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Bertier's helping legacy lives on

August 29, 2010 12:35 am

By LAURA L. HUTCHISON

Those who know of him probably know Gerry Bertier as a linebacker and captain of the undefeated 1971 Virginia state champion T.C. Williams High School football team, memorialized in the 2000 film "Remember the Titans" starring Denzel Washington.

But Bertier's family wants him to be remembered for another reason.

After a team banquet in December of that year, Bertier was paralyzed from the chest down when his car struck a utility pole.

And that, his family said, was when Bertier truly began to shine.

"We want people to remember the 10 years he spent in a wheelchair, and all he did to help fellow spinal cord injury patients, and people in general," said Buck Sutton, president of the Gerry Bertier No. 42 Foundation. He is married to Bertier's first cousin, Cheryl, and they live in Spotsylvania County.

Bertier was killed by a drunken driver in 1981. He was 27.

In the decade he spent in a wheelchair, he was as successful in wheelchair sports as he had been on the football field. He started the "Ban the Barriers" campaign, which resulted in curb cuts, wider aisles in stores and better access in general for people with disabilities.

"He would go to hospitals and help newly injured patients," Sutton said. "He'd do wheelies at the end of the bed to get their minds off things and let them see what was possible. He'd even visit them at home. He knew what they were going to be going through."

His family started the foundation five years ago and, after contacting facilities around the country, decided to make VCU Health System's Spinal Cord Injury Research and Rehabilitation Center its beneficiary. They've given more than $150,000 to VCU, where the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation matches the foundation's donations dollar for dollar.

"It pays for equipment, training, research," Sutton said. "Whatever they need to further the cause."

According to Dr. William McKinley, director of spinal cord injury medicine at VCU, the partnership has been very successful.

"The foundation has helped us advance our clinical, research and educational opportunities," he said. "They've also continued the work Gerry did, trying to improve quality of life for the disabled."

Foundation money has been used to purchase state-of-the art equipment used in physical therapy, to provide scholarships for medical professionals to attend and present papers at national meetings and conventions, and to support a variety of research.

"All they've done has helped us become even better experts at assessment and treatment of spinal cord injuries," McKinley said.

The foundation holds its biggest fundraiser, a golf tournament, in September.

This year's is Sept. 18 at Cannon Ridge Golf Club at Celebrate Virginia. The night before, there is a screening of "Remember the Titans" with a reception following.

This year, the foundation's fifth, it will hold its first dinner dance Oct. 2 at the Fredericksburg Expo Center. Original 1971 Titans are expected at all the events. (See attached box for details.)

The events help keep Bertier's legacy alive.

"Those of us in the foundation believe that Gerry never stood taller than when he was in the wheelchair," Sutton said. "Adversity has a way of bringing out the best, and worst, in folks. It brought out the best in Gerry."

gerrybertier.com

Laura L. Hutchison: 540/374-5485
Email: lhutchison@freelancestar.com