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Community Corner

Local Rehabilitation Agency Coordinates Walk to Raise Brain Trauma Awareness

Rehabilitation Specialists of Fair Lawn, in conjunction with the Brain Injury Association of New Jersey, helped draw over 200 participants to a fundraiser at Saddle River County Park on Saturday.

A silent epidemic, traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects 1.4 million Americans each year. Fair Lawn-based Rehabilitation Specialists, however, is anything but silent in its efforts to raise awareness about the condition.

On Saturday morning, nearly 200 participants–among them TBI victims and their families and friends–gathered for breakfast to fuel up for the Brain Injury Association of New Jersey's (BIANJ) Walk for Thought/Cycle for Saftey in the Dunkerhook section of Saddle River County Park in Paramus. The Rehabilitation Specialists brain trauma treatment agency–located at 18-01 Pollitt Drive in Fair Lawn–sponsored and coordinated the event with the help of its own staff members, patients' families, and other volunteers.

According to Rehabilitation Specialists, annual cases of TBI are more pervasive than breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, and HIV/AIDS combined. Through the walk, the organization hoped to heighten concern within the community.  

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"Today is about advocacy," Rehabilitation Specialists Marketing and Public Relations Director Cindy Dittfield said.

Bergen County Executive Dennis McNerny mingled with the coordinators, including Rehabilitation Specialists' President Virgilio Caraballo.

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"We support all the walk-a-thons in the park; brain injury is an important cause and it raises a certain awareness," McNerny said. "I'm here to advocate for it as well."

Adults paid an entry fee of $25 and participants collected donations from supporters prior to the event. BIANJ, a New Brunswick-based non-profit organization, awards a trophy to both the highest individual and highest team fundraisers, and the last few years, the top fundraiser has been Jordan Boyd of Fair Lawn, said Bill Kolbenschlag, a spokesperson for BIANJ.

Boyd, who rides his cycle at the event, was injured at the age of 4, when he was hit by a car. Now in his early 20s, he is living on his own for the first time and has already raised $1,400 for this year's fundraiser. The organization will continue to collect donations until October 31 at: http://www.active.com/donate/bianj.   Winners will be announced after that date.

Dittfield detailed the dangers of brain trauma to Montclair State University's Greek Council last year. Consequently, MSU sorority Mu Sigma Epsilon rallied support prior to the walk through a campus event called "My Head Hurts," which featured Dittfield and a TBI patient as guest speakers. The sororities, dressed in their Greek apparel, participated in the mile and a half walk and championed for widespread awareness of brain injury.

"Everybody was really interested [in 'My Head Hurts'] because it was the first time our campus ever really heard about it," said Mu Sigma Epsilon sister Genesis Bravo. "We raised money at the event and donated it here today."

BIANJ and Rehabilitation Specialists aim to publicize the fatal risks of sport-related head injuries. Paterson's Rising Stars Foundation—a non-profit organization founded by NFL players Gerald Hayes and Mike Adams that focuses on bettering the lives of inner-city youths—gathered at the informative affair. The foundation created Paterson's Silk City Cardinals youth football team and encouraged the team's young athletes to attend.

"Football is a contact sport, so we are more than happy to be here and learn about the dangers," said Jarrod Rogers, a member of the Rising Stars Foundation.

Children were given educational coloring books, which creatively reinforced the idea of brain safety. 

Hawthorne Mayor Richard S. Goldberg attended the fundraiser to show support for the two residential homes in his town with patients of Rehabilitation Specialists.

"I look at all these groups and friends coming together and I find it's almost like having a reunion," Goldberg said, as he chatted with friends. 

Last year, the event raised $50,000, and according to the BIANJ president & CEO Barbara Geiger Parker, it will most likely reach that goal this year. 

"Today's turnout has been more than anything we've had in past years," Rehabilitation Specialists Occupational Therapist Stephanie Blodgett said.

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