Presented by the WillReturn Council® of
Assurant Employee Benefits
The 2008 Shining Star of Perseverance award ceremony will take place
on Wednesday, May 21 at 11:00 a.m. in Crown Center Exhibit Hall B, 2323
McGee Street, Kansas City, Missouri.
 This
year’s award recipient is Corporal J.R. Martinez, U.S. Army (Retired).
Corporal Martinez joined the U.S. Army in September 2002 and was deployed
to Iraq in February of 2003. In April of that year, he was serving as
the driver of a Humvee when his left front tire hit a landmine and he
suffered severe burns to more than forty percent of his body as well as
smoke inhalation. Following immediate care in Landstuhl, Germany, he spent
34 months at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, where
he underwent 32 different surgeries, including skin grafts and cosmetic
surgery. After his recovery, he joined the Coalition to Salute America’s
Heroes as a national spokesperson in 2004. In that role, he works to promote
the coalition’s financial assistance and support programs to other
wounded service members and inspire others through his story of resilience,
perseverance and optimism.
Corporal Martinez will be the sixth recipient of the Shining Star of
Perseverance award given annually by the WillReturn Council®
to honor those who have made the most significant recent contribution
toward demonstrating perseverance through disabling illnesses or injury.
The WillReturn Council® was established in 1998 by Assurant
Employee Benefits to recognize the efforts of disability claimants in
returning to productive lives after disabling illnesses and injuries.
Steve Palermo, chairman of the WillReturn Council® and a disability claimant
of Assurant Employee Benefits, will present the award to Corporal Martinez.
Contact J.R.
Past Shining Star of Perseverance award recipients:
2003
Aron Ralston, the mountaineer who made national and international headlines for amputating his arm in order to save his life. Ralston was rock climbing in Canyonlands National Park in eastern Utah when his arm became wedged beneath a boulder that had suddenly shifted. He waited several days for help, but when he ran out of water, he had no choice but to amputate his right arm with a pocket knife. He then fashioned a tourniquet for the arm, rappelled 75 feet down the canyon and started walking. He walked seven hours before being found by rescuers.
2004
Robert J. Dole, the retired U.S. senator from Kansas whose achievements following devastating battlefield injuries sustained during World War II inspired a generation of Americans. He was a 10th Mountain Division platoon leader in the Allied liberation of Northern Italy. Twice wounded and twice decorated for “heroic achievement,” Dole was discharged with the rank of Captain in July 1948, having convalesced for three years from grave wounds sustained in combat that cost him the use of his right arm. He went on to earn a law degree and represent Kansas in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1960 through 1968, and in the Senate from 1968 through 1996, serving as Senate Republican Leader from 1984 until his retirement. He was the Republican candidate for Vice President in 1976 and for President in 1996.
2005
Air Force Lt. Col. Andrew Lourake, the first American military pilot to return to active flying duty after an above-the-knee amputation. In 1998, Lourake fractured his leg in a motorcycle accident. An antibiotic-resistant infection contracted in the hospital during his initial treatment resulted in 18 surgeries and the eventual amputation of the leg above the knee. In 2004, he was reinstated to active duty after being fitted for a computerized prosthetic leg and completing 500 hours of physical therapy. He currently serves as a Special Air Mission pilot for the 99th Airlift Squadron at Andrews Air Force, where he flies the First Lady, the Vice President and other dignitaries around the globe.
2006
Jeff Matovic, a non-doctor who researched his own surgical cure for Tourette Syndrome and spent years searching for a doctor who would agree to perform the surgery. Matovic suffered such severe and constant convulsions that he could not hold a glass still long enough to drink from it. Yet he managed to research a procedure involving brain surgery that he was convinced would alleviate his symptoms. Numerous doctors refused his pleas to perform the procedure until physicians at University Hospitals of Cleveland finally agreed in February 2004. The surgery was successful and Matovic has been symptom-free since.
2007
The authors of Nordie’s at Noon, a book about coming together to reach the common goal of beating cancer. Patti Balwanz, Jana Peters, Jennifer Johnson and Kim Carlos were all young women in their mid-twenties to early thirties, starting their careers and living regular lives when they were each diagnosed with breast cancer. They created their own support group, which met monthly at the café inside the Nordstrom store in Overland Park, Kansas. Disappointed with the lack of information available to young women with breast cancer, they decided to share their inspiring outlook on coping with the disease through the book, which was published in 2006. While Patti and Jana ultimately lost their battles with cancer, both Jennifer and Kim are currently cancer free.
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