Last fall, longtime City of Redondo Beach employee and current Director of Waterfront and Economic Development Jim Allen was given a dire diagnosis: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — better known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Already, Allen has had to cut back on his work with the city, where he’s worked for 25 years, said Steve Northern, a deputy fire marshall with the city’s fire department who works with Allen on the city’s special events committee. “He’s working from home three days a week now, coming into the city two days — but his spirits are high,” Northern said.
Northern, along with the city’s police and firefighters associations, has been instrumental in setting up the Art of Giving art auction, sale and fundraiser for the Jim Allen Fund, taking place this Saturday, May 30. This auction is just the latest in what has become a series of fundraisers to help Allen and his family through this time. Proceeds from the Redondo 10K and from the Mayor’s State of the City address have also gone to support the Allen family.
“He’s just one of those all around good guys that, no matter what walk of life you meet him, whether it’s at the gas station, or at work, or watching kids play little league, he’s just a great person,” Northern said. “It’s nice that everybody has embraced this whole thing.”
The event has some grounding in Northern’s appreciation for visual art. Experienced in setting up and promoting shows, he was inspired by a work he had at home, he said.
“For some reason, I was looking at a piece of art at my house, and I began to wonder,” he said, considering the idea of getting other people within the community to “pull pictures off of their walls, sell those and do some good.”
Despite the difficulties Allen is facing, he’s devoted some of his time and energies to helping to find a cure and assistance for those with ALS. “He’s becoming more and more outspoken,” Northern said. “Especially with the fact that people in Redondo are stepping up and doing this like this. It gives him the chance to be a spokesman for the disease.”
“This illness has devastated so many families, and I am committed to beating it,” Allen wrote in an email. Since his diagnosis, Allen has encountered “weakness in his legs and some difficulty in breathing.”
“ALS is mistakenly thought of as an illness only inherited from previous generations … anyone can get it. It does not have to be found among parents and ancestors,” he wrote. “As one of 30,000 people in this country with ALS, I am one of only 30,000 that can provide the necessary information to the medical community to, hopefully, find a cure one day.”
A disease that attacks nerve cells, ALS has no known cure. “Ultimately, this isn’t going to have a happy ending,” Northern admitted. “But hopefuly we can do some nice things that are going to make [Allen] more comfortable and help his family.”
Allen has a wife and four children.
“The guy is just…he’s so brave, and I’m just in awe of him,” Northern said. “I’ve got kids too, so I put myself in his shoes, and he’s incredibly brave, just a great guy. The city, we’re all happy to do this for him.”
The Art of Giving is Saturday, May 30, 4 to 8 p.m., on the second floor of the Redondo Beach Main Library, 303 N. Pacific Coast Highway. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased through the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce, King Harbor Marina, Amber’s Cove in Riviera Village and at the event. For more information, call 760-207-1354.
To donate to the Jim Allen Fund privately, visit gofundme.com/JimAllen.
