Taylor Farms Donations Support Young Faces of ALS and Corey’s Crusade

For the sixth consecutive year, Taylor Farms is very pleased to contribute $25,000 to the Young Faces of ALS and $250,000 to Corey’s Crusade foundations, to bring global awareness to this terrible disease that strikes people of all ages. ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) is a disease of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement.   

Taylor Farms’ active engagement in the battle against ALS includes support since 2008 for the efforts of the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI). Our involvement with this organization is spurred by the close friendship of our Chairman and CEO, Bruce Taylor, with a family who has been closely affected by ALS.

When the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge took the nation by storm via social media in 2014 to promote ALS awareness, Taylor Farms employees from New Jersey to California took part using recycled water from our plants.  In just eight weeks, millions of participants nationwide raised $115 million for ALS research.  Funds from this effort supported research that led a major recent breakthrough — identification of a new ALS gene that now ranks among the most common genes that contribute to the disease, providing scientists with another potential target for therapy development.

To date, we have donated $1.5 million to support the crusade of Corey Reich, who was diagnosed with ALS going into his junior year at Middlebury College, at the young age of 21. Corey helped establish Young Faces of ALS. He, his family and friends have been on a crusade to end ALS ever since.

Corey’s Crusade is a key Global Affiliate of ALS.net, raising more than $5 million since 2008 through a variety of events and campaigns. Corey has also played a key role in the ALS.net partnership with Major League Baseball and its clubs, by bringing awareness to the disease that befell baseball great Lou Gehrig.

Ted Reich, Corey’s father, is a member of the board of the ALS Therapy Development Institute and currently serves as the Institute’s treasurer. Corey’s Crusade gets support from private individuals, major corporations and companies like Taylor Farms, and foundations worldwide.

We at Taylor Farms believe that young people like Corey Reich can show us all the ways to achieve goals, however daunting they seem.  

We are proud to do our part in helping bring an end to this debilitating disease.