ww.unitedspinal.org/pdf/AnnualReport2005.pdf. It's a snapshot of the page taken as our search engine crawled the Web.
The web site itself may have changed. You can check the current page or check for previous versions at the Internet Archive. Yahoo! is not affiliated with the authors of this page or responsible for its content.
Annual Report
Annual Report
Fiscal Year 2005
Moving Forward Mission Statement
United Spinal Association is dedicated to
enhancing the lives of individuals with
spinal cord injury or disease by ensuring
quality health care, promoting research,
advocating for civil rights and
independence, educating the public
about these issues, and enlisting its help
to achieve these fundamental goals.
This Page: Board Member Thomas Cooke and personal assistant.
Cover: Raul Acosta and youngster Alex Pitts Dear Friends,
As we stand on the threshold of our sixtieth
year, United Spinal Association faces a
landscape of exhilarating opportunities and
extraordinary challenges. Fiscal Year 2005
was our rst full year as an independent
association, untethered to any other
institution and charting a bold new course of
nationwide expansion, offering our services
to more people than ever before.
Complementing our longstanding
commitment to serving Americas paralyzed
veterans, we are now reaching out to
everyone with spinal cord impairment or
disease and recruiting new members in every
state. We are pledged to help everyonemen
and women, young and old, and individuals
from every ethnic fabric in this marvelous
tapestry that we call America.
Were proud to announce that United Spinal is now the fastest growing
organization dedicated to spinal cord injury and disease in the United
States. In a year and a half, our membership has soared by over 200% and
we are discovering hundreds of valuable new perspectives and wonderful
new wellsprings of enthusiasm and energy.
Dynamic growth, however, also requires more from us. We must develop
ever more nimble responses to changing circumstances, we must
continually streamline our organizational structure, and we must clearly
articulate our vision of who we are and what we believe.
With it all comes a deepening of our commitment and the humbling, but
thrilling, realization that we now have more promises to keep, more funds
to raise, cures to nd, lives to change, and hopes to lift.
We embrace these challenges. We look forward to our next 60 years and we
warmly welcome your participation, your suggestions, and your continuing,
invaluable support.
Best wishes,
Gerard M. Kelly
Executive Director
Directors Notes
3 | Annual Report
2005
National Headquarters:
75-20 Astoria Boulevard
Jackson Heights, New York 11370-1177
Phone: 800-404-2898
Fax: 718-803-0414
www.unitedspinal.org
E-mail:
info@unitedspinal.org
Publications hotline: 800-444-0120
Ofces:
111 West Huron Street
Buffalo, New York 14202
Phone: 800-807-0191
5000 Wissahickon Avenue
PO Box 42938
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19101
Phone: 800-807-0190
245 West Houston Street
New York, New York 10014
Phone: 800-807-0192
20 Washington Place
Newark, New Jersey 07102
Phone: 800-807-0192
1146 19th Street, NW
Suite 250
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-331-1002
Wheelchair Medic:
United Spinal Association
Building #102, Duane Road
Fort Totten, New York 11359
Phone: 718-352-1623
Expanding Opportunities for Veterans
and All Paralyzed Americans Peter F. Addesso
President
Mr. Addesso, a Marine Corps
veteran, has been President of
United Spinal Association since June
2001. Addesso received the Silver
Star for his courage and strength
under re during the Vietnam War.
His relationship with the Association
began in 1968, and in 1978, he was
hired by the Association as Housing
Director. He served in that capacity
until 1981. After major surgery and
a period of rehabilitation, Addesso
returned to the Association as
Hospital Services Director. Addesso
made numerous contributions to the
membership, including the
establishment of the rst computer
clinic on the spinal cord injury (SCI)
ward at the Bronx Veterans Affairs
Medical Center (VAMC). He retired
as an employee in 1998.
Gerard M. Kelly
Executive Director
Mr. Kelly, an Army veteran injured in
1968, has been United Spinal
Associations Executive Director
since September 2002. Previously,
Kelly had been United Spinal
Associations Deputy Executive
Director since 1971, when he
managed the Associations
Development department, which
creates and coordinates our
fundraising programs. For 32 years,
Kelly assisted former Executive
Director James J. Peters in managing
all of the Associations programs by
directly supervising the associate
executive directors and group
directors. He also served on the
Board of Directors of the Paralyzed
Veterans of America for 26 years.
Kelly was promoted to Executive
Director by the Board of Directors of
the Association after James J. Peters
died unexpectedly of complications
from a stroke on September 6, 2002.
Paul J. Tobin
Deputy Executive Director
Mr. Tobin, a Long Island native,
attended United States Navy Ofcer
Candidate School in Newport,
Rhode Island, from which he was
commissioned an Ensign in
November 1991. His duty stations
included the Naval Training Center
in Orlando, Florida, and the Naval
Air Warfare Center in Lakehurst,
New Jersey. After recovering from a
spinal cord injury in August of 1993,
Tobin served on the United Spinal
Association Board of Directors from
1995 to 1996. During his
subsequent employment with the
organization, Tobin has worked as a
Hospital Services Ofcer, Director of
Special Projects, and Associate
Executive Director of Benet
Services. Tobin has also pursued a
Masters degree in Public Health
Administration at Columbia
University. He was appointed
Deputy Executive Director in July
2003.
Executive
4 | Annual Report
2005 United Spinals Board of Directors 20042005. From left to right: Marjory T. Regan, Edmund J. Rowan, Treasurer Martin Young,
Executive Director Gerard M. Kelly, Secretary Clair Russell Hesselton, William M. Murphy, Thomas Cooke, Kent S. Hogan.
Missing from photo: President Peter F. Addesso, Vice President Victor K. Cullen, Francis X. Bice, H. Larry Crawford, Martin Kace,
Leo Maniace, Carlos Rodriguez. Introduction
This annual report covers the period from July 1, 2004
through June 30, 2005, our rst full scal year operating
as United Spinal Association. As you will read, it was a
time of unprecedented growth.
United Spinal Association recruited over 2,100 new
members during Fiscal Year 2005, the largest annual
expansion in our history. This achievement was realized
through a variety of approachesfrom an effort as basic
as facilitating online enlistment, to more focused
relationships. Partnerships included the Kessler Institute
for Rehabilitation in West Orange, New Jersey with
whom a United Spinal team jointly developed and
presented the rst in an annual series of Life After
Spinal Cord Injury conferences. At every adaptive
sports tournament or event that we sponsored, we
also hosted a clinic for children and we found new
young members. Feeding the surge in numbers within
our ranks are three signicant internal staff committees
covering cultural diversity, womens issues and outreach
to children with disabilities. Some of their rst-year
accomplishments are presented in the pages that
follow, but the foundation that these committees are
building will enable United Spinal to continue to grow
our membership at an increasingly rapid pace in the
months ahead.
Long known as an effective veterans
service organization, particularly for
veterans with spinal cord disabilities,
United Spinal Association honored this
tradition of service by expanding it this past
year. Through our Wounded Warrior
Project we provided direct VA benets
information and counseling to newly-
injured soldiers at the Walter Reed Army
Medical Center and the Bethesda Naval
Medical Center; we helped re-introduce
many of these young men and women to
civilian life by partnering with Disabled
Sports USA for adaptive sports experiences;
and, side-by-side with wounded warriors,
we advocated for Congress to improve
government-provided insurance for soldiers
who were seriously injured in combat. At
the same time, United Spinal continued to
provide quality representation before the
VA, including appeals cases, for its veteran
members. Our cadre of well-trained
National Service Ofcers assisted our
veteran members to apply for, and receive,
VA benets they may be eligible for as a
result of their military service. All of our
members, including veterans, are now able
to have needed wheelchair parts shipped to
them anywhere in the United States from
our Wheelchair Medic division. Traditions
are not made overnight. They are forged
over time by striving for excellence, which
is how United Spinal views its continuing
resp