Gene Simmons Does Some Good

As I was flying back to Portland from the Bay Area Thursday night, apparently Gene Simmons and faux-Ace Frehley Tommy Thayer were in Lake Oswego, Oregon hosting an auction to benefit Jeff Young, a great guy and one of the longest living survivors of ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

Jeff is a miracle. The guy outlived the medical community's predictions of his demise in the mid 80s and is still going strong, mainly due to brute force and one of the strongest wills I have ever observed.

The guy is confined to a wheelchair and can barely move, yet somehow he helps coach the Lake Oswego High School football team and puts out several inspirational emails a week to more than 3,000 "warriors," myself included. Find out more about Jeff here.

Anyway, periodically Jeff is in need of gear to help him do what he does, but needs the funds. His longstanding friendship with Simmons leads to auctions and events to help raise the dough.

Simmons said: "This is proof positive that Portland isn't just a nice place to live in, but it actually has nice people. Everybody here has come with big fat wallets full of cash and we're going to relieve them of all that money and actually do some good."

Various typical mean spirited comments on Blabbermouth aside (my favorite is "cool to see this...instead of Gene selling coffins..."), good for Gene and Tommy. Jeff's a great guy and inspires a lot of people around here. It's nice he gets some recognition and what he needs to carry on.