I am so pleased to announce that the gala was a huge success! It was so beautiful to be in the presence of such wonderful people and such a reminder of all the love in the world. After it was all said and done, the gala raised just around $10,000 for my travels. I cannot begin to thank all of the generous people who, at many times, put their lives on hold just to make sure this event would be amazing.

A special thanks to Yasmin, Patrick, Julia, Lauren, Cara, Amanda, Kanako, and Erin for one of the most memorable, exciting moments of my life!

The Great Gala

This Sunday evening is my gala event. There are plenty more tickets available, so please pass the word along. In fact, the rumor mill called to tell me that there may be some national media there of some sort...shhhh. Nonetheless, the night will be filled to the brim of delicious food, great conversation, amazing performances, and memories in the making.

A brief agenda for the evening:

Doors will open at 6pm for cocktails and the silent auction browsing. At 7pm dinner will commence consisting of a brilliant Persian feast. Close to 8pm there will be a full program of entertainment including some words by Amanda Boxtel, who is a huge motivating factor in this whole thing and I am so grateful to have her! There will also be performances by kids in the community, of which I am absolutely amazed by. Following the program, the silent auction will be called. There are currently 31 items up for auction, including a week-long stay in Mexico! Ole'! The night will wind down with some casual time at the end to chat and dance, probably well beyond my bedtime.

I hope to see you there:)

Incommunicado For the Next Few Days

I am utterly thrilled to take a break in all of this hustle and bustle that I call my life to visit my dearest friend, Sarah, next week. Sarah will be accompanying me to India this summer as she has been one of my main supporters for the past ten years. Sarah currently lives in France (as of the beginning of the year) and so we agreed through a virtual handshake over the phone lines that we would share the transportation costs to make sure that I could somehow be a part of her new life in Limoges. Sarah is currently living at a Buddhist retreat center, so I will have the privilege to attempt some much-needed meditation myself.

Travel has always been a welcomed struggle for me. I think that airports alone invite such wondrous adventures. I will be flying into Paris, followed shortly by a train ride south...This sort of makes me nervous as I remember not being able to fit in European trains, or European anythings for that matter. Once I arrive in Limoges, I will be staying in Sarah's boyfriend's office where they are fashioning a ramp out of an old door for me as we speak!

To be honest, as uplifting and encouraging as my life has been the last few months it is quite exhausting! I am so looking forward to sharing stories about these remarkable moments over a cafe au lait with Sarah. It's been tremendously hard to only be able to talk to Sarah at limited moments between my days and her sleep. I am in dire need of my bestest friend, my #1 fan, and my soul sister Sarah! I will make sure to share with her all of the stories of my recent journeys here and hopefully I will do justice portraying all of the wonderful people standing directly behind me.

If Only In My Dreams...

Last night I had my first dream of being in India. I have been waiting for this moment; for it tells me simply that all true reality is first felt within your dreams.

This dream was made possible through all of the comments, all the emails, cards and donations, and especially the well-wishes brought on by the rippled-effect of people that I have come across sometime in my short 27 years.

If nothing more was to come out of this experience beyond today, I would be fully content knowing that my life has been changed forever. Few will ever quite understand the expression of love and support that I have felt in these past few months. It is quite a shame that the likes of this response isn't felt by all throughout the world as frequent as it could.

Simply put, I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for touching my heart the way each of you have. Your encouragement is immeasurable. Your compassion is unforgettable.

Rocky Mountain News Article & More

In today's paper there is an article about my trip and all of the fund-raising efforts. Thank you so much for all of you who have taken a moment out of your day for me...

Also, 9News is doing a two-part story starting tomorrow (Wednesday) night at 10pm. I anticipate the story will recall moments from my accident all the way through to highlighting the goals and expectations I have for my upcoming treatment. Stay tuned!

From As Far As I Can See

After receiving my first quasi-negative comment, I would like to take a moment to clear a few things up...

First of all, for those of you who don't know me on a personal basis keeping an online journal like this is going to be hard for me. To know that people are reading the botched up cliches mixed in with some stream of consciousness nonsense is scary enough, not to mention it being compounded with the controversy of the heated issue that I now appear to be the poster child of.

When this all began, I decided after a long two months of debate with myself to go to India to pursue something that has not been dared by many. My decision to go was a struggle simply because I have spent the past eleven years coaching myself into the belief that my life was complete, regardless of my physical stance. My hopes to walk again are small, partially because I don't want to be let down but also because I have grown into the life that I now lead and I am proud of it. The ability to walk does not and will never define me. However, what does plague me is notion that I may not be able to maintain my health and longevity over the remainder of my life. For those of you who don't know, statistically-speaking people with spinal cord injuries typically have shorter life spans than they would have otherwise had being able-bodied. If I could increase my circulation, decrease my wound-healing time, or even regain some core strength that would be far more than I had ever imagined and would help in aspects that you will never be able to understand.

I am worried that there are people who might be disappointed if I don't literally walk away from this, but they might not see all of the small improvements that will increase my livelihood, not to mention all of the emotional growth from the support that I have fallen on in the past few months.

Only recently have I developed an additional purpose to this crusade. In speaking with some students in my classroom one day, I quickly learned that most of them had no idea what stem cells even were, in their most literal, biological sense. This got me thinking and researching right away. More than ever it is important to me to be a part of something that is so ground-breaking and dramatic. I keep telling myself over and over again that all people in history that have been a part of something great and earth-shattering have been infected with the disease of criticism and skepticism. I want to be a part of the story, to spread awareness and education about stem cells to those willing to listen and even those who aren't. I want to help set the stage for people in the future afflicted with diabetes, Parkinson's, cancer, organ failure, and everything else deemed incurable. No matter the personal result of my experience, I hope that it facilitates others' experiences and journeys; to pave a pathway for a new sort of science.

All that I can hope for from this experience is that I learn and grow as a person. I haven't even left for India, nor am I really that close and I have already been witness to so much love and support from as far as I can see. The horizon is never-ending...

Black Tie Fund Raising Gala Event

I would love for you all to join me on the evening of Sunday, April 13th, 2008 at 6 pm for a fabulous Persian feast, dancing, and live entertainment to celebrate and benefit my upcoming journey!

The event will be held at El Jebel Temple in Denver and the cost is $100 a person (or $85 for students and faculty).

This gala was created by an extremely courageous and devoted swimmer of mine. She, along with other donators in the community have banded together to make this thing possible. Please come and share this event with your loved ones...who knows, maybe I will even wear a dress?!

To order tickets, you can either purchase them on the PayPal "DONATE" button or request them via email. Either way, please send a confirmation email to ryanmcleanfund@gmail.com with a current address and phone number in order to receive the tickets.