Triumph of the Human Spirit Info

[Eric Sheley <Eric@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, I had not originally planned on posting a lot of details about this, 
but as I have now been asked by several people off list to do so, here goes 
- - if not interested, just skip over this.

(in reference to http://www.triumphnet.com/st/upload/triumph.jpg)

I work for Kessler Rehabilitation Corp, part of the Henry Kessler 
Foundation http://www.hhkfdn.org/  (Another division is the Rehabilitation 
Research and Education Corp http://www.kmrrec.org/)

Those in the states may know Kessler for their work with Christopher Reeves 
after his riding accident. Basically we focus on state of the art, cutting 
edge techniques in the Physical and Occupational therapy arenas.

The award ceremony "Triumph of the Human Spirit" was originally designed to 
recognize patients that had overcome incredible odds.

This year there were two patient awards - The first recipient arrived at 
Kessler after a pretty severe stroke. His wife had been told by their 
physician that he would never walk or speak again and that he probably had 
only a few months left. His wife wheeled him up on stage, he got up, stood 
and gave an acceptance speech......

The other award went to a gentleman that had been involved in a serious 
automobile accident, and was told he would never walk again. He spent 40 
hours in an ambulance being transported from Florida to the Rehab hospital 
in New Jersey where he underwent weeks of therapy. He just flew home last 
week and was able to walk onto the plane....

This was followed by a couple volunteer awards - one gentleman was in his 
late 70s and put in 40-60 hours every week as an aid....

A few years ago, Kessler expanded the awards to begin recognizing employees 
that went above and beyond - this year I was one of the chosen ones (one 
from each division - mine being Ambulatory Care).

The whole thing was pretty cool - they flew me, my wife and my daughter to 
New Jersey (corp headquarters), we spent a couple days there, were treated 
like royalty at the awards ceremony, and then flew us home.

I still am really blown away by the whole thing. Based on the 
accomplishments of the other recipients I had originally declined the award 
(didn't feel that I was worthy of such an honor), but was contacted a few 
days later by the VP of operations and told that I should accept.

Being on the administrative side, I don't always get to see the success 
stories, so I am really glad that I decided to go.

Only downfall was that I had to cut my pony tail..... ;-)

- -Eric


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