Scripps sponsored the walk, which allowed us to have a table at the event and promote our rehabilitation services for brain injury patients - including our brain injury day treatment program, stroke rehabilitation, and driving assessment program for people with a variety of medical conditions whose driving skills must be evaluated before they can get their license back.
Our small table - simple but eye-catching
The driving evaluation vehicle is specially adapted with dual controls so that our certified driving specialist can perform on-the-road assessments for people whose driving skills have been affected by stroke, Parkinson's, MS, traumatic brain injury, etc.
It's hard to tell from this photo but an aerobics instructor held a warm-up just prior to the walk; it was fun to see several hundred people performing dance moves at the same time!
The walk kicking off - notice how gray the sky was! The other volunteers and I wished we were walking instead of staffing the table so we could have warmed up a little...The walk was a fairly small, very grassroots fundraising effort but my impression is that the local brain injury community is pretty active and tight-knit - and the collective efforts of a couple hundred people raised roughly $30,000 for the Brain Injury Association of California.
It's hard to put a value on event sponsorship - there's not a very concrete way to measure the return on investment we'll achieve by participating in the event - but a lot of people came up to our table to either indicate they didn't realize how many rehab services Scripps offers, or to tell us they received rehab care at Scripps and loved us... so from that perspective it was nice to be there and show our support of the brain injury community.
One thing I'll always remember is a gentleman in his 60s who approached me to say he thinks Scripps offers outstanding care, and he told me why he was walking in the event. His nephew, who is 33 now, was in a coma for three months at nine years old after being in a terrible car accident. He happened to have a birthday while in the coma, so the family gathered in his hospital room to celebrate. While holding the little boy's hand, the family started singing "Happy Birthday" -- and the boy opened his eyes for the first time. He fully emerged from his coma, and despite some cognitive impairment that he'll have for the rest of his life he survived and according to his uncle, doesn't let anything get in his way.
The man started crying while telling me the story, and later in the day brought his nephew over and introduced him to me. He was a really sweet guy who was recognized for being one of the fundraising leaders, and was one of the first people to finish the walk this morning.
It was a good experience and I'm glad I participated!
2 comments:
I agree, early rising on the weekend is hard. What a good reason to do it though! I wish there was a better way to measure participation in such events. I acutally spoke to students yesterday at CMU and told them you/an organization needs goodwill/relationships BEFORE you need them. This is a good example of Scripps building relationships. Good work!
I agree, early rising on the weekend is hard. What a good reason to do it though! I wish there was a better way to measure participation in such events. I acutally spoke to students yesterday at CMU and told them you/an organization needs goodwill/relationships BEFORE you need them. This is a good example of Scripps building relationships. Good work!
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