Leaf-raking ALS fundraiser enters poignant third season

by Judy Stringer

It’s only been three years since Brady Yozwiak – with the help and support of his mom Jen and his little sister Brooklyn – picked up a rake and began clearing leaves for his Clayton Court neighbors to raise money for ALS, a disease that was already hindering his father Chris’ ability to walk and talk.

In that short time, however, the Yozwiak trio has amassed a legion of 70-some young rakers, who travel all over Hudson and Northeast Ohio on fall weekends, gathering leaves along with donations that have totaled a whopping $200,000.

“It’s been incredible to see the outpouring of support,” Jen said. “People in Hudson have been amazing but even outside of here. We were invited to Shaker Heights last year to do an event, and a huge amount of people we don’t know showed up and said, ‘We are just here to help rake.’ Things like that are a reminder that there’s a lot of good people in the world.”

Jen and Brady admit, however, that 2024 will be a challenging season for “Clayton Rakes,” the name then 8-year-old Brady gave to his fundraising endeavor back in 2021. Chris died on Jan. 28, three-and-a-half years after his diagnosis.

“Because it’s the first season without Chris, we’re doing it in a different mindset this year. We have to do everything we can to keep his memory alive,” Jen said.

ALS, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, is a devastating neurodegenerative disease that gradually destroys motor neurons, the nerve cells responsible for controlling voluntary muscles. For Chris, the first sign of something wrong was a persistent twitch in his arm at the age of 45, according to Jen. By the time the couple sought a medical evaluation six weeks in, the twitching had expanded to other parts of his body. He was tested for Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and various other maladies at the Cleveland Clinic and at the Mayo Clinic before doctors ruled out everything else and diagnosed him with ALS.

“A lot of that happened during COVID, so we were stuck at home, staring at each other, and every day it seemed like there was a new symptom,” Jen recalled. “Like one of the first things to go was the fatty muscle tissue between his thumb and palm. He’d say, ‘Does this look different?’”

By mid-2021, Chris couldn’t walk or talk. He lost his ability to eat and swallow shortly after. In the final year of his life, he was bedridden.

“It’s so hard to imagine that in 2024, we do not have a truly viable treatment for ALS,” Jen said. “Nothing. Lou Gehrig died 83 years ago and still nothing.”

Jen and Brady felt hopeless and helpless, watching Chris deteriorate in front of their eyes. To combat those feelings, they began thinking about ways to raise money for an ALS cure.

“I just thought of trying to do something for my dad, and I wanted to involve people, and I wanted to make it something really fun,” explained Brady, now 11. “And my dad loved raking. He loved anything related to landscaping. So, I had the idea of just inviting friends over to see if they wanted to rake and raise money for my dad. … In our first week, mostly just doing our street, we got $7,500.”

“It was also an activity that Chris, at least at the time, could come to and see all these people who were supporting us, but also something that we could continue on after he was gone,” Jen added. 

This Brady bunch – made up of classmates, neighbors and teammates from the Hudson Hawks and the Hudson Baseball Association – raked in $60,000 in its inaugural season. Jen said 100% of those donations, and every penny collected since, have been given to the ALS Therapy Development Institute, the largest drug discovery institute in the world focused solely on finding treatments for ALS.

“It was started by a family whose son died of ALS,” Jen said. “We love the mission and that it is family focused.”

Ever expanding their fall fundraiser, the Yozwiaks worked with ALS TDI in 2023 to launch “Rake for ALS,” a nationwide program that empowers individuals to organize community service events, such as raking leaves or other yard work, to raise funds for ALS research. While anyone can participate, Jen believes this type of fundraiser is an excellent chance to engage the younger generation in “happily and selflessly giving back.”

This year, in an especially moving tribute to Chris, Jen has secured Saturday, Nov. 2 – Chris’ birthday – as the National Day of Raking. 

“As much as I love and support Rake for ALS,” she said, “the reality of teams of people getting together and raking leaves on any given weekend is less likely than one day in which people would go out and do something in their own yard to fight this awful and incurable disease.”

To donate, visit fundraise.als.net/team/claytonrakes. To learn more about Rake for All, visit fundraise.als.net/rake. ∞

On our cover (photo): Clayton Court residents Brady (11) and Brooklyn (8) Yozwiak – with the help of their mom, Jen – recruit friends and teammates to help them rake leaves and raise money for ALS, an incurable, fatal disease, which claimed the life of their father, Chris, earlier this year. For the past three years, “Clayton Rakes” teams have cleaned up yards throughout Hudson and in other cities like Rocky River and Shaker Heights. Photo by K. Garred.

The Yozwiaks, (l-r) Brooklyn, Jen and Brady, spearhead a fall-
inspired ALS fundraiser that has raised $200,000 in search of
a cure for ALS. Photo by K. Garred.

The 2024 “Clayton Rakes” season is all
about keeping Chris Yozwiak’s memory
alive. Photo by K. Garred.

Brady Yozwiak started “Clayton Rakes,”
a leaf-cleanup and ALS fundraising en-
terprise, in 2022, following his father’s
diagnosis of the disease. Photo submitted.