Reeve Foundation Paralysis Community

I've written a lot about David Shannon and Chris Watkins. Under the banner of Team Independence '09, went to the North Pole together just a few weeks ago,
 making David the first-ever person living with quadriplegia to go there.

In all my talks with them, Chris had only said, "I've done so other stuff like this." I figured he ran a marathon (which Team Reeve can help you do BTW) or something. Turns out he climbed Mount Overshot in 003 with among others, 5 folks in wheelchairs.

Chris is being kind enough to introducing the Foundation to some of these other amazing people. Here is what he wrote:

"The Team Independence 09  project had a real genesis in my involvement with a project in 2003 where I became a very good  friend of Gene Rodgers who is a quadriplegic buddy from Austin Texas. David Shannon and friend from Thunder Bay helped doing PR back home and that is when we discussed the North Pole.

I was on the disability trek and summit team of Team Everest 03. This was a project lead by Gary Guller, a one armed mountain climber from Texas as well.  He is also a very good friend of mine and gained a great deal of fame through his summit of Everest that year. The first time in history.

So the three of us, Gary Guller, Gene Rodgers and I, have this significant history in an amazing event that has been on the documentary channel and is a movie that has won awards in film  festivals all around the world:  Team Everest "A Himalayan Journey."  

All told there were twenty of us with disabilities that went on the trek to Mount Everest.  This including five in wheel chairs two with  quadriplegia, two with para and one with spina bifida.  It is a great story of amazing human endurance and we one the Presidents Award of Fhoughitness and the Barbara Jordan Media Award for the Dallas Morning News coverage of the event.

Regards

Chris Watkins

Here is the website for the film.

We have the film in our library which you can borrow for free, and I'm sure you can rent it just about anywhere.

Here is the story about Dave and Chris going to the North Pole.

Rob