Southeast Michigan Chapter  We Walk / Run / Wheel so that Millions will someday Stand / Walk Again!!!!
Sunday, October 19, 2008
“WOOSH” I stopped dead in my tracks as an intense wave washed over me. It was real, despite my efforts to get lost in the perfection of the IKEA showrooms, it was real. My best friend was lying in a hospital bed paralyzed by a diving accident while I was looking at four-post IKEA beds for my senior house. It just seemed unreal; it was the summer before my senior year of college and my friends and I were supposed to be meeting at the bar not the hospital. I sat down on the perfectly pink display bed and threw all of the pointless throw pillows because that’s just how everything seemed to be; pointless. Here he was fighting to breathe on his own and I was striving to create a bedroom that Martha Stewart would approve of. Fed up with the frivolous decorating, I went home and I ran.
When I woke up the next day the same wave of hopelessness washed over me, and after it knocked me over the way it had the day before, I picked myself up and I ran. I don’t know if I was running for Blake or running away from the empty feeling of helplessness. Eventually I ran my way to The Buoniconti Fund and I found that I was not pointless. My purpose was to fight for Blake and others in his awful situation, by fighting for a cure for paralysis. I began speaking to the directors of the Southeast Michigan Chapter of The Buoniconti Fund and in that I found a team of people like me who were indirectly affected by spinal cord injuries and together we ran.
- Meghan G., Run for a Reason participant for The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis
 The Buoniconti Fund is a nonprofit organization that was founded by NFL Hall of Fame linebacker, Nick Buoniconti, in honor of his son Marc, who sustained a spinal cord injury during a college football game. The Buoniconti Fund raises awareness and funds for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, which is the largest, most comprehensive spinal cord injury research center in the world and located at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. The Buoniconti Fund is one of the Run for a Reason charity partners for the Detroit Free Press Marathon.
The Southeast Michigan Chapter is now gearing up for the Detroit Marathon which will take place on Sunday, October 19, 2008. This will mark our 5th year of involvement as a Run for a Reason charity partner.
Anyone can join our team. We have participants that walk or run the 5k, walk/run a leg of the marathon as part of a relay team, walk or run the ½ marathon, or completes the full marathon either running, walking, wheeling or handcycling. We’ve had participants from 7 – 67 years old. We hope you’ll join us for another exciting event! You can do this!
When registering online, you can get involved by choosing The Buoniconti Fund from the Run for a Reason drop-down menu or you can email us at bfcp_se_mich@yahoo.com. Download our Fundraising and Pledge Form.
Sponsorship opportunities are available.
 
If you would like to become involved with the Southeast Michigan Chapter, please click here.
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