Featuring: Mike McCready, Pete Frates, Melissa Stark, Frenchy, Tony Thompson, Roman Harper and Marc Broussard

April 4, 2013: It’s 7:45am, and I sit down in my office. Each morning I would typically turn the floor lights on before taking my seat, reading the news and sipping a coffee. But for some reason on this day, I subconsciously kept the room dark. Suddenly, my phone starts buzzing repeatedly. My Aunt had passed away. She fought ALS with everything she had for almost two years and did so each day with a smile. She was a heartbeat of the family, and someone who lived with such spirt even in the darkest of times. Somewhere along the way of her courageous journey in dealing with something as heavy as ALS, she crossed paths with #37.

#NeverPunt

I remember it being an overly humid New York evening on Monday, September 25, 2006. One that warranted the rare occasion of me having the windows open in my shoebox, fourth-floor apartment on the Upper East Side. I’m bouncing around my room when suddenly my wire-stand that supports a 19-inch TV with a built in VCR is erupting. Steve Gleason, a safety for the New Orleans Saints had just blocked Michael Koenen’s punt. Curtis Deloatch recovers the ball in the endzone, and just like that, one minute and thirty seconds into the game, the Saints took the lead in their first home game back in the Superdome following Hurricane Katrina. On the sideline, Drew Brees pumps his fist and you can see his smile radiating through his helmet. Though such an electric play is a rare occurrence, Gleasons’s teammate and good friend, Scott Fujita stated, to Gleason, the play was “just business as usual.” The announcers allow the sweet roar of the crowd to take over the airwaves. Brees told NFL Films that he “has never heard a sound more meaningful than the ball hitting Gleason’s hands that night.”

I stood there mesmerized. A book drops from my hands and the thud of it hitting the wood floor was inaudible due to the transmitted exhilaration coming from New Orleans. I sit at the edge of my bed overcome with emotion and I fixate on #37. There was something so powerful coming from his demeanor during one of the most chilling moments in the city and NFL’s history. His Rockstar hair mixed with a Rocky Balboa eye-of-the-tiger look had just injected so much exhilaration into an entire community. It’s inexplicable, but somehow, Steve Gleason, a Washington State Grad from Spokane, who was an undrafted free agent signing, just seemed like the perfect person to do this.

In 2011, Gleason would be diagnosed with ALS. Over the past eight years, it seems the generosity and optimism spurred from that blocked punt was somehow just the starting point for Gleason in making a massive difference globally. To snapshot some of these accomplishments Gleason has:

Established Team Gleason – a 501c non-profit that provides for and finds solutions for those living with ALS

Been awarded a congressional gold medal – a bill was unanimously passed honoring Gleason’s work in ALS research

Pioneered the Steve Gleason Act, Enduring Voices- securing funding for speech-generating devices for ALS patients

Had a neuroscience center named The Steve Gleason Institute opened in his honor at Washington State University

A statue commemorating the blocked punt next to the Superdome

Created / curated Gleason Gras

Been a keynote speaker for Microsoft and at United Nations sponsored Social Innovation Summits

Worked with Microsoft to help create technology that helps patients navigate power wheelchairs with their eyes. Such technology is now part of all Windows 10 products

Held the largest collaborative ALS research summit in the world

Created and starred in a documentary entitled Gleason, which chronicles five years in his life battling ALS

Hiked Machu Picchu

Along with his wife Michel, became the father of two children

I’m typing this article with one hand because I have two fractures in my right (dominant hand). Gleason writes with his eyes because “life comes from within your heart and desire.”

At an ALS benefit concert held in Charlotte, NC shortly after my aunts passing, my cousin won a raffle where the prize was a football that Gleason signed by holding a sharpie with his teeth. To this day, my cousin carries the football on every ALS walk he participates in.

When I think of the simple purpose of Artist Waves, it’s to properly capture the ripple effect of the most inspiring artists and efforts. To practice what I preach, I must acknowledge that one of the most inspiring human beings on the planet to me, is Steve Gleason. I believe Gleason is an artist of life.

Today is Gleason’s 42nd birthday, and it’s with much pride and gratitude that I was able to collaborate here with seven extraordinary people who join me in celebrating his immeasurable impact.