October 16th marked the American Wheelchair Mission’s inaugural “Mobility Heroes” dinner at Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica, California
This black tie event was sponsored by the Direct Response Industry, with special thanks to the Direct Response Marketing Alliance, ExpertPlanet, Mercury Media and Thill logistics.
The evening was emceed by K-Earth radio’s #1 morning show personality Gary Bryan and entertainment was provided by world-renowned vocalist Greg Walker.
The first award of the evening was given to 13-year old Mobility Hero Tyler Hochman who raised $42,000 as his Bar Mitzvah project to sponsor the delivery of 280 wheelchairs to needy recipients in Israel. As always, the video of Tyler’s distribution trip in Israel and his heartfelt speech left all of his family, friends and new admirers in awe.
Direct Response Industry leaders Jon Congdon and Carl Daikeler, the founders of Product Partners and Beachbody, were then presented a “Mobility Hero” award. Jon Congdon accepted the award on behalf of he and Carl and spoke poetically about the meaning of the word hero and how they were fortunate to be able to continue to support the mission of delivering wheelchairs, as well as numerous other philanthropic endeavors worldwide.
The “Mobility Champion” honoree for 2010 was film and television star Joe Mantegna. Joe was very gracious in accepting the award, and pointed out how grateful he is to be able to use the lens that is focused on celebrities to show the world the good work done by many organizations. Joe’s participation in the mission of delivering wheelchairs has made a great difference in many people’s lives.
The surprise award of the night was given to “Mobility Hero” Bob Read. Bob is the Knights of Columbus wheelchair chairman for the state of Florida and has coordinated the fund raising and delivery of thousands of wheelchairs to veterans across Florida as well as to needy recipients in Guatemala, Mexico and Haiti. Bob was a member of the American Wheelchair Mission / Knights of Columbus team to visit Haiti earlier this year to deliver 1,000 wheelchairs.
The evening was enjoyed by all, raised funds to deliver wheelchairs and said a very big thank you to many people who have made our life-changing mission the success that it is. The American Wheelchair Mission thanks the Direct Response Industry for all of the good work that you do.
For more information, articles, slideshows, and videos please visit the Direct Response page of our site which can be found here: http://www.amwheelchair.org/direct.html