Today's Sun-Sentinel Article

I hope you enjoy this article.
http://www.atbf.org/art/SunSentinelArticle.pdf

Heading Home....




So we left NJ on Thursday morning at 9:30am. We stopped at Tony Luke's in Philly to grab some food for the ride home. This was a great trip. I accomplished so much personally and for the Foundation. On a broader level, meeting with people from many organizations and institutions and networking to try figure out the best way to help people with paralysis was enlightening. I could not have done this drive without Glen (thank you), my wing man.

I had a 2pm tour at the International Center for Spinal Cord Injury Kennedy Krieger Outpatient Center (OPC) at John Hopkins. What an impressive state of the art facility! Of course, I ran into a family that the Foundation has helped and it was great to see them. I toured the facility and observed new treatments and equipment. After, I sat down with one of the doctors and discussed outpatient rehabilitation and what is available at different centers throughout the country.

Inadequate insurance coverage is still the main concern—Medicare/Medicaid. We concur that it is imperative to assist people and that the insurance should enable the spinally injured to stay in hospitals for a reasonable amount of time and also be eligible for sessions in a rehab center depending on their level of injury. This is our goal—to bring awareness about these issues and help change guidelines.

After these meetings we met Cousin Mike who was in Baltimore at the Harbour for a quick bite. He gave us 2 cases of fresh Philly pretzels to bring back to Steve Martorano. They were really good. We were back on the road at 7:30pm and drove through the night, arriving home around 10:45am. We had made great time on our return trip to Florida.

I was so glad to see everyone and to do so much the past three weeks, however, there is nothing like being home with the family and sleeping in my own bed. This might be the end of this trip, but my journey to make changes to help others is just starting, you watch. Stay tuned..........

Still Going.........

Yesterday was a day to regroup after the event. I had a great meeting with the staff of The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. We have work to do but we will get it done. I am ready to push this as hard as we have to in order to make an impact and overall change for paralyzed people.

Today I have meetings in NYC for Cafe Martorano's and will see some friends. Tomorrow I start to head south with my first stop at International Center for Spinal Cord Injury Kennedy Krieger Outpatient Center (OPC)at John Hopkins.

The ATBF Golf Event







Yesterday was an amazing day for my foundation. We had The 21st Annual John Vanbiesbrouck Celebrity Golf and Tennis Tournament at Ridgewood Country Club, it was the perfect day for golf. We honored two amazing people Mr. Dean Kamen, Founder/President DEKA Research & Development Corporation & Mr. Robin Smith, President Miami Physical Therapy Associates.

We had so many people in wheelchairs there whose lives the foundation has touched. The warmth and feeling in the room of people wanting to help even more fueled me to take my mission to help others even more. Thank you do everyone who helped yesterday such a success.