Krause: Get wet, but keep the bigger picture in mind

I’d like to introduce you to some people.First, there’s Jim. He’s just my age. In fact, he graduated high school with me. Jim was a football player for St. John’s Prep and then played rugby in college. Those who know him best say he is a regular guy, but as tough – and crazy – as the come when engaged in a rugby scrum.I hadn’t seen Jim from the time I graduated high school in 1971 until the night of our 41st reunion in 2012. That happens, even if you go to school in the same city. But he was from Beverly and I was from Lynn and we certainly didn’t travel in the same circles. Suffice it to say, the next time I saw Jim, in October of 2012, he was a whole lot different than he was in 1971 … and certainly not in a good way.Now let’s talk about George. He, too, was a terrific athlete in his youth. As a matter of fact, George played basketball professionally in Greece. By the time he got back to Lynn, George got interested in politics and ran for – and won – a seat on the Lynn School Committee. He seemed to have everything … a career, a loving family … friends who would do anything for him. The sad thing, though, is that there’s an awful lot his friends, and his family, have to do for him.Peter is also a St. John’s Prep graduate, though much younger than the graybeards from my class. He played baseball, both for The Prep and Boston College (he was a captain for both). He wasn’t even 30 when things started to go downhill for him. Today, he does the best he can, fighting a battle that would be similar to taking on the U.S. Marines with a musket. Those who know him say he’s the bravest guy they’ve ever met.Finally, I’d like to talk about Jerry … the only one among the four people mention older than me. I didn’t know Jerry in high school, and don’t know if he played sports. But I met him when I was 14, when he married my cousin Ellen, and he was one of the funniest guys I’ve ever known. Sadly, Jerry is no longer with us.Four men: Jim Daly, George Mazareas, Peter Frates and Jerry Fitzgerald. Four distinctly different people united in one of the worst possible ways. They all suffer, or suffered, from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.Unless you’ve completely checked out of the social media circuit, you’ve undoubtedly seen video after video of people allowing themselves to be doused by buckets of ice water. They’re doing this in an effort to create awareness of both the disease and the miles and miles and miles we have to go before we can say we’ve thrown a lasso around it and started to rein it in.The idea is take the challenge … and then invite (or call out) others to respond in kind, thus creating a chain that results in donations to ALS research.It’s caught on and spread like wildfire. Yesterday, I joined six other Item stalwarts in doing this (you can see the video if you check out the Daily Item Facebook page and click on “YouTube”). And even though this movement started as a way to honor Peter Frates, I called out my entire class (some of whom have already been doused).Sadly, ALS is prevalent enough so that we’ve all either known someone, or known of someone, who has suffered with it. And while watching people get soaked with ice water – with the expected contortions and reactions that come with it – is a tremendous amount of fun (or even if you think it’s jumped the shark by now), the bigger picture isn’t that far from the surface. These are merely four of thousands of people who have been afflicted by this illness.I still see a quiet, unassuming Jim Daly patrolling the corridors at The Prep; and I still remember George Mazareas stopping by my house while he was running for School Committee and impressing me enough so that if I could have voted for him the next day, I would have.I covered Peter Frates at The Prep and talked to him two years ago at our reunion (he was there for the homecoming football game). And those people are right. Peter Frates is a profile in courage.And I cannot say enough about Jerry Fitzgerald, Mr. Pri