Coming Together - First Annual Gala and Silent Auction

May 29, 2025

Coming Together - First Annual Gala and Silent Auction

Quinn Brett

A little over a month ago, U2FP held our first annual gala and silent auction at The Bird’s Nest Cafe in Estes Park, Colorado. This inaugural event came about after my friend Melissa Strong, who owns Bird’s Nest, generously offered to support Unite 2 Fight Paralysis by donating their space, specialty snacks and staff time for us.

With this generous opportunity, I got busy rounding up local support and reached out to my industry friends. After months of phone calls and emails, we had nearly 20 amazing sponsors (listed below - thank you!!!). We also received over 90 donation items for our silent auction, both from generous individuals as well as our sponsors. These items included cool art, outdoor adventure packages, vacation deals and much more!

Over 60 people showed up for what turned out to be a fantastic and informative evening. Another 40+ individuals who couldn’t make it to the Bird’s Nest in-person signed up to bid remotely on our auction items.

Many of the artists and guests who participated were part of the spinal cord injury community. These individuals had first-hand experience with the injury and understand why U2FP’s work is so important.

This gathering couldn’t have come at a more critical time, as research dollars are being zeroed out and labs that are working on functional recovery treatments are struggling to stay open. (See our recent article on the 40 million dollar Department of Defense Spinal Cord Injury Research Program ‘SCIRP’ cuts.)

Colorado state representative, David Ortiz (who is also a spinal cord injured veteran), talks about the importance of U2FP's work.

Colorado Representative and spinal cord injured veteran David Ortiz gave impactful remarks about the need and urgency for functional recovery. I talked about my journey from mountain climber to SCI advocate, emphasizing the importance of including people like me with the injury in every stage of the process. I highlighted U2FP’s unique programs that facilitate this, including:

Placing people like me with an injury as consultants in SCI research labs (which we facilitate through our SCI Consultants program)
Being decision makers at the research funding tables (which we write into all our Cure Advocacy Network state legislation).

Of course, we had fun too, with live music, a little dancing and lots of joking. I even moonlighted as a vocalist for one song (John Prine's, “In Spite of Ourselves”)!

Since the auction, additional threats to SCI research funding have reared their ugly heads. Many of you are aware of the cuts to SCIRP. However, it’s not getting better. A US Health and Human Services (HHS) Department budget proposal was recently leaked, showing a proposed 40% cut to National Institutes of Health (NIH). These cuts included the elimination of the parent agency responsible for funding SCI research at the Model System rehabilitation centers like Craig Hospital, Shepherd Center, Shirley Ryan, and several other important rehab centers for SCI.

If these additional cuts occur, we will see a historic dismantling of the SCI research infrastructure and a loss of ¾ of the entire Federal allocation of research dollars. We are also defending against impending cuts to our Minnesota and Ohio SCI Research programs. Needless to say, we are burning the candle at both ends and trying to go to many places and do many things at one time, making your support from this auction and monthly donations even more timely.

We are so thankful for your support. Those of you who participated in our inaugural gala and silent auction helped us raise just over $20,000! Thank you to everyone who participated in this event. Your support is helping us power through this difficult time.

But the fight continues! For those who couldn't be there or haven't yet donated, please consider making a monthly donation. Your $15, $25, $50 or more a month can help keep our work going and our influence growing!