First Ameristar National Charity Golf Classic Raises $777,000

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First Ameristar National Charity Golf Classic Raises $777,000

Ameristar Casinos logo. (PRNewsFoto)

LAS VEGAS, NV USA 09/30/2004
The Buoniconti Fund logo. (PRNewsFoto)

The Buoniconti Fund logo. (PRNewsFoto)[RV] KANSAS CITY, MO USA


Benefits Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis KANSAS CITY, Mo., Oct. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- The inaugural Ameristar NationalCharity Golf Classic, hosted by Ameristar Casino Hotel Kansas City and heldOct. 11 at the top-ranked Tiffany Greens Golf Club, raised $777,000 for TheBuoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis. The Buoniconti Fund is the fundraising armof The Miami Project, the world's largest and most comprehensive researchfacility dedicated to finding a cure for paralysis. The golf tournament was presented by Ameristar Casinos and the Craig H.Neilsen Foundation, and was sponsored by key Ameristar vendors and businessassociates from across the country. Ameristar and the Foundation absorbed alladministrative costs for the tournament, so that all of the proceeds weredonated directly to the Buoniconti Fund. Ameristar created the annualtournament to provide its key vendors and business associates with anopportunity to make a significant contribution toward spinal cord injuryresearch. "Over the years, we have been fortunate to have many friends stand up forthose who can't. We appreciate the tremendous support and generosity ofAmeristar Casinos and Craig H. Neilsen," said Marc Buoniconti. "TheBuoniconti Fund is delighted to be the beneficiary of this inauguraltournament." The proceeds from the Golf Classic will be directed toward two promisingprojects which offer great hope for over 250,000 people in this country livingwith spinal cord injury. One project focuses on the next stage ofbreakthrough research where paralyzed animals regained 70% of their normalwalking function by using a combination strategy. This is a critical step toobtain FDA approval to move this project into a human clinical trial. Inaddition, the funds raised at the event will also be used to support a projectto increase muscle mass and improve cardiovascular function for those livingwith a chronic spinal cord injury. This research is critical to fight heartdisease as well as prepare these individuals for potential reparative http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/st...04165492&EDATE=

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The man behind Project Hope


20 years after he was paralyzed on the football field, Marc Buoniconti refuses to let the wheels of progress stop turning

By BOB GILLESPIE

Senior Writer



The man behind project hope

Marc Buoniconti walks these days: three times a week, a mile each time. It’s not the sort of walking he might have imagined himself doing when he played college football at The Citadel. Then again, over the past two decades, walking at all often seemed for Buoniconti the stuff of miracles.

The mechanical device that lets the 39-year-old quadriplegic go for a stroll is called a LOKOMAT. “I get strapped into a harness, like a parachute,” Buoniconti explains by phone from his Miami home. “Then I get wheeled over to a treadmill, and it lifts me up like a crane.” Other devices are attached to Buoniconti’s legs, chest and torso.

“And then I walk on the treadmill,” he says, and laughs.

The device exercises Buoniconti’s body, keeping him healthy and in shape for, he and his doctors hope, the day researchers at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis are able to restore his ability to walk on his own.

But there’s another benefit.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate...s/12975047.htm

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From tragedy, a mission grows


After Marc Buoniconti became a quadriplegic, he and his father Nick forged a new calling in life.

BY GREG COTE

gcote@herald.com

The doctor calling from Johnson City, Tenn., had not majored in bedside manner, or maybe just didn't have time for it right then.
Nick Buoniconti came to the phone and recalls he heard these words:
``Marc dislocated his neck. He's going to be a quadriplegic for the rest of his life. You need to get here right away.''
That was late afternoon on Oct. 26, 1985 -- 20 years ago this past Wednesday. Life, before that call, seemed idyllic. As if to mark the fact, Nick had been sipping champagne when the phone rang, visiting a friend on his farm in New Jersey.
Normally he'd spend those fall Saturdays traveling to watch whichever of his two college football-playing sons had a home game, Marc with The Citadel or Nick at Duke. But both had away games this particular Saturday, and so their father was away, too.
''A free weekend,'' he remembers.
Nick, the former Dolphins linebacker -- defensive linchpin of Miami's Super Bowl championships and great enough to later make the Pro Football Hall of Fame -- had by then retired from the NFL and was president of U.S. Tobacco, where Marc, who loved business almost as much as football, had a job waiting.
That was before the telephone rang, and everything changed.
Marc had been a linebacker, like his dad, converging that day on the running back with the ball, like a linebacker does. He made the tackle. He never stood up again.
Not yet, anyway.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald...l/13033598.htm

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Ameristar National Charity Golf Classic Raises More Than $1.5 Million
Tournament's Total Benefit to Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis now stands at approximately $3.5 million in Three Years
October 08, 2007: 01:08 PM EST

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The third annual Ameristar National Charity Golf Classic, which is hosted by Ameristar Casinos, Inc. and will be held Oct. 9 at The National Golf Club of Kansas City, has raised more than $1.5 million this year to benefit The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis. The Buoniconti Fund is the fundraising arm of The Miami Project, the world's largest and most comprehensive research facility dedicated to finding a cure for paralysis.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/...08102007-1.htm

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Ameristar raises money for spinal cord injuries



By RICK ALM
Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett was paralyzed from the neck down Sept. 9 when he suffered a spinal cord injury during an NFL game.
Within days, however, Everett displayed miraculous signs of a recovery. Last week doctors were encouraged he will walk again. If there was a miracle it may well have been the pioneering hypothermia research treatment developed by the Miami Project and applied in Everett’s case.
Every gambler can take a wee bit of pride in that.
Over the past three years Ameristar Casinos Inc. has raised more than $3.5 million for the Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis and the Miami Project through the casino company’s annual golf classic staged each fall in Kansas City. This year’s tally was $1.56 million.
Craig H. Neilsen, Ameristar’s chairman and chief executive who died last year, was a longtime supporter of spinal cord research after becoming a victim of a paralyzing injury.
Marc Buoniconti, the son of former Miami Dolphins linebacker, Nick Buoniconti, was paralyzed while playing football for The Citadel in 1985. He and his father created the family foundation in 1992, which is the national fundraising arm for the research group at the University of Miami School of Medicine.
“I’m thrilled and humbled that we’ve been so successful in just three years,” said Marc Buoniconti. “This achievement is a testament to Ameristar Casinos and their business partners, who understand the profound contribution this research makes to the many people whose everyday lives are impacted by spinal cord injures.”
Bus warCasinos in the New Jersey gambling mecca of Atlantic City for years have waged a “bus war” to lure East Coast gamblers with cheap or free rides and free-play coupons.
The war is spreading west.
Last week Chicago area gamblers were offered free rides to the newly opened Four Winds Casino Resort in New Buffalo, Mich. The tribal casino, about 70 miles east of Chicago along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, opened in August with 3,000 slots and six restaurants
Scheduled daily service was announced from several Chicago area locations. Some rides are free, while service from suburban locations costs $10 — but those riders get $10 in free coins.

http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/328394.html

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Ameristar National Charity Golf Classic Raises More Than $1.1 Million for Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis and Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation

Event Raises $4.6 Million in Four Years





Last update: 5:20 p.m. EDT Oct. 2, 2008


announced today that the fourth annual Ameristar National Charity Golf Classic, hosted by the Ameristar Cares Foundation, the Company's philanthropic arm, has raised more than $1.1 million this year to benefit The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis and The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.
The benefit will be held Oct. 6-7 at the Ameristar Casino Resort Spa and the Whitmoor Country Club. Scheduled to attend are former NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Nick Buoniconti and his son, Marc, who together created The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis after a college football injury left Marc Buoniconti paralyzed, and Alexandra Reeve, daughter of the late actor Christopher Reeve, who led his foundation's efforts to fund spinal cord injury research and treatment after he was paralyzed in an equestrian accident.
The event is dedicated to Craig H. Neilsen, Ameristar's late founder, whose injuries in a 1985 automobile accident left him a quadriplegic. Neilsen spent the next 21 years building Ameristar into a successful gaming and entertainment company with properties across the country. He also established and funded The Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, which focuses on sponsoring innovative research for spinal cord injuries and disease, and supporting quality-of-life programs for those living with spinal cord injuries and disease. Craig Neilsen died Nov. 19, 2006.
"It means so much to me and everyone at Ameristar that my father's commitment to discovering a cure for spinal cord injuries continues in this country," said Ray Neilsen, Craig Neilsen's son, and Chairman of Ameristar Casinos, Inc., and Co-Trustee of The Craig H. Neilsen Foundation.
Including the more than $1.1 million raised this year, the Ameristar National Charity Golf Classic has raised about $4.6 million in its four-year history, making it one of the nation's most successful fundraising events to benefit spinal cord injury research and treatment.
"We're especially grateful for the generous support provided by the sponsors of this year's event, all of whom are key Ameristar business partners," said Gordon Kanofsky, Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman of Ameristar Casinos, Inc.
This year's event to benefit two organizations
The success of the Ameristar National Charity Golf Classic has enabled the Ameristar Cares Foundation to broaden the beneficiaries of the event to include The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, in addition to The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis, which had been the sole beneficiary since the event's inception in 2005.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/ameristar-national-charity-golf-classic/story.aspx?guid={1C5617D8-B0F6-414F-9163-343804DDB970}&dist=hppr