Harvey Tillis Photography

Mark Stephan stands ready to thank sup­port­ers of his 3,129 mile bicy­cle ride across the US.

In 2007, some­thing went ter­ri­bly wrong with Mark Stephan’s bike dur­ing a week­end bike ride.  His front wheel unex­pect­edly dis­en­gaged from the bicy­cle, cat­a­pult­ing Mark over the han­dle­bars and onto the ground.  His head hit the pave­ment at full force.  That moment changed Mark’s life for­ever: he became par­a­lyzed from the neck down.

Being a quad­ri­plegic hasn’t stopped him for a moment.  Just two years after his acci­dent — shat­ter­ing all expec­ta­tions — he climbed 103 flights of stairs to the top of the tallest build­ing in North America.

Now Mark is train­ing for his biggest phys­i­cal chal­lenge yet: a 3,129-mile bike ride across the United States to sup­port the Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Insti­tute of Chicago’s new Research Hos­pi­tal. Learn more and join the ride…

Tony Galvez, dynamic fundraiser for the Mus­cu­lar Dys­tro­phy Association.

Jose Anto­nio “Tony” Galvez took it upon him­self to start fundrais­ers for the Mus­cu­lar Dys­tro­phy Asso­ci­a­tion  for research, cures, and clin­ics for peo­ple with neu­ro­mus­cu­lar dys­tro­phy. He started with a car show in Oswego, Illi­nois last year and raised $3500.00. He and his fam­ily then joined the Mus­cu­lar Dys­tro­phy walk in Decem­ber and raised $2,000.00. Tony is wheel­chair bound, but that doesn’t get in his way. He says that he has been under­es­ti­mated by many peo­ple in his life so his quote is “Go Big or Go Home.”

Tony’s last fundraiser was a dance for the Mus­cu­lar Dys­tro­phy Asso­ci­a­tion to raise funds in Aurora, IL. He raised $9,339.00. He started by call­ing sev­eral Span­ish bands. Six bands were inspired by his story and played for free. La Sierra Ban­quet Hall offered their venue for free. 600 peo­ple attended. Tony is already plan­ning more events for this year.