Many of us here at The ALS Association are enormous fans of SpongeBob SquarePants. It has brought joy to millions of children – and adults – for a long time. So we were saddened to learn that SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg has ALS, as he said in a statement to Variety. Here’s his statement:

“I wanted people to hear directly from me that I have been diagnosed with ALS. Anyone who knows me knows that I will continue to work on ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ and my other passions for as long as I am able. My family and I are grateful for the outpouring of love and support. We ask that our sincere request for privacy be honored during this time.”

You can read the Variety article here.

Our thoughts are with Stephen and his family. We are glad that SpongeBob will go on and look forward to someday finding out the secret formula in Krusty Krab’s delicious Krabby Patties…