12-YEAR-OLD QUADRIPLEGIC GARRETT BURGESS TO HELP

RAISE FUNDS FOR SPINAL CORD INJURY SURVIVORS & RESEARCH

 

As 10-year-old, Made Father-Son Flight in Single-Engine Plane to All

Continental State Capitals to Raise Awareness of Spinal Cord Injuries

 

JERICHO, VT – 12-year-old Garrett Burgess of Chelmsford, MA will help the organizers of the VT Wiffle Ball Tournament to Benefit the Travis Roy Foundation raise funds for spinal cord injury survivors and research at their 4th annual event on August 12-14, 2005 at Little Fenway in Jericho, VT. Garrett and 8th grade classmate Bobby Vecchione will sell Travis Roy Foundation wiffle ball bats at the tournament, with all proceeds going to the Travis Roy Foundation.

“I’d like to see other disabled people have better accessibility in their homes or be able to do things outside of their homes in an accessible van,” Garrett said when asked why he wanted to raise money for the Travis Roy Foundation. “I’ve been lucky and have many of the things that disabled people may need. It makes me sad to think that others may not be as lucky.”

Garrett Burgess was paralyzed from the neck down at the age of four due to injuries sustained in an automobile accident. Traveling home from a skating lesson, Garrett and his father Benton were in a head-on collision after the driver of another car fell asleep at the wheel. Since his injury, Garrett has been an active spokesman on behalf of children with disabilities and for spinal cord research, including speaking before the Massachusetts State Legislature in support of a bill to make Massachusetts a “safe haven” for spinal cord research.

2003 CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHT FOR HOPE: The idea for the trip originated more than a year prior after a family “argument” when, despite protests from his father, a 4th grade Garrett insisted correctly that the capital of South Dakota was Pierre. That childhood state capitals lesson led to a month-long cross country odyssey to raise funds and awareness for spinal cord injuries and research. Beginning on July 27, 2003, Garrett Burgess and his father Benton, an amateur pilot, flew a single-engine plane to every continental US state capital and Washington, DC to raise awareness of and funds for spinal cord injury research. The trip raised more than $50,000 for the Travis Roy Foundation, Christopher Reeve Foundation and the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and received extensive media coverage.

The privately funded trip received the support of Senator John Kerry (D-MA) who personally contacted the governors of each state the Burgesses visited, helping to set up meetings with key politicians. In addition to coping with health concerns inherent with paralysis, the trip encountered severe weather in the Midwest and engine problems just outside of Salt Lake City, UT. With the plane grounded in the small town of Rock Springs, WY, 140 miles east of Salt Lake City, the father-son team caught a commercial flight to Juneau, AK so that a full schedule of events planned by the State of Alaska could go forward as scheduled while their plane was being repaired. The trip concluded on August 27, 2003 with a final stop in Washington, DC before arriving to a hero’s welcome at Hanscom Airport in Bedford, MA.

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