Extra Hands For ALS
There's a chance that the American Hero whose story you are about to read won't be around this time next year. But that doesn't seem to worry him at all, The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen reports.
If you think you know how people with life-threatening illnesses are supposed to act, then you've never met Jack Orchard.
He may not look especially heroic. But the frail man in the wheelchair has the courage to change the world, even as his own world comes apart.
Orchard has the kind of life story you see in the movies: A child born into a loving family, a teen-age football player who hit the books as hard as he hit the opposing line.
Orchard graduated from Harvard, and eventually found himself in Moscow and in business.
His wife, Eve Tetzlaff, says, "Jack was basically your typical type-A, hard-charging, finance guy."
Life was good, and about to get better.
Tetzlaff says, "We met living in Moscow, and he had co-founded with a number of partners a financial institution that's still one of the biggest."
And if there was such a thing as a perfect match, Orchard and Tetzlaff might qualify: Both were young, educated and, after their wedding in 2000, poised to begin an amazing life journey together. But it would not be anything like they expected.
Not long after they were married, Orchard began having unexplained muscle cramps and weakness. Within six months, his doctors began to suspect ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
People stricken with ALS lose control of their muscles and, in time, their abilities to walk, talk and breathe. There is no known cure. A diagnosis of ALS is, in effect, a death sentence.
Tetzlaff says, "They literally told us go home and get your papers in order. There's nothing you can do. And we had just gotten married, we were in our early 30s, and we just could not take that as the fact of our lives."
Orchard was told that there was nothing he could do about it. But he did do something about it.Orchard says, "When the doctor said there was nothing I could do, I thought, 'You wanna bet?'"
Instead of spending the rest of his days watching himself die, Orchard had an idea that would help ALS patients everywhere.
In a way, ALS cripples the families, too, because ALS victims need constant care, leaving little time for anything else.
Teresa Ribble, a wife of an ALS victim, says, "I get angry because it's just nonstop. It's: 'I need this; I need this; I need this,' which he does."
Ribble adds, "Honestly, I do good to open my mail and pay my bills on time every week, honest to God."
Orchard says he saw that families really needed an extra set of hands, and a great idea was born.
Jack created Extra Hands for ALS. His student volunteers visit ALS families every week to do whatever's needed.
Tetzlaff says, "The whole idea just blossomed."
Ribble says, "They're just awesome. They accomplish more in three hours than I could in a weekend. I can tell you that."
The families get the help they desperately need, and the kids get the chance to make a huge difference in someone's life.
Volunteer Zach Selke says, "I do enjoy it. I think it's important for everyone to give their time. I mean, why not? Instead of watching two hours of TV, I'm helping out a family who needs it.
Orchard is hopeful that his student volunteers will help raise awareness that might someday lead to a cure.
"They are like angels," Ribble says, "It's just amazing that they will come out here and do that for us."
For his work with Extra Hands, Orchard was a finalist in the Volvo For Life Awards, with Tetzlaff, as always, close by his side.
Tetzlaff says, "One of the strangest things is that our marriage has really been like a threesome, Jack and me and ALS. And I think it would have been a lot more fun, just the two of us.
"It's hard to say what I miss. You just kind of take life for what it brings you and live it."
Jack Orchard knows only too well what the days ahead will bring. But on awards night in March, Orchard's face lit up New York's Times Square: the symbol of an idea that will live long after he is gone.