Advocates pushing for an ALS cure took part in a mass Ice Bucket Challenge Saturday outside Yonkers Raceway at Empire City.

In addition to raising awareness and money for research, the annual event also remembers Yonkers native and Ice Bucket Challenge co-founder Pat Quinn, who lost his battle with ALS in 2020.

His father, Pat Quinn, Sr. vows to keep up the fight, saying his son would have wanted it that way.

"We made a promise to each other that we wouldn't stop advocating and spreading awareness to ALS until we found a treatment and/or a cure,” he said.

The nervous system disease weakens muscles and affects physical function. Stephen Fray, of Croton-On-Hudson, was diagnosed with ALS four years ago, but is determined to see a cure in his lifetime.

"I am living proof, because I am on the only treatment for ALS, which only applies to 3% of the ALS population. It's the very beginning, but guess what? It's going to get better," he said.

The Ice Bucket Challenge became a global phenomenon in 2014, raising hundreds of millions of dollars in private donations.