Magee Rehabilitation Hospital 9th Annual Night of Champions fundraiser

Adam Taliaferro Gala 10/16/10
10/16/2010 Hyatt Regency Penns Landing, Phila Pa 6PM

Helping athletes who suffer spinal cord injuriesThe foundation provides emotional, financial and educational support to student-athletes who suffer catastrophic head or spinal injuries in sanctioned team events in New Jersey, Pennsylvania or Delaware. The foundation also provides educational and financial support related to the research, prevention and care of such injuries.http://www.taliaferrofoundation.org/#

On Friday, May 8, Magee Rehabilitation Hospital Philadelphia, Pa held it’s 9th Annual Night of Champions fundraiser at the Sheet Metal Workers’ Union Hall in South Philly.

Enjoying the cocktail party is VP Clinical Operations at Magee Rehabilitation Hospital Bob Kautzman, Mary Schmidt Read, Magee SCI Program Director and Magee Research Coordinator, Vickie Underwood, Karen Fried and Rick Read

It also brought out a few celebrities in Philadelphia, VIP’s included Adam Taliaferro, Jon Runyan, Mike Mamula, and Raheem BrockSean and Jamie Mulholland

Ken and Rhoda Fulginiti, with Eileen and Tom Duffy. Mr. Duffy is Magee’s 2009 Champions in the Community awards recipient. Tom is an attorney and is an avid supporter of wheelchair sports.
Many of you may recognize this fellow on the left, I did not as I don’t follow sports. But once he spelled out his last name the light came. Dallas Green with Comedian Joe Conklin or Sir Voicealot is the man of thousand Voices. He is most famous for his work impersonating the voices of local sports figures on the WIP morning show with Angelo Cataldi.
Adam Taliaferro, Erin Mulshenock and Kelli Ziomek. Taliaferro is a former American Football player whose recovery from a paralyzing spinal cord injury sustained while playing for the Penn State Nittany Lions gained national media attention. Given only a 3% chance to ever walk again, he began a well-publicized rehab at Magee Rehabilitation. After eight months of rehab, Taliaferro had learned to walk again. In 2001, an emotional crowd welcomed him back to Penn State where he became an student-assistant coach under Joe Paterno as well as playing in 5 more games. Today he is studying law at Rutgers Univ, and has created his own foundation to help support others with spinal cord injuries. The foundation was created in 2001, and continues to grow each year. The foundation has been said to raise over $80,000 per year for spinal cord injuries.

Indianapolis’s Colts Raheem Brock and Teela Spiller. Former Owl and current Indianapolis Colt Raheem Brock is giving back to his hometown through his new foundation http://www.raheembrock.com/ “Through my foundation, I plan to work with underprivileged children with an emphasis on education and giving back to the community,” Brock stated on his web site, http://www.raheembrock.com/. “I feel that both of these aspects are important to molding the leaders of tomorrow.” Vince “Invincible” Papale, wife Janet, daughter Gabriella and son Vince Jr. standing by a poster signed by him and Mark Wahlberg who played him in the movie about his life.
Magee Sports Teams Magee sponsors athletes in the sports listed below and works with several other sports organizations. These activities are coordinated through Magee’s Community Programs department. Magee supported athletes can compete in these sports:

• Wheelchair basketball
• Wheelchair rugby
• Wheelchair tennis
• Weight-lifting

The Night of Champions event included dinner, raffle prizes and live and silent auctions. Once again, WIP Radio host Howard Eskin served as the auctioneer, who offered to play golf at the Philadelphia Cricket Club with the person who won the outing, boosting the winning bid to $500.
Those in attendance bid on items such as a Phillies cap signed by the 2008 World Series Phillies ($850) and a B.B. King autographed guitar ($1850). La Salle University coach John Giannini had the winning bid on tickets to the Colbert Report. He got them for his wife for Mother’s Day. The amount of money raised for Magee’s wheelchair sports teams…well over $172,000.
To learn more about Magee or the wheelchair sports programs, visit MageeRehab.org.