Introduction

Rick Crandall (Host): So at this time, we’d like to present a couple of our 2012 Honor Awards. And we’re going to start with our Inspiration Award. Bob Woodruff has been chosen as the recipient of the 2012 Inspiration Honors Award because as a traumatic brain injury survivor, he inspires people injured with TBI to keep fighting and to use their challenges and triumphs to help encourage others.

Bob founded the Bob Woodruff Foundation and remind.org to honor and encourage veterans, as well as servicemen and women living with invisible disabilities. I’ve had the great pleasure of visiting with Bob on several occasions, and he is a remarkable human being. He’s an amazing inspiration and is making a difference in the lives of others. And we’d like you to watch this video.

Bob Woodruff’s Acceptance Speech

Now, first of all, I really want to thank you so much for inviting me to join you tonight. But I have to say that I’m really sorry that I couldn’t make it there in person. You should know, actually, that Colorado is one of my favorite places in the entire world. I have been and still am an addicted skier. And once upon a time, I was also a mountain climber. So I’m jealous in so many ways.

Raising Awareness for Invisible Wounds

But the biggest thing I want to say is that you are doing extremely important work. I think your words about invisible disabilities are the best I’ve heard about this topic—the way that you describe the mission as “invisible no more.” None of us really ever anticipated that we would become part of this issue. You know that better than anyone.

I often tell people that one of the lessons we actually learned in these current wars is that there are a lot of injuries that people just can’t see. I never heard about traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder until I got injured myself more than six years ago. There are hundreds of thousands of troops returning with invisible wounds. They were so overlooked, largely because they were invisible in the eyes of so many people.

The Mission of the Bob Woodruff Foundation

This is why my family—my wife Lee and I—launched the Bob Woodruff Foundation, known as the BWF, or you can find it on the site as remind.org. We just wanted to make sure that all those injured in the wars get the same kind of help and treatment that I got. We don’t want any of us to be invisible anymore.

Acknowledgments and Gratitude

I really appreciate what you are doing and what you’ve accomplished for all of you in this room. From this guy right here who couldn’t make it tonight, I want to give a big thank you, thank you, thank you for all your help.