A Celebration of Heroes, Heart & Hope Gala

On behalf of the entire CAF family, we hope that you and your family are safe and healthy during these unprecedented times.

As you know we were forced to cancel this year’s A Celebration of Heroes Heart & Hope Gala event scheduled for June 2nd. While there is tremendous disappointment as we can’t gather together in NYC to witness the challenged athlete stories, we face the greater tragedy of the devastating financial hit to CAF’s programs, leaving our challenged athletes and programs at significant risk. This risk affects everything we’ve worked so hard to build over the past 14 years of the Gala here in NY and globally.

We hope you will continue your support of CAF and the Gala by giving directly to our programs.

During this COVID19 pandemic, we have seen issues quickly escalate within our vulnerable CAF community including, isolation, PTSD, financial stress, increased mental and physical health risk and restriction from sports.

• 62% of families earn less than $50,000 per year and have less access to health and community resources
• Over 50% of individuals served are immunocompromised (cancer survivors, spinal cord injuries, heart issues) that put them at greater risk from COVID-19
• Our injured military veterans and first responders are experiencing greater PTSD and need our CAF community

The Heroes, Heart and Hope Gala revenue (representing 85% of our local NY fundraising and 20% of the total organization) is needed to fund grants to athletes here and across the world this upcoming year, as well as adaptive sports clinics, athlete mentorship and outreach through our School Program.

Even without an event this year, we believe our show of unity around CAF will get us through this difficult year.

Thank you so much.

Sincerely,
Scott Stackman
A Celebration of Heroes, Heart & Hope Gala Founder

Virginia Tinley
Challenged Athletes Foundation, Chief Executive Director

Photos from the 2019 Heroes, Heart and Hope Gala

Enjoy the 2019 highlight video: