“There she is, Exhibit A for Craig Hospital.”
With those words, attorney C.L. “Mike” Schmidt presented what could very well have been his most convincing closing argument — not in a court of law, but before the 775 people seated in the Marriott Tech Center’s Rocky Mountain Event Center for PUSH 2010, Craig Hospital’s annual fundraising dinner.
Schmidt, one of Dallas’ top defense attorneys, and his wife, sculptor Glenna Goodacre, were the honorees, the recipients of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Inspiration Award that is given annually to an individual or group considered inspirational to those living with disabilities.
Goodacre, perhaps best known for her Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Washington, D.C., sustained a traumatic brain injury in a 2007 fall at her home in Santa Fe and maintains that she would not have recovered as well as she has were it not for the specialized care she received at Englewood’s Craig Hospital. Craig staffers, in turn, say Schmidt’s devotion and sense of humor played an equally equally important role.
Another of her pieces, “Ballerinas,” was auctioned at PUSH; it sold, for $24,000, to Bob Beaupre, president and chief operating officer of PCL Construction Enterprises. Beaupre’s colleague, Al Troppmann, president of PCL Construction Services, chaired PUSH.
The sculpture, explained Craig’s chief executive, Mike Fordyce, is special because Goodacre started it before her fall and completed it following her graduation from Craig. Beaupre told me he will have it installed at his son’s home in California.
“The three ballerinas in the sculpture remind me of my granddaughters, my three little princesses,” Beaupre said.
PUSH began nine years ago by Art Seiden of Fuller & Co. as a tribute to the care his late wife, Julie, had received. The 2010 edition raised $500,000, which brings the cumulative total to $5.5 million.
The success, notes committee member Saul Rosenthal, is “extraordinary, considering the economy” but not that surprising.
“Craig is an amazing place, and once people find out about it, they keep coming back.”
Pierre Lacroix, president of the Colorado Avalanche, was the honorary chairman, and with his wife, Coco, joined a crowd that included former Gov. Bill Owens; Dr. Michael Salem, the president of National Jewish Health; former Craig chief Denny O’Malley; radio talk show host Dan Caplis and wife Aimee Sporer Caplis; such hospital board members as Richard Hall, Greg Austin, Regan Linton, Vandy Van Wagener and Reggie Fullwood; Betsy Mangone, Sharon Linhart and Daniel May of the Craig Hospital Foundation board; Don and Mary Lou Kortz; Ron and Linda Branish; Judy and Judge Lewis Babcock; Diane Huttner; Steve and JoEllen Cohen; Drs. Dan Lammertse, Scott Falci and Richard Stieg; and CBS4 anchor Kathy Walsh, who emceed.
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also, davidson and GetItWrite on Twitter
