Think of how often you’ve skirted disaster – in the water, on the slopes, on a skateboard, or as is most often the case, in your car. How many inches to the left before you or a loved one fell victim to a spinal cord injury? Read more...

We believe SCI is curable and you can help - Read more

2006 Programs and Events

We'd love your input!
Feedback throughout the year supports the idea that TWSA is a favorite. Life Rolls On will continue to schedule as many They Will Surf Again events as we can. These are all volunteer run, so the program schedule is not set far in advance. If you have suggestions for a location, or would like to get involved, please visit the TWSA section of the LRO website.

Our goal is to introduce an adaptive ski/snowboard day as well. If you be interested in participating in this program (most likely to be held at Mammoth Mountain in California), please complete the above TWSA form.

LRO will continue to fund cutting-edge spinal cord injury research. We are flexible enough to support specialized studies, while at the same time support nationally recognized research labs.

We will continue to expand our online content through our film/video unit and streaming video partnership with Nine Systems, as well as broaden the delivery of LRO's message through our PR firm, Juice Media.

Life Rolls On is aggressively expanding the reach of our motivational talks throughout the country.

On the fundraising front, the 8th Annual Golf Tournament, always a sell-out, is currently scheduled to be held July 24th at the Malibu Country Club. This event fills up months in advance, so mark your calendar today!

Next year will also bring the 3rd Annual (already, wow!) Night By the Ocean. The location is not yet announced, but the event will be held right around the time of the golf tournament.

The 2006 US Open of Surfing Expression Session has not yet been planned, but we are hoping to take part of this fantastic event again. Stay tuned for more info here.

Lastly, our goal is to offer "memberships" to Life Rolls On sometime in the first quarter of 2006.

Tax-Deductibility Deadline for 2005 Drawing Near

Special deductibility rules expires December 31st, 2005
The Hurricane Katrina Relief Act of 2005 allows for special rules for individual donors who want to make increased charitable contributions before the end of 2005. Typically individual donors can deduct up to 50% of their adjusted gross income (AGI), but with this one-time exemption, you can deduct up to 100% of your AGI for donations to qualifying charities - Life Rolls On included*. So whether you donate your weekly allowance, or highly-appreciated stock - we can help. If you are considering a "major gift" to any qualifying charity, whether or not it is Life Rolls On, we would urge you to make these gifts before 2005 is over and take advantage of the Katrina Act.

> To donate for 2005, please do so online here.

> For major gifts, including contribution of appreciated securities, please complete the Contact Us form

* Please consult your tax advisor for specific deductibility limitations.

LRO T-Shirt Logo Design Contest

Submit your designs and win!
Calling all artists! Now is your chance to have your T-Shirt design emblazoned everywhere. The deadline will be the end of the third quarter (March 31st) 2006. Full rules will be posted on the LRO website soon, but get those creative juices flowing.

LRO Public Service Announcement

In Development
LRO Board of Directors, Richard Yelland and Mark Jacobs, have been working together on creating a high-impact, riveting public service announcement (PSA). That PSA term sounds so boring, but Richard and Mark are amazingly creative and this will be a PSA like you have never seen! Eventually it will be broadcast on national television, and we will also have it available on streaming video on the LRO website.

Samoa Auction Revisited

Proceeds to benefit LRO
We've been planning to auction off this surf trip to Samoa for the last few months, but have not yet had the chance to organize this auction. The retail value of this trip is just over $4000. If anyone is interested in purchasing this trip before it goes to auction, please complete the Contact US form so we can contact you with the full details. Courtesy of Waterways Travel and donor Charlie Christiansen.

> Details: Round trip Air Fare, 6 Days accommodation at Salani Surf Resort, 3+ meals per day, unlimited surf transfers by boat, limited overland surf transfers, island touring, fishing, kayaking, volleyball, ping-pong and more!

> Official Salani Surf Resort Website

MySpace

Life Rolls On 6th out of 6,450
With over 5,500 members on MySpace, the Life Rolls On group is near the Top 5 list for all nonprofit groups. All you MySpace members, be sure to join the LRO group today.

LRO Demographics

Growing and Growing
We are projected to start 2006 off with 11,000 constituents. This number is up from 2000 in March 0f 2004.

Supporters of Life Rolls On live in all 50 of the United States, as well as South Africa, Venezuela, Uruguay, Uganda, Singapore, Russian Federation, Portugal, New Zealand, Netherlands, Mexico, Jamaica, Italy, India, Israel, Ireland, Greece, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Ecuador, Algeria, Denmark, Germany, Costa Rica, Cameron, Chile, Switzerland, Canada, Brazil, Bangladesh, Barbados, Australia, and Argentina.

With your help, we would like to nearly double our constituent base to 20,000. It is as easy as referring a friend to join the LRO group, through our Friends Asking Friends program.

Amazingly, Life Rolls On supporters tend to be younger than most other nonprofits. We have a huge base of supporters aged 12-30. With a demographic like that, we can all be proud to be part of such great work at an early age. Who says philanthropy is for retirees!?

Map provided by Nine Systems and represents worldwide access hotspots to LRO streaming video content for the month of November 2005.

MyLRO

Memberships coming soon for Life Rolls On Foundation
In the next few months we are excited to announce the unveiling of annual memberships to Life Rolls On. Through partnerships with different companies, your annual membership support of Life Rolls On will provide not only continuous support of the LRO programs such as They Will Surf Again, but in exchange, LRO members will receive various items from our partners (including magazine subscriptions, clothing, stickers, and more). MyLRO will range from basic student memberships to family and corporate memberships. Details coming soon.

Companies interested in participating in the MyLRO program, please respond to this email and a representative of Life Rolls On will contact you.

Receipt for your 2005 donation

By request only for contributions under $250
Federal tax law states that if you choose to take a deduction for donations above $250, you need to provide a receipt for tax purposes. Throughout the year we've tried to make sure you received these receipts shortly after your contribution. If you do not have one, or if you find that you do not get one after the New Year (we will be sending them, but every year hundreds get bounced back to us somehow) just let us know so we can get it to you right away.

Thank you for being patient with us on this. We truly appreciate your support.

Images of the Month:

Don't try this at home!

While we are not advocating tattoos, nor the promise that if you get a Life Rolls On tattoo we will publish it, but all we can say is that we've got some dedicated supporters.  At top, "Life Rolls On" written in Italian "Vita Rotola Attivo."

Kids, please don't go asking your parents for an LRO tattoo.

LRO Calendar:

Deadline for 2005 Tax Deductible Contributions (12/31)

8th Annual Golf Tournament (7/24/06)

Cape May, New Jersey LRO Golf Tournament (9/30/2006)

Feedback of the Month:

"I really find [the] story so inspiring as I just met with a traffic accident in April 2005 and the doctors [said I had] a 95% chance of a paralysis. I was so scared but I held on to the will that I had to live for at least my mum`s love cause she will never be able to take the trauma and went for the operation and thankfully now about 6 months after I am up and about but of course there are certain limitations for the rest of my life.. anyway, I'm really so inspired [and] wish and pray that one day you will [all] be able to recover fully."

- Zai, Singapore