Orange, CT – New York Rangers defenseman Tom Poti will join Calgary Flames forward Chris Drury and 8-year NHL veteran Ted Drury as co-host of the Travis Roy Foundation Invitational Golf Tournament. The annual event is held each June at the exclusive Race Brook Country Club in Orange, CT and has raised more than $135,000 for the Travis Roy Foundation, a Boston-based nonprofit organization which distributes grants to survivors of paralysis based on financial need and also supports research and education efforts relating to those injuries. The 7^th Annual Travis Roy Foundation Invitational Golf Tournament was held on June 24, 2002. The 8^th annual event is scheduled for June 30, 2003.

 

2002-03 marks Tom Poti’s first full season with the Rangers following a March 19, 2002 trade from the Edmonton Oilers. A Silver Medallist at the 2002 Olympics, he appeared in 66 NHL games last season, registering two goals, 22 assists and 44 penalty minutes. Poti, a 1998-99 NHL All-Rookie selection, has amassed 28 goals, 85 assists and 211 penalty minutes in 296 career NHL games. He skated for the Boston University Terriers for two seasons and in 1997-98 was an NCAA first team All-American, first team Hockey East All-Star and New England Hockey Writer’s Award winner as the top New England defenseman. Poti, a Worcester, MA native, was a member of the 1996-97 Terriers squad that lost in the NCAA Finals. Since 1997, he has attended every Travis Roy Foundation Invitational Golf Tournament.

 

“We are pleased to be adding a player and person of Tom Poti’s caliber to this event,” Jana Spaulding, co-director of the Travis Roy Foundation Invitational, said. “Tom has been a good friend to this event and to Travis. He has been integral part of the tournament’s success, and we look forwarding to making this an event he will be proud to lend his name and time to.”

 

THE TRAVIS ROY FOUNDATION INVITATIONAL was launched in 1996 by Chris Drury, a college teammate of Travis Roy, his brother Ted Drury, and Orange, CT businessmen Michael and John Ferguson. Michael and John Ferguson serve as the event’s co-directors along with Jana Spaulding, who joined the tournament in 1998. The tournament, which was originally formed as a small one-time event to raise money to offset Roy’s medical bills, has quickly grown into a major annual fund-raiser for the Travis Roy Foundation and has raised more than $135,000 for that organization. A sellout crowd of more than 250 golfers and 500 guests attended the 7^th annual event, which was held June 24, 2002.

 

THE TRAVIS ROY FOUNDATION was founded in 1997 at the request of Travis Roy and the Roy family. A small Boston-based nonprofit organization with very little overhead, the Foundation has raised nearly one million dollars and has distributed grants to more than 100 individuals who have suffered spinal cord injuries. The Foundation also provides research grants. Travis Roy gained national notoriety on October 20, 1995, when as a 20-year-old Boston University freshman, he was paralyzed from the shoulders down just 11 seconds into his first college game. Since his accident, he has joined actor Christopher Reeve as one of the most recognizable and articulate spokesmen on behalf of the disabled. A May 2000 graduate of Boston University with a degree in public relations, Roy is a popular motivational speaker and is the author of a book, Eleven Seconds, based on his life.

 

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