Boomer Esiason Foundation
The Boomer Esiason Foundation was created to fund research to find a cure for cystic fibrosis, a disease of the respiratory and digestive systems. The Foundation also provides scholarships, transplant grants, hospital grants, education and awareness of cystic fibrosis as to provide higher quality of life for people with CF. The foundation has raised in excess of $85 million dollars and has supported numerous hospitals including, Cincinnati Children's Hospital with the Gunnar H Esiason CF/Lung Center and Columbia Presbyterian in NYC with the Gunnar H Esiason Adult CF and Lung Program. The foundation has given over $2 million dollars in scholarship grants to CF patients. The foundation is located in NYC and runs numerous events around the country.
While at a Jets mini-camp in 1993, Esiason was notified that his two-year-old son, Gunnar, had to be taken to the hospital with breathing difficulties. Soon after, Gunnar was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, and the Boomer Esiason Foundation (BEF) was formed. In 1996, Esiason formed a partnership with Cantor Fitzgerald and Howard Lutnick (CEO) as the foundation offices were moved to the North Tower of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan on the 101st floor. This was destroyed in 2001 in the September 11 attacks. All five full-time employees survived, as none were in the building at the time, but "Esiason figured he knew over 200 people personally" who were killed in the attack including his best friend Tim O'Brien who was a partner at Cantor.
Gunnar Esiason is now an extremely active 21-year-old junior who undergoes daily treatments and takes medication. He was a quarterback for his high school football team, played forward on his Ice Hockey team for the Manhasset/Roslyn varsity hockey team. To this day Gunnar and his dad are teammates on their WASP hockey team. Friends Academy in Locust Valley, New York. Gunnar began attending Boston College in the fall of 2009 and is currently a member of the junior class. The Boomer Esiason Foundation annually receives four stars from charity Navigator.
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