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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Foley

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/5/08

HM 56

SHORT TITLE

"Cody Unser Day"

SB

ANALYST Shaya

Duplicates SM56

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Memorial 56 declares that Tuesday, February 5, 2008 be declared "Cody Unser Day" at

the New Mexico House of Representatives in recognition of the good work of this young woman

and her sincere and tireless dedication to the cause of stem cell research; and that Cody's

indomitable spirit be celebrated as the senate marks the day that this outstanding young woman

was stricken with transverse myelitis; and that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the

Cody Unser First Step Foundation, the Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelitis Center and its

medical consortium and University of New Mexico Carrie Tingley Children's Hospital.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

House Memorial 56 notes the following;

•

Cody Unser was stricken suddenly with transverse myelitis, commonly called TM, on

February 5, 1999; and

•

Cody, a basketball-playing sixth-grade girl, became paralyzed from the chest down and

has remained so ever since; and

•

The past nine years have transformed Cody's life, and she has transformed the level of

support, research for and understanding of transverse myelitis and other spinal cord

diseases and injuries; and

•

Cody's reaction to learning to live in a wheelchair was to learn to scuba dive and to create

a charitable foundation to seek a cure for TM; and

•

That foundation is called the Cody Unser First Step Foundation, and it continues to build

awareness of TM, promote medical cooperation and stimulate research; and

•

Cody accepted Governor Richardson's request to serve as his national disabilities

spokeswoman for his recent presidential bid; and

House Memorial 56 – Page

2

•

As part of her promotion of funding for research, Cody has successfully helped the

University of New Mexico become a center of excellence, attracting new funding for

New Mexico research on spinal cord injuries and diseases; and

•

The Cody Unser First Step Foundation has formed charitable relationships with the Johns

Hopkins Transverse Myelitis Center and its medical consortium affiliates, the

Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, the Kennedy-Krieger Spine Institute, the Miami

Project to Cure Paralysis, the Barrow Neurological Institute and the Transverse Myelitis

Association and, most recently, New Mexico's Governor's Commission on Disability; and

•

The foundation has awarded over one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) to related

research and education endeavors; and

•

Cody is an ambassador for the Quickie Wheelchair events at Sunrise Medical, for Johns

Hopkins' "PROJECT RESTORE" and for many symposia and consortia, and she hosts

the "Winners on Wheels" web site; and

•

Cody was named "One of the 21 coolest girls in America" by YM Magazine; and

•

Cody has won New Mexico Business Weekly's "Power Kid" award, the national

Prudential "Spirit of the Community" award and the National Philanthropy Day's

President's Award, and she was the youngest-ever recipient of the YWCA "Women on

the Move" award; and

•

Cody also won the Grand Prix Americas Foundation's "Special Achievement Award" and

now sits on the board of the Paralysis Health Action Plan Task Force in Washington,

D.C.; and

•

in recent years, Cody has worked tirelessly for all quality-of-life programs for people

with disabilities, including her own, sponsoring several "Cody's Great Scuba Adventure"

programs; and

•

the scuba program has now expanded, and Cody has enlisted other trainers to train people

with other disabilities in scuba diving; and

•

President Gerald and Betty Ford selected Cody as the recipient of the "People Helping

People" award for the "Swim with Mike" program; and

•

Cody was the first-ever recipient of the "Spinal Cord Injury Project Emerging Leader"

award; and

•

Cody has met with national and international leaders, including President Bush; Prince

Andrew; Senators Pete Domenici, Jeff Bingaman, Hillary Clinton and Bill Frist; United

States Representatives Heather Wilson and Diane DeGette; federal Health and Human

Services Secretary Tommy Thompson; and the late Christopher Reeve and his late wife,

Dana, to aid in their promotion of stem cell research; and

•

Cody has been featured in numerous magazines, bringing to light the realities of living

with a disability in the United States today, not only for those with TM but for those with

other disabilities as well, and advocating for stem cell research; and

•

Cody has been featured on Good Morning America, 48 Hours and CNN to focus interest

on persons with disabilities, and she is now the subject of a documentary entitled "Cody",

which is narrated by actor Paul Newman and produced by the city of Santa Fe and

Christopher Productions, that reveals Cody in her day-to-day life as a full-time student at

Redlands University; and

•

Having found her voice as a political activist early in life, Cody created her own degree

program in biopolitics, with the intention of changing health policy from both the medical

perspective and the legal perspective;

RS/mt