Amy Purdy Wins Jeffrey Winfield Green Award

Photo courtesy of Freedom Innovations, Inc.

Amy Purdy was honored as the first recipient of the Jeffrey Winfield Green Award, given at the closing awards ceremony at the O & P Extremity Games by College Park.

The award states, “The Jeffrey Winfield Green Award is of the highest honor and given to an individual, nominated by fellow athletes and peers. This individual’s outgoing personality and friendly, helping attitude makes everyone who they come in contact with feel better about themselves.”

Purdy is the co-founder of Adaptive Action Sports, and helped coordinate 13 athletes to attend the Games.

Green, who died in a January 2006 auto accident, was an O&P educator and speaker, and the manager of Technical Services Training at SPS.

21st Great Sports Legends Dinner Raises More Than $4 Million to Benefit The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis

Alonzo Mourning and Marc Buoniconti at the 21st Annual Great Sports Legends Dinner to benefit The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis.

The Buoniconti Fund’s 21st Annual Great Sports Legends Dinner held Sept. 20 at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, raised more than $4 million for The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.

For the past 21 years, the Great Sports Legends Dinner has honored more than 220 star athletes for their great athletic achievement and raised more than $33 million for spinal cord injury research programs at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.  The dinner has become known for uniting individuals from the sports, business, and entertainment industries.  More than 1,300 people attended this year’s gala event, which honors Great Sports Legends from different athletic categories.

The 2006 Great Sports Legends are: Lance Armstrong, Patrick Ewing, Emmitt Smith, Wade Boggs, Michael Irvin, Dean Smith, Tony Hawk, John Vanbiesbrouck, Michael Chang, and Beverly Kearney.

Desert Storm Military Commander General H. Norman Schwarzkopf was recognized as the Great American Icon. The Chambers family received The Buoniconti Fund Humanitarian Award, and Ameristar Casinos’ Chairman and CEO Craig H. Neilsen was honored as this year’s Outstanding Business Leader. Tom Brokaw again served as the Master of Ceremonies.

In 1985, Barth A. Green, M.D. and NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Nick Buoniconti helped found The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis after Nick’s son, Marc, sustained a spinal cord injury during a college football game. The Buoniconti family established The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis in 1992, a non-profit organization devoted to assisting The Miami Project achieve its national and international goals. The Buoniconti Fund serves as the national fundraising arm of The Miami Project. It is designed to complement the scientific accomplishments of The Miami Project by generating funds and high levels of awareness.

Double Amputee Scott Rigsby Finishes Half-Ironman

Scott Rigsby of Atlanta became the first double amputee in recorded U.S. history to finish a half-ironman triathlon on prosthetic legs. The South Carolina Half-Ironman Triathlon, which took place at the Greenwood State Park Oct. 1, included a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride, and a 13.1-mile race.

Rigsby’s goal is to compete in, and finish, the Ford Ironman Coeur D’Alene Triathlon in Idaho on June 24, 2007. “I want to eliminate any thoughts in the minds of double amputees or able-bodied athletes that an Ironman is impossible if you try to compete while running on prostheses,” he said. “I want to be a trailblazer for double amputees everywhere into multisports races.”

Rigsby also was the first man to complete an Olympic distance triathlon on prostheses last year. As a part of Team USA, he competed at the World Triathlon Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Patrick Doak, 3rd place finisher

The Ford Ironman World Championship was held Oct. 21 in Kona, Hawaii, and the winners of the physically challenged men’s division were featured on previous covers of Challenge Magazine. In first place was Willie Stewart (cover Fall ’98), with a time of 11:16:54. Stewart also is featured in this issue demonstrating a kayaking arm to Wounded Warriors (page 18). In 2nd place was Army Maj. Dave Rozelle (cover Spring ’04) at 12:46:26. Rozelle is a spokesperson for DS/USA.

Other winners were: 3rd place, Jon Beeson, 13:51:55; and 4th place, Alberto Ceriani (Italy), 13:52:10. Winners in the men’s hand cycle division were: 1st place, Marc Herremans (Belgium), 10:53:29; 2nd place, Akian Aleong, 11:00:51; 3rd place, Patrick Doak, 11:56:17; 4th place, Hannes Koeppen (Germany), 12:05:25; and 5th place, Marc Aten, 12:42:50.

Ironman winner in the non-physically challenged men’s division was Normann Stadler (Germany), in 8:11:56. Australian Michellie Jones was the top women’s finisher with 9:18:31.

Hack Albertson, a wheelchair hunter, has been signed by the World Hunting Association (WHA) to join its worldwide non-fatal hunting tour, which kicked off in Gladwin, Mich., this fall. He joins eight professional hunters on the tour. A former Marine, Albertson of Scottsburg, Ind., has won several Big Buck competitions locally and has harvested 12 trophy deer, one per year, since becoming paralyzed.

“The fact that I am in a wheelchair has just meant that I had to find a new and different way of doing things,” he says. “It has just increased the challenge of the hunt, but not allowing it to stop the experience. I hope that my participation on the WHA Tour will be an inspiration to other disabled hunters who still relish the challenge of the hunt. We are coming to win just like anyone else and this Marine can shoot straight. Semper Fi to those that know.”

Jan Dravecky, left, holds the signed bat her husband, Dave Dravecky, presented to U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, center, after Dave received the SPIRIT Award at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Photo by Shawn Moore, U.S. Department of Labor

U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao awarded Dave Dravecky, former pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, with the SPIRIT (Strength, Perseverance, Integrity, Role-model, Independence, Trailblazer) Award.

Dravecky was given the honor in conjunction with the Secretary of Labor’s 5th Anniversary New Freedom Initiative Awards to individuals, non-profits, and businesses for their outstanding efforts to improve employment opportunities for people with disabilities. The ceremony took place in Washington, D.C., in October.

Following his battle with cancer, Dravecky and his wife, Jan, established the Outreach of Hope ministry, which offers referral services and resources for those facing significant medical or physical challenges, especially people with cancer or amputation.