Rocked by the deaths of its founders and namesakes, the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation set out to rebuild its brand and infrastructure — and a renewed, more empowered organization emerged.
But Reeve’s work to advance spinal cord research wasn’t just personally motivated. The foundation represents years of perseverance and hope by many in the face of tragedy, its roots laid long before Reeve’s accident and inspired by another, less well-known one.
The story starts in 1982, when Henry Stifel, a teenager from New Jersey, was in a car accident that left him with quadriplegia. Henry’s family rallied friends, neighbors, scientists and local political leaders to form the Stifel Paralysis Research Foundation to raise money for spinal cord research. A few years later, in an effort to maximize resources, that foundation merged with the American Paralysis Association, which also had been formed by spinal cord-injured individuals and their families, and was brought under the APA moniker.
Going Forward
But Reeve’s work to advance spinal cord research wasn’t just personally motivated. The foundation represents years of perseverance and hope by many in the face of tragedy, its roots laid long before Reeve’s accident and inspired by another, less well-known one.
The story starts in 1982, when Henry Stifel, a teenager from New Jersey, was in a car accident that left him with quadriplegia. Henry’s family rallied friends, neighbors, scientists and local political leaders to form the Stifel Paralysis Research Foundation to raise money for spinal cord research. A few years later, in an effort to maximize resources, that foundation merged with the American Paralysis Association, which also had been formed by spinal cord-injured individuals and their families, and was brought under the APA moniker.