Dear Friends and Family,

Many of you know our good friend, Matt Thomas, and that tragic injury he suffered. On July 9th, 2009 Matt was mountain biking with some friends when he was severely injured. He dislocated his C6 vertebrae. The resulting life changing spinal cord injury has left Matt a quadriplegic with no feeling or use of anything below his chest and limited use of his arms. Amazingly, Matt has remained positive and optimistic, which has been an inspiration to those who know him.

For the last several months Matt has been attending a cutting edge SCI rehab center in Carlsbad, CA called Project Walk. Recently he switched to attending a similar facility (http://www.vipneurorehab.com/), but with additional equipment. VIP Neuro Rehab has a Lokomat, Matt’s favorite piece of equipment, which is a robotic device that allows him to walk on a treadmill. There are only a few of these in the country and he is very fortunate to have access to one. He has made steady gains daily in strength and mobility, and continues to see daily progress. Every little improvement is a huge benefit to him physically and mentally! It is a slow tedious process and the name of the game is commitment and perseverance to run a good race. Believe us when we say that Matt has more than his fair share of both!