I knew we could count on the wonderful folks of Clarksburg!

Thank you for helping the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon raise $102,329 -- part of the record $54,610,289 in pledges and contributions nationally.

Hundreds of celebrities and nearly a million volunteers worked Labor Day weekend to help "my kids."

Yet, all our hats are off to you Clarksburg area residents for phoning in pledges to the telethon on WBOY-TV, for supporting firefighter "Fill-the-Boot" drives and other MDA events. Your caring gives tremendous support to children and adults in West Virginia and to families across the country.

Thanks to you, MDA maintains 230 clinics, including the clinic at the West Virginia University Hospital in Morgantown.

These havens of help are staffed by top medical experts dedicated to giving life-enhancing care to people challenged by muscle-wasting diseases.

Thanks to you, MDA will continue to accelerate worldwide research seeking treatments and cures for devastating neuromuscular disorders which affect people of all ages, both sexes and every nationality.

You'll be interested to know that the breakthroughs being pioneered by MDA investigators may also soon lead to therapies for heart disease, cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's, Huntington's, Parkinson's and cystic fibrosis.

For more information or to get involved, call your local MDA office at (304) 344-9887, MDA national headquarters at (800) 572-1717, or visit www.mdausa.org.