The Fairfield County Sports Commission today announced that professional golfer Ken Green is the 2010 Chelsea Cohen Courage Award winner. Green, a Danbury native, will be honored at the Commission’s 6th annual Sports Night awards dinner, Monday, Oct.18 at the Hyatt Regency Greenwich at 6 pm.
The Cohen Award is sponsored by the Forever Young Foundation, the charitable giving entity of Greenwich native and NFL Hall of Famer Steve Young. In 2006, the Commission created the Chelsea Cohen Courage Award, named after the late Cohen, a former Norwalk High soccer star who was the Commission’s first Courage Award recipient in 2005. She passed away in Aug. 2006 after a courageous bout with a rare form of cancer of the nervous system. The award recognizes the person in the sports community who has shown inspirational strength in battling life-altering obstacles.
In Green’s name, Forever Young and the FCSC will make a donation of $2,000 to the newly created Chelsea Cohen Fitness Academy.
Green was involved in a tragic auto accident in June 2009. The injuries he sustained led to his lower right leg being amputated. In the accident, his brother, girlfriend and dog were all killed. Having turned 50 the year prior, Green had just rejuvenated his golf career on the Champions Tour. Through an intensive rehabilitation process and now fitted with a prosthetic leg, Green remarkably recovered to play his first competitive round of golf in March and recently played in Champions Tour events.
On the PGA Tour, Green was a five-time winner and was a member of the U.S, Ryder Cup team in 1989. In 2006, he was inducted into the Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame.
Last year’s Courage Award was presented to James Hilaire of Stamford, a soccer goalie at the University of New Haven who suffered a traumatic head injury. Previous winners are: 2008 - Mike Myers-Keitt, a Norwalk native and Fairfield Prep graduate, who now attends Monmouth University on a basketball scholarship; 2007 - John Tartaglio, a Milford resident and Fairfield University graduate, who as a double amputee has competed in triathlons and road races; 2006 - Jason Maiella, a standout baseball player at Sacred Heart University, who was the first winner of the award in Cohen’s name.
The primary goal of the Cohen Fitness Academy is to create a year-round vehicle that will offer Fairfield County youth access to the best available fitness trainers, coaches, and health and wellness programs that provide opportunities to be active daily. The academy will be designed to be the rallying point to engage all important community stakeholders in children’s health, nutrition and in the fight to combat childhood obesity. Also to take that information and extend it’s reach throughout the entire area via the Sports Commission’s web site (www.fairfieldcountysports.com).
Forever Young Foundation is a non-profit, public 501(c) (3) organization whose mission is to pass on hope and resources for the development, strength, and education of children. Each year, through the efforts and vision of Steve Young, thousands of seriously ill, underprivileged, and at risk children are given therapeutic, academic, and athletic opportunities they would otherwise never receive. For more information, visit www.foreveryoung.org.
The Fairfield County Sports Commission is a 501c (3) non-profit organization that promotes fitness and an active lifestyle, and personal development through sports.
