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Local MDA activist's funeral is today

December 04, 2007|Randall Patrick

Matthew Westerdale, a well-known fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association in central Kentucky and spokesman for people with disabilities, was laid to rest today.

He died Friday at his home in Winchester after an extended stay at the hospice unit of Clark Regional Medical Center. He was 32.

Westerdale, son of Mary Ann Westerdale and the late Richard Westerdale of Winchester, was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy as a young child, soon after he moved here with his family from Virginia in 1985.

Despite his disability caused by the muscular disorder, he graduated from George Rogers Clark High School, attended Eastern Kentucky University and worked for EDS, where he was said to be a model employee. He coached youth basketball and was a volunteer for his congregation, Grace Bible Church.

He was most familar to people in Kentucky as a fundraiser for MDA. In high school, he had baseball card shows to raise funds for children with the disease, and he participated in Jerry Lewis Telethons and many other events for MDA. He even went to Washington, D.C., as an ambassador for MDA to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act. As recently as this summer, he organized a fundraising party at St. Joseph Catholic Church, and had looked forward to making it an annual event. His mother said his family and friends intend to continue it.

"I feel like I've been very blessed," Westerdale said in an interview with the Sun in November, and said that helping MDA was a way to "give back as much as I could â?¦."

Westerdale's funeral was today at 11 a.m. at Central Baptist Church.

His family is asking that people honor him by giving donations to the MDA chapter in Lexington.

He was the brother of Richard Westerdale II of Abu Dubai, Miriam Fuller of Chester, Va. and Sarah Murray of Mackville, Ky.

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