By DONNA HICKMAN\Daily Journal Staff Writer

Published: Thursday, October 27, 2005
Updated: Thursday, October 27, 2005 11:26 AM CDT

Craig Thomas came to his alma mater Wednesday to teach the students, but the tables were turned.

“I thought I was going to teach them a lesson about God's plan and how we should not worry but we should trust in him,” Thomas said, “but that's a lesson they already knew.”

The skit they did before he spoke communicated that same message about trusting in God.

Thomas is living out that trust day-by-day as he copes with the effects of Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease. He was diagnosed about a year ago. Now 28, he has dedicated himself to speaking out about the disease. He hopes to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show and students at St. Paul and around the nation have written to the talk show host to plead with her to put him on. At this point, the show's producers have not contacted him.

On Tuesday, he thanked the students at Washington-Franklin Elementary School for writing on his behalf.

As a student himself, Thomas went to St. Paul and then to Farmington High School where he played football for the Knights. He is the son of Steve and Debbie Thomas of Farmington and his local family and friends have mounted an aggressive campaign to help him.

As he told the students about his illness, Thomas gave them the chance to ask questions.

One asked, “What would you do if you were cured?”

Thomas said he would love to go back to school and in answer to another question, he said he'd love to play football again. There is no cure for ALS.

When a student asked, “How bad will it get?” Thomas hesitated. He said, “That's a hard question to answer.” He paused again and said, “You can die from it.”

“Do your bones and joints fail or is it just your muscles?” a student asked.

Thomas told her it was mainly the muscles.

It was in May of 2003 when Thomas first noticed his muscles “twitching.” He saw a doctor, then another and another until finally the diagnosis came as ALS. It has progressed to the point where Craig has had to quit his job at a power plant in Nebraska.

“Were you shocked when you found out you had ALS?”

Thomas said he was.

“You don't think about that kind of thing. At worst, I thought I might have some surgery to fix whatever was wrong.”

He said one positive thing that's happened to him since being diagnosed is it's caused him to concentrate on what's important in his life.

“It's helped me to focus on what God wants me to do,” he told the students.

“Is it hard to walk?” a student asked.

“It's getting harder and harder,” said Thomas.

A student asked, “Why don't they have more scientists working toward a cure?”

Thomas explained that fewer people have ALS than have other diseases like cancer. He told them he participates in a support group with other families coping with ALS.

The students presented him with a check for $739.78 that represented the money they'd brought to school to give as their offering to God during the first quarter of classes. That will go to the Craig Thomas Trust Fund set up through U S Bank.

He thanked them and at the end of his presentation, they thanked him by giving him a standing ovation.

He said, “I just want you to remember these teachers and pastors are doing the best they can to raise you in God's word.”

Saturday, 35 teams will take part in the first Craig Thomas Golf Classic called “Swing Fore ALS” at Eagle Lake Golf Club. Tee-off is at 9 a.m. and after the tournament - between 3-5 p.m., there will be an auction to raise money. Thomas will be on hand to greet the golfers and share his message of hope. Representatives of the ALS Association in St. Louis will also be on hand.

Craig and his wife Erin hope to make a home in Farmington.

Incidentally, when one of the students at St. Paul asked him who his teachers were when he was there, Thomas called out the names of virtually every teacher in the room and added, “Just about everybody here was here when I was here. They're getting old, aren't they?”

The students laughed in delight.

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