes syndrome; a brain disease that causes fatal seizures. Despite the family and doctors best efforts, Nicolas and Byron will most likely only life a few more short years. The family is in desperate need of an HVAC system for their home and with the heat wave hitting the area, that need is even greater.

If you would like to discuss the Cares Program or Helping Hands with the Cares Team or their recipients, please contact Shadi Tahrawi at (571) 237-8209 or shadi.tahrawi@michaelandson.com.

Make sure to tune in, showtimes below:

Washington DC NBC 4

Saturday, November 29th – 10am

Charlottesville NBC 29

Sunday, November 30th – 10am

Richmond NBC 12

Sunday, November 30th – 12pm

Norfolk ABC 13

Sunday, November 30th – 9:30am

WATCH THE EPISODE HERE

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