Teenagers Join Forces to Help a Friend in Need
Concert Planned to Benefit Norristown Teen Paralyzed in Swimming Mishap
September 15, 1986
Source: The Times Herald
Author: Regina Ann Purifico
Anyone who knows George Butera will tell you that he spent a lot of time helping his friends whenever they needed him.
So when they learned he was left a quadriplegic from a swimming accident on June 21 in Ocean City, N.J., George’s friends started returning the favor.
In a freak accident, Butera was paralyzed from the neck down after running into a wave.
To help pay for the 18-year-old Norristown resident’s rehabilitation Butera’s friends have arranged a benefit concert in Whitpain on Sept. 28 featuring four Philadelphia area rock bands and a local comedian.
Appearing at the concert at Mermaid Lake will be Tommy Conwell’s Young Rumblers, Beru Revue, Smash Palace, the Flamin’ Caucasians and comedian Craig Shoemaker.
Off-duty East Norriton and Whitpain police have volunteered to provide the security.
Tickets went on sale Sept. 11 for the afternoon concert at local Ticketron and Teletron agencies and at J.B. Witley’s restaurant on Route 202 in Whitpain.
Tickets are $10 in advance or $12 on the day of the show. The doors open at noon and the show is expected to last until dusk.
Organizers are circulating another 950 tickets throughout eastern Montgomery County and the Philadelphia area, according to Witley’s restaurant owner Wit Hammond.
Costs for the concert, according to Hammond, include $1,500 for use of the stage and $750 for one day’s insurance.
Hammond said the group is encouraging area businesses to sign up as sponsors of the concert.
The restaurant owner said he learned of George’s plight this summer from a restaurant employee, Joseph Keidel, who was with George the day of the accident.
Hammond allowed George’s friends to use his restaurant as a meeting place to arrange fundraisers after visiting Butera at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.
“Many people have asked whether George will be able to walk again and assume that rehabilitation means that he will recover,” Hammond said.
“This injury is a permanent one and he will be a quadriplegic without the use of his arms or legs for the rest of his life.”
On Aug. 28 Butera was transferred to Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colo., where he will spend the next four to five months in therapy.
“He was looking forward to it and so was his family,” said Kathy Kelly one of the few adults in the Committee. Her children, Tina and Joe, accompanied Butera to the shore in June.
About 30 people in the Friends of George Butera Committee have raised $12,000 for his medical expenses through raffle ticket sales and donations in the past month.
All money is being held in the George Butera Rehabilitation Fund at the Meridian Bank on DeKalb Pike in East Norriton.
Hammond urged anyone interested in joining the committee to attend its next meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 7 p.m. at the restaurant.
Committee members said they were concerned that Butera’s parents, Toni and Gasper Butera, would be confused with the prominent Butera family, which includes former politician Robert Butera.
Insurance will cover some of the medical and related expenses, Mrs. Butera said. The couple is making plans to remodel the house for when their youngest son comes home.
The Buteras got a surprise telephone call from George Thursday night with the help of his nurse.
“We were so excited we couldn’t talk,” George’s mother said. “He had the nurse’s aide call us because he can’t talk yet.”
Butera is slowly regaining his speaking voice, lost during an operation to restore his respiration after the accident.
Therapists In Colorado are also exercising his arms and legs to keep them from getting stiff, Mrs. Butera said.
Butera’s parents said they are amazed at the things George’s friends have accomplished on their son’s behalf.
“When they told me tickets were on sale at Ticketron (for the concert), we couldn’t believe it,” his mother said.
“George’s friends are something else. They’re the greatest bunch of friends anyone could ever have.”