PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Some professional athletes play for a team, get traded and move away.

Others jump right into their adoptive hometowns and do their best to make a difference.

Pittsburgh Penguins fans know him for his play on the ice, but in September, Craig Adams and his wife, Anne, will co-chair the 2012 ALS Walk at the Pittsburgh Zoo.

“My father-in-law is Paul Cellucci. He is the former governor of Massachusetts and U.S. Ambassador to Canada,” Adams said.

In the middle of the 2011 hockey season, Adams’ father-in-law announced he has ALS, which is more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

“It’s hard to know because you don’t know until you are diagnosed with it, but how long do you have it I guess, but that is one of the things we don’t know. We have known for a few years now, but it’s hard,” Adams said.

Monday morning, Adams and a board member from the ALS Association of Western Pennsylvania appeared on Pittsburgh Today Live to talk about this year’s walk on Sept. 8.

“For him and his wife, Anne, to embrace being a part of this community and to really step forward to try to make a difference for their father-in-law or father, but also other patients and families is just really huge,” Christi Kolarcik said.

“There’s so many issues out there and causes that are worthwhile, but obviously this one is important to Anne and I and when you see a disease like this one up close then obviously it makes it that much more meaningful,” Adams said.

RELATED LINKS

More Local News
More Reports From Rick Dayton
Walk To Defeat ALS