Brian's Run
On August 26, 1978, Brian Bratcher, a promising fifteen-year-old football player at West Chester Henderson High, sustained a life-challenging spinal cord injury during a scrimmage and became paralyzed. Stunned by the tragedy, the community came up with the idea of organizing a sponsored race as a way of defraying Bratcher's medical costs and other expenses resulting from his injury. They hoped to get 100 participants for the one-time race, but over 2000 showed up for the event, boosting their initial goal of $500 to just over $20,000. Bratcher was overwhelmed and insisted, "Next year, let's do it for someone else." More than 20 years later, Brian's Run is still going strong.
David Block is a legally blind journalist and the producer/director of two documentaries on blind athletes Goalball: A Sport for Good Listeners (1992) (which was produced with and is distributed by Scribe), and Portraits of Possibility(1996). His works have been broadcast on two Philadelphia public television stations, WHYY TV12 and WYBE TV35, and they’ve received funding from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, the Philadelphia Independent Film and Video Association, and the Karden Foundation. He can be reached via his Web site,www.BlindFilmmaker.com
June 6, 2002, "Ardmore Filmmaker David Block Has Stories To Tell," Main Line Times by Kevin Williamson
June 10, 2002, "Film Tells Story of Brian's Run," Daily Local News (Chester County) by Jessica McRorie
June 14, 2002 - Prince Music Theater's Black Box (Philadelphia, PA)
October 8, 2004 - West Chester Film Festival (West Chester, PA)
2005 - International Festival of Cinema and Technology (Orlando, FL)
Philadelphia Independent Film & Video Association Open Screening (Philadelphia, PA)
WYBE-TV 35 (Philadelphia, PA)