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For Andrew Smith of Ridgely, providing practical help for those diagnosed with ALS and their families is simply a labor of love.
He even calls it “such a blessing.”
Smith, 54, is the CEO of Care for ALS Inc., a local non-profit organization he founded about three years ago to provide special vans, wheelchairs, and other devices to improve the quality of life for those living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
ALS, known also as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is an incurable progressive neurodegenerative disease.
He isn’t connected with a large organization. He likes being hands-on, connecting personally to the folks he helps. While he is based locally, he wants to extend the reach of the 501(c)(3) organization to all of Maryland and into Delaware.
For Diana “Yogi” Carroll of Ridgely, Smith has been a godsend for her sister Sandy Mitchell, who was diagnosed with ALS last year.
“Without Andrew and his charity, we would have had to (go) through the expense to get her into some kind of vehicle, where she could have some quality of life,” Carroll said. “Andrew took care of that for us, and I can’t tell you the difference it’s made.”
Mitchell, who now lives at The Residence at Eden Green Assisted Living in Denton, depends on her family for help going places.
But it is Smith who provided the family with a wheelchair accessible van.
Carroll said her sister would have been housebound without the expensive van, the cost of which would have been out of reach for family members’ budgets, as well.
“She would have not been able to do anything but come outside and be right in the area where she lived,” Carroll said. “This way, we can take her out to dinner. We take her to visit friends. Most importantly, she’s able to go to worship every Saturday.”
A 1988 graduate of North Caroline High School, Smith grew up with his four siblings in the shadow of his alma mater. His parents, Ed and Penney, are “very supportive,” Smith said.
“My dad has always been a member of some type of club,” Smith said. “He’s very well respected. I’m blessed with very good parents and brothers and sisters.”
A dozen years ago, Smith could not have predicted his philanthropic journey, but learning that his former baseball coach had been diagnosed with ALS set him on a new trajectory.
Smith, owned Eastern Shore Ceramic Tile Company for 15 years, then joined the U.S. Army for four years at the age of 38.
In 2010, he was asked to help transform a bedroom into an accessible bathroom for Glenn Blades of Denton, he saw first-hand how “everything gets turned upside-down” when a whole family has to navigate ALS.
He helped organize a fundraising dinner at the Caroline 4-H Park where out-of-town relatives could visit and enjoy an evening with Blades, who passed away in 2013.
Since then, Smith’s goal has been simply to help families dealing with the challenges of the disease – without the red tape.
“He watched his friend go through it, so he knows what everybody’s going through,” said Mary Ballard of Chester, who called Smith an “angel.”
“I mean, he’s given us a van to use, and if we didn’t have that, there’d be no way I could get my husband to doctor’s appointments or anything like that – and just to get him out of the house every now and then,” Ballard said. Her husband Roger, 78, was diagnosed with ALS two and a half years ago.
“(Andrew) is just so kind. Anything he can do for you he wants to do,” Mary Ballard said. “It’s not easy at times. It’s hard. You have to have caregivers. You have to pay for the caregivers.”
Ballard’s family called Smith on a Tuesday, and a van was sitting in Roger and Mary’s driveway two days later. For Smith, time is of the essence.
Smith and his small staff “can’t be any kinder,” Mary Ballard said. “Whatever they can do, they want to help you, and this van costs us nothing. It’s ours to use. The only thing we have to pay for is gas.”
Smith picks up the vans for servicing appointments at JP Automotive in Greensboro. In fact, his cause so impressed the company, they are devoting all proceeds from their customer appreciation day Saturday, Sept. 14, to Care for ALS Inc.
Ballard described a difficult phone call she had to make to Smith.
“It’s hard for me to say, but my husband had an appointment over in Anne Arundel hospital, and coming out of the parking garage, I scraped the van up, and it took me two days to call him to tell him, because I was so upset about it,” Smith said.
“And you know, he couldn’t have been kinder. Just told me not to worry about it. ‘It’s okay, as long as everybody was okay. It’s running okay, don’t worry about it.” I mean, that’s a person that you know goes above and beyond. He’s like an angel sent down from heaven,” Ballard said. “He’s the nicest man I’ve ever, ever met.”
Care for ALS Inc. has raised about half a million dollars just during the last three years, Smith said. While he’s the Denton Cemetery caretaker during the summer months, by January he and his tiny staff will be busy assembling and mailing 2,000 fundraising packets.
Each van costs upwards of $70,000. The annual price tag for insurance is $6,000.
Helping him with Care for ALS Inc.’s mission are fellow Army veterans Tyronne Butler, assistant of operations, and Matt Parker, chief operating officer; Suzi Newnam, president; and Alexis Bullen, logistics and technology expert. All are volunteers with the organization.
“I can’t say enough kind words about Andrew and his staff,” Ballard said. “I mean, they truly, truly care.”
“It sounds like a small thing, but if you cannot travel, having somebody give you the means to do that is just a blessing all the way around,” Carroll said. “Sandy has enough she’s trying to deal with with the health issues, and I have no idea how we would have gotten her back and forth to her doctor, short of renting something. It’s made a big impact on us.”
Mitchell, a mom and grandmother who was diagnosed with ALS in June 2023, is the middle of five siblings, and has the support of her in-laws as well. “Without a team effort, it would be too much for one person to help,” Carroll said. But Smith and his volunteer staff “went the extra mile.”
“Instead of only letting one of us be able to drive the van, he fixed it so three of us could, and his answer to everything is ‘Whatever we can do to help.’ And with the little bit of knowledge that people, including myself, a year ago knew about ALS, it’s not a disease that you can handle without that,” Carroll said.
Smith has helped and gotten close to almost two dozen families, and the loss of his new friends affects him deeply, he said. He can empathize with their suffering. On Jan. 7, 2023, he lost his 18-month-old grandson Andrew James “AJ” Smith in a tragic car accident that spared his daughter, who was pregnant with her and her husband Major’s daughter Riley.
“This single event has changed my life in so many ways,” Smith has posted in a touching tribute to AJ on CareforALS.org. “Each day is a struggle to get out of bed, to function in any sort of normalcy is quite a feat. Initially, it was my goal to quit Care for ALS and just walk away. Grief is a very hard emotion that goes very deep and can affect a lot of decisions we make in life. As a year has now gone by, I feel AJ would want me to continue with my plans only to do them with his little sister, Riley …”
For Smith, the mission of caring for those with ALS will continue as long as the need exists. On Monday, Aug. 19, Smith was on the road again to AMS Vans in New Jersey to take delivery on a new, 2023 van to help one more family. He hasn’t met them yet, but he wants to be ready when the phone rings.
For more information, visit CareforALS.org, or call or text Andrew Smith at 443-258-1959.
