Sports Legends unite against paralysis

CGG recently attended one of the most inspirational events we have been to in a long time, the annual 23rd Annual Great Sports Legends Dinner to benefit the Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis. The evening’s honorees included sports greats like tennis superstar Andre Agassi, NFL king Jerry Rice, Basketball hero Scottie Pippen, football coach Joe Gibbs, indy racing star Helio Castroneves, boxing legend Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, and Olympic volleyball player Gabrielle Reese.

Over 1,400 guests packed the dining hall of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel to listen to the moving words of the athletes. NBC announcer Bob Costas led the ceremonies, and said that even after covering the Olympics in Beijing, there was nothing as heroic to him as what the Buoniconti’s were doing to cure human life.

Nick Buoniconti, an NFL Hall of Famer whose son, Marc, was paralyzed playing in a college football game told CGG before the event, “The goal of tonight is hopefully to raise $6 million for spinal paralysis research. Our operating budget this year will be over $22 million and this goes a long way to help provide research dollars.” Well the night actually raised over $7 million for research programs at The Miami Project! It didn’t hurt that their auction items included anything from an autographed Miley Cyrus autographed guitar which went for $2100, to a “Sub-Orbital Space Adventure,” which went for $120,000. Philanthropist Christine Lynn received the Buoniconti Fund Award and then went on to donate another $1 million that night.

In 1985, Nick Buoniconti and Dr. Barth Green founded The Miami Project after Marc Buoniconti’s spinal injury. Now, The Miami Project is the world’s largest comprehensive spinal cord injury research center, with a team of over 200 scientists finding new approaches to challenges presented by spinal cord injury. In fact, The Miami Project recently petitioned the FDA to take the success of their innovative research with animals and non-human primates and apply it to humans. Nick Buoniconti talked about this exciting development and said “We think hopefully in the next six to nine months we’ll get that approval and by the end of next year, hopefully we’ll be restoring function to paralyzed people.”

The towering Gabrielle Reese accepted her award, mentioning that her husband “always says something – right now what we’re going through with the environment and politics, he’s like ‘You know, save the planet, save the dogs but really we should save the people,’” Reese said, “A great reminder and what I’m doing with my work is say ‘Listen, besides your friend and your family, the number one asset that you possess in this world is your health’”

Stay tuned to CGG as we bring you exclusive interviews with the sports legends!