My wonderful niece, Yuni (Yunilka Nuñez), aka U.S. Navy Aviation Electrician’s Mate Nuñez, called me out to participate in the challenge, so here I am.

I’m doing this especially for my St. Anrthony’s, Nepera Park, Yonkers NY, Class of ’68 elementary school classmate, Rich Eletto, with whom I reconnected almost two years ago, and who was diagnosed with ALS several months ago. He’s got a great spirit and sense of humor.

To enhance my participation a bit, I’m going to donate a percentage of profits from the sale of The Quality of Effort and The Quality of Effort Workbook to the ALS Association for all sales through the end of September, 2014 as follows:

30% of profits from sales of both books purchased directly through the publisher’s e-stores (click on titles above or here for the book and here for the workbook).

The books are also available on Amazon, but the the publisher’s e-store pays a higher per-book royalty–so the 30% will be higher as well.

If you’d like multiple copies (5 or more) of either book for your organization or team, email me at rmarra@paradoxedge.com and I will give you a discount code. Same 30% donation applies.

I’d also like to acknowledge some friends, classmates and former students who set the example in the last few weeks: Gary Greenhill, Tim Holland and Tom Hanney (Sacred Heart High School, class of ’80), Tom Lyons (SHHS, ’81), Mark Maggiola (SHHS, ’75), and my classmates, Bunny Santullo—sorry for the “Smith” in the video, and Rose DeVito Nedwick, whom I forgot to mention in the video (SHHS, ’72), Mike Bardunias (Iona College), Chris Rogers (Salpointe Catholic via Cardinal Spellman in da Bronx), Steve Butala (Rich’s and my classmate at St. Anthony’s), and Michael Brant DeMaria (composer and musician extraordinaire).