A Random Email Turns into a Unique Event
Last year at this time I took a chance on a random email.
The email was from the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons Foundation (ASESF) leaders soliciting host cities for National Shoulder and Elbow Week 2024.
The ASES is a professional organization to which I belong that promotes research, education and outreach for shoulder and elbow conditions. The ASESF (its fundraising and outreach arm) decided a few years ago to designate one week per year as “National Shoulder and Elbow Week (NSEW).”
Much like October is “Breast Cancer Awareness Month,” National Shoulder and Elbow Week is meant to raise funding and awareness for painful and debilitating conditions that affect the shoulder and elbow.
To that end during NSEW the ASESF promotes a series of local events around the country bringing together patients, doctors, and partners to gather, meet, eat, drink, learn and have fun raising awareness for shoulder and elbow research, education and outreach at interesting venues around the country.
Last year around this time I answered that email. I filled out the ASESF questionnaire and told the committee why Buffalo should be a host city for NSEW and sent in my response.
The committee took a chance on us and today we are 74 days from hosting our event on May 17, 2024 at the Greatbatch Pavilion and Darwin Martin House. My subcommittee members and I have been working hard over the last year to organize this event and are looking forward to bringing it to fruition.
It’s going to be a unique event. As the “architects” and “builders” of the medical world orthopedic surgeons often reconstruct people’s bodies. We decided to play on that theme to invite Dennis Maher a brilliant architect to the Darwin Martin House an iconic Frank Lloyd Wright designed home, to discuss his innovative Assembly House 150 project in Downtown Buffalo https://www.assemblyhouse150.org/. Dennis is a visionary who is has created a space that is part workshop, part art studio, part training ground for the building crafts and part living laboratory. Come hear Dennis talk about this fascinating project that is reclaiming Buffalo’s stunning architectural past and transforming it with an eye toward the future.
We are also holding a live auction commandeered by our very own happy double shoulder replacement patient Kelly Schultz, owner of Schultz Auctioneers https://schultzauctioneers.net/about/ and Schultz Antiques https://kellyschultzantiques.com/ . We will be auctioning off a variety of items including local sports memorabilia, golf outings at some of the area’s most exclusive clubs, fine wood crafts and more.
We will also feature multiple small talks on shoulder related topics highlighting some of the best of what is being done right in our backyards (more on that to come).
And of course, there will top notch food and drink catered by Oliver’s https://oliverscuisine.com/catering/.
The event is 6 PM to 9:30 PM. Come early for a tour of the Darwin Martin House. It’s a stunning and iconic structure and one with a colorful story.
For anyone interested you can register or donate at the link below. Just note that you do have to create an account to either register or donate so they can send you tax receipts and info about the event.
There’s more to come. I will do my best to fill you in on the story of how NSEW came to be in Buffalo and why I care deeply about it, and you should too.