Michael Hunt Receives Award for
Leadership and Commitment
Michael Hunt, executive director of the Emily Hunt Foundation and father of Emily, was recently awarded RTV6 Leadership Award. The award is presented every Friday during the news at 6 p.m. to individuals making a difference in their communities.
Mike Hunt was chosen to receive the award based on his work at the Emily Hunt Foundation. Hunt began the Emily Hunt Foundation in 1997 after an amusement park ride accident left his daughter, Emily, paralyzed at the age of four and took the life of his 57 year old mother-in-law, Nancy Jones. Over the past five years, the Emily Hunt Foundation has raised over $1.5 million for spinal cord injury research.
The mission of the Emily Hunt Foundation is to find a cure for paralysis while Emily is still a child. The foundation is successful in reaching thousands of local residents as well as people around the nation by producing such events as Emily’s Walk at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and in Denver, Colorado and Dream’s of Dancing. Even more have been touched by their story with the release of the book, Emily’s Walk, by John Krull, which details the story of the horrific accident and tells of Hunts courage as he took on the state legislature to assure that no family would have to face this same tragedy again.