I remember my mom being very, very excited. July 20, 1969 was a Sunday night. At around 10 p.m. (we lived outside of Philadelphia) my mom gathered us in front of the little black and white TV we owned in our PJs. We waited about an hour for Neil Armstrong to get started. It was hard to keep my 12-year-old attention, and my little brother was half asleep most of the time -- although mom woke him for the "One small step ... " part. She wanted to be sure he could say he saw this when it actually happened.
As part of the lead up, I remember my mom literally saying, "If we can land a man on the moon we can do anything." It was a marvel. A scientific marvel.
So here I am last November, 39 years later, shaking hands with Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon. I barely spoke. What could I say that he hadn't heard a million times before? Aldrin is a long time friend of the Foundation, and attended our
A Magical Evening gala.
What I thought about later was how I still believe it. I still believe if we can land a man on the moon, we can do anything. Working here confirms that for me. I'm constantly in awe of our scientists and the marvels they are working on from a drug we are now testing that shows promise
protecting cells from dying immediately after a spinal cord injury to using human embryonic stem cells
to grow working spinal circuits in a dish.Scientific marvels. They are still alive and well. Many, many small steps are building to a giant leap.
Read more about the progress we've been making in research.
Rob
