18-year old Team Fox member Mark Correia hails from Toronto, Canada and is currently a student at The National Theatre School in Montreal. Over the summer, Mark lent his skills as a professional magician towards a 2-week stunt that raised over $15,000 for Team Fox. Today, he shares why he's upping his 2014 fundraising goal in support of our 100 Ways, 100 Days campaign.
Hello fellow Team Fox fundraisers!
I’m Mark Correia, the magician behind Escaping Parkinson’s, a stunt I performed this summer where I spent two whole weeks inside of a straitjacket to raise funds for Parkinson’s research.
I know it sounds crazy, but my inspiration was to transform a classic escape act into an endurance stunt to both honor the man who inspired me to perform, Michael J. Fox, and support Parkinson’s research. Throughout the stunt, I filmed video blogs every day to document the journey, and when I escaped on the fourteenth day, my hope was to signify our community’s collective goal of escaping Parkinson’s for good.
Looking back on the stunt, I cannot believe how crazy the whole thing was. While my daily blogs tried to bring an element of amusement to my efforts, behind the scenes I was in pain and experiencing a lot of frustration. I was reminded daily how often we take for granted having the full use of our bodies and, in turn, escaped with a much greater respect for the resilience and determination of those living with Parkinson's on a daily basis.
With the support of some fantastic press, Escaping Parkinson’s managed to reach about 31 million people in the US and Canada and I even broke my fundraising goal of raising $15,000 USD for Team Fox. It’s been amazing to see how many people are willing to get behind some guy in a straitjacket, for the right cause.
That said, we’re not done yet! Inspired by Team Fox’s 100 Days, 100 Ways campaign, I know that there’s still time to make a difference this year and so I’ve increased my fundraising goal to see if we can break the $16,000 mark by the end of 2014. Among many things, this stunt has shown me how passionate I am about this cause, and I’m excited to continue raising funds for MJFF!
If you’re a fellow Team Fox member, join me in sharing word of 100 Days, 100 Ways (here’s a quick promo video I filmed!) and I look forward to seeing the creative ways you are able to inspire your own communities. Together, let’s make these last few months count!
(Oh, and for those wondering… I already I have ideas bouncing around for next year’s stunt. While they’re top secret at the moment, let’s just say you’ll want to get your tickets to this show early!)
Magically,
Mark