National recording artists of the band "Blues Traveler" are coming to the Outer Banks this weekend, to help find a cure for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
The concert is Saturday, at Roanoke Island's Festival Park. The gates open at 4:30 p.m. Proceeds go to the local Jim "Catfish" Hunter ALS foundation and clinic and the Johns Hopkins ALS center for research.
Catfish Hunter, a Hall of Fame pitcher, died of ALS in 1999 at the age of 53, in his hometown of Hertford in Gates County.
ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that usually attacks both upper and lower motor neurons and causes degeneration throughout the brain and spinal cord. A common first symptom is a painless weakness in a hand, foot, arm or leg, which occurs in more than half of all cases. Other early symptoms include speech swallowing or walking difficulty.
