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“It just so happened after I woke up, after 36 days in my coma, I looked up at the TV and saw that Dana had passed away … I couldn’t stop crying,” ABC reporter and shrapnel survivor Bob Woodruff said as he and his wife, Lee, accepted the Christopher Reeve Spirit of Courage Award at The Marriott Marquis in Manhattan. Aptly styled A Magical Evening, the gala raised close to $2.5 million for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.
Partaking of the magic, among many others, were Anne Hathaway, Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, David Blaine, Richard Belzer, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Asked what magical powers he would like to possess, Robin Williams revealed that he would boost everyone’s IQ by 30 points. “We’re only one species, and we don’t want to bottom out,” he explained. On the other hand, increased intelligence may bump up our frustration levels, for no matter how much brainpower we may possess, chances are we’d still be at a loss to comprehend the vagaries of life, as so poignantly exemplified by the fates of Dana and Christopher Reeve.
Meryl Streep received the Dana Reeve Hope Award, “I feel like I’m standing in light that they cast.” The Visionary Leadership Award went to Henry G. Stifel, founding member of the American Paralysis Association, which later became the Christopher Reeve Foundation, before Dana’s name was added. Not only is the foundation’s mission to improve the quality of life for the paralyzed, but also, ultimately, to find a cure for spinal cord injuries.
“We will make progress and maybe not even have to have this event because we’ve made so much progress,” 16-year-old Will Reeve declared, seconded by his siblings Alexandra and Mathew. Luckily, there is no shortage of Reeves to carry on the good fight.
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