The Muscular Dystrophy Association has named Shane Bourque of Hope Valley the recipient of its 2011 Robert Ross Personal Achievement Award for Rhode Island.
Bourque, 19, was selected for MDA’s highest achievement award in Rhode Island for his courageous spirit and outstanding community service in behalf of people with disabilities.
Bourque has Becker muscular dystrophy, which causes muscle weakness and atrophy. He recently finished his first year at Rhode Island College, majoring in journalism and broadcasting. Since receiving his diagnosis at the age of 7, Bourque and his family have been very active in a wide variety of MDA events.
In addition to serving two terms (2004 and 2005) as MDA’s Goodwill Ambassador for Rhode Island, Bourque has been involved with the local broadcast of the MDA Labor Day Telethon, and he and his family were featured nationally during the 2003 Telethon in Los Angeles. Over the years, he has been actively involved in many MDA fundraising events including Shamrock sales and Muscle Walks. He also created a piece of artwork which he donated to the MDA Art Collection.
“It gives me great joy to announce that Shane Bourque is Rhode Island’s Robert Ross MDA Personal Achievement Award recipient for 2011,” said MDA President & CEO Gerald C. Weinberg. “He is a wonderful example of the kind of leadership that people with disabilities contribute to their communities every day.”
Bourque was selected as Rhode Island’s state award recipient after having been selected for a local award by MDA’s Greater Rhode Island Chapter.
One person will be selected from among all the state honorees around the country and named MDA’s national 2012 Robert Ross Personal Achievement Award recipient.
The award is named in memory of Robert Ross, MDA’s longtime chief executive who died in 2006. Ross created the Personal Achievement Award program in 1992 to recognize the exemplary accomplishments and community service of people who have any of the 40-plus neuromuscular diseases for which MDA seeks treatments and cures.
MDA’s 2011 national award recipient is Thomas Hale Arrington III of Chesapeake, Va. Mr. Arrington is a clean-energy entrepreneur who founded Atlantic Wind Energy, a company that promotes the use of renewable energy. He currently is president of Tidewater Biodiesel, a company that plans to produce fuel from waste vegetable oil. Arrington, 48, has facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy.
MDA is the nonprofit health agency dedicated to curing muscular dystrophy, ALS and related diseases by funding worldwide research. The Association also provides comprehensive health care and support services, advocacy and education.
For residents with muscular dystrophy and related diseases in Rhode Island, MDA maintains a clinic at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence.
The 46th annual MDA Labor Day Telethon will air Sunday, Sept. 4 on from 6 p.m. to midnight on WLNE-ABC 6 in Rhode Island.
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