Cody's Excellent Adventure in New York City is a Great Big Step for First Step Foundation

NEW YORK CITY (September 28, 2000) -- Cody Unser's battle against Transverse Myelitis and all forms of paralysis found its way to the Big Apple earlier this week and Cody's First Step Foundation made a big step forward in a big, big way.

Monday night Cody attended the celebrity-studded birthday party for Christopher Reeve, hosted at the spectacular Fifth Avenue home of Johnson & Johnson heir (and New York Jets owner) Woody Johnson and his wife Sale. Cody met and talked with the paralyzed actor who has become America's most famous advocate for paralysis research since being injured in a 1995 horseback riding accident.

Aside from the A-list political, entertainment and media figures in attendance, Cody and her mother Shelley spoke at length with executives from the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, building a critically important bridge between that organization and the Cody Unser First Step Foundation.

Tuesday, Cody attended the annual million-dollar "Sports Legends" fundraiser at the landmark Waldorf-Astoria Hotel put on by the Buoniconti Fund to benefit the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. Cody was the special guest of Miami Project CEO and Medical Director Dr. Barth Green. The event is hosted each year by Marc Buoniconti, paralyzed by a 1985 football injury, who is the son of Hall of Fame Miami Dolphins linebacker Nick Buoniconti.

Also while in New York, Cody met with school children from the Absecon (NJ) Community Vacation Bible School. Each year the Bible School picks a charity to support. After seeing Cody's story on television this summer, the elementary and junior high students raised a record $1,600 and donated it to Cody's foundation. Another treat was having lunch at a toney Manhattan bistro with CBS News producer Chuck Stevenson who put together the 48 Hours story that first aired March 2 and re-aired this week.

Cody, on a three-day hiatus from Albuquerque's Bosque School where she is in eighth grade, was a featured subject Monday morning (8:15 eastern time) on the nationally syndicated Imus in the Morning radio show on WFAN. Renowned New York security expert Richard Bo Dietl, a regular guest with host Don Imus and real-life subject of the movie "One Tough Cop", spoke of Cody's Foundation, her courage, her battle against paralysis and her visit to New York to a national radio audience.

(Monday, Oct. 2, Dietl conducted his own charity golf tournament featuring Andre Agassi and many others. His tournament benefits paralysis research on behalf of the Michael Fund, named for the son of Dietl's business partner Mike Ciravolo.)

Those attending the Christopher Reeve birthday party, along with his wife Dana, included Barbara Walters and Michael Douglas, who share the same birthday as Reeve, plus Catherine Zeta-Jones, Dan Aykroyd, Billy Baldwin, Jack Ford of NBC News, Paula Zahn of Fox News, former New York governor Mario Cuomo, Robert Kennedy, Jr., Dick Cavett, Paul Newman, Kevin Klein, Phoebe Cates and amazing MTV magician David Blaine.

Cody met several of the guests and renewed acquaintances with Newman, whom she has been around most of her life at motorsports events and whose Hole in the Wall Gang foundation is the entertainment industry's largest private children's charity. Cody watched Blaine's incredible card tricks while sitting with Cates, who starred in one of Cody's favorite movies "Drop Dead Fred".

At the Miami Project "Sports Legends" dinner Tuesday night, Cody spent time talking with former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly, another race track acquaintance. Kelly and his wife Jill head up the Hunter's Hope Foundation, named for their son Hunter who was born in 1997 with Krabbe disease (Globoid-Cell Leukodystrophy).

Cody also had a lengthy chat about her foundation with one of the Miami Project's most prestigious and longtime fundraisers William Ryan, CEO of Post/Newsweek Stations, Inc.

At a reception before the dinner, Cody met and had her picture taken with Charles Barkley, Dan Marino, retired Rams coach Dick Vermeil, racing great Cale Yarborough and football legend Frank Gifford. Yarborough's heartfelt message to the crowd, "Keep trying, don't give up" was the highlight of the athletes' portion of the program. Other Sports Legends at the dinner were Michael Jordan, Mario Lemieux and Mary Joe Fernandez.

NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw and radio host Rush Limbaugh were among the 1,500 guests in the Waldorf-Astoria's Grand Ballroom -- a place where in two months Cody hopes her Foundation's Honorary Chairman Bobby Labonte will accept the 2000 Winston Cup championship trophy.

Shelley, Cody's mother, noted, "I was a little reluctant to take her out of school but they (Bosque school administrators) encouraged the trip and know how important this Foundation is to Cody. After this week, I don't think you can learn these kinds of lessons at any school in the world. We saw some old friends and made some new ones, and most importantly are building relationships with the Miami Project and the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation."

"It was amazing to meet all these people and to see how many people care about paralysis," Cody said. "It makes me want to work all that much harder on my foundation. It is going to take all of us working together to cure TM and paralysis. We have a lot of ideas for public fundraisers, awareness and cooperation among doctors and researchers. I believe my Foundation can help, and I believe these cures will be found."