Last night, I attended a fundraiser for my friend Stacy who is running the Boston Marathon on behalf of Adrianne Haslet-Davis. For those of you who do not remember Adrianne, she is the professional dancer who lost part of her leg as a result of an injury sustained at last year’s unfortunate marathon event. Stacy herself was not far away, standing in the grandstands at the finish line when the bomb went off.
Some of you know that to run Boston you either have to qualify or run for a charity and raise money. Stacy is running for the Limbs for Life Foundation, an organization that is dedicated to providing prosthetic limbs to those who do not have the financial resources to obtain these expensive devices. This will be her second marathon! For those who have a below the knee amputation like Adrianne, the cost to get a new prosthetic is $2,500.
A single prosthetic above the knee however can cost anywhere from $5,00-50,000 depending on the level of technology and must be replaced every 5 years. Many amputees have more than one for different activities like running versus every day activities. Insurance varies state to state but even the best only cover 80% of expenses. Each year, more than 150,000 individuals join a list of over 4 million existing amputees in the United States. Disease, accidents, birth defects and warfare are the primary causes of limb loss. When a person becomes an amputee, they are faced with staggering emotional and financial lifestyle changes.
The story behind how Stacy and Adrianne met and built a beautiful friendship is pretty amazing and you can read it all here on Stacy’s Crowd Rise page but the short version is that Adrianne lived in Stacy’s building when the event happened but they were complete strangers. Stacy’s brother, Dan, had a friend lose his leg in a freak accident whom he later ran the Boston marathon with using a prosthetic leg. Their moment crossing the finish line together was on the back of the marathon program the next year. After hearing Adrianne say she was going to run the marathon on Anderson Cooper, he reached out to Adrianne and so the connection and friendship began.
The event was held at Forum, the site where the first bomb went off and even had a local sighting celeb (the guy from Jordan’s Furniture commercials). Forum was closed for many months due to the extensive damage from one of the bombs. I love giving them business because I know they lost a lot of money when they were forced to close for renovations.
There were tons of sports memorabilia, including a Hank Aaron signed baseball, restaurant gift certificates, tickets to the Celtics tonight and more raffled off as well as high speed blenders and vacuums. I was hoping for a vacuum. I’m getting old…
I did not win any of the prizes but friend Emily, who never loses a raffle she enters won a signed Celtics basketball by Bill Walton and pair of Celtics tickets to tonight’s game. My friend Faryn, next to Emily, just had her second baby! I hope I look that good just 4 months out.
Stacy’s goal is to raise $20,000, she is currently at 35% of her goal but after last night, I’m sure she is much closer. If you would like to donate, you can do so here. Of course, it is tax deductible 🙂
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