Sometimes by luck and happenstance you get invited to something really, really special – it’s the season of giving, and I never ask people to give to anything, but it would be really cool if you considered this:
https://giving.mainlinehealth.org/blog/blog-posts/2025/05/07/lee-lee-jones-endowment-fund
I ended up here literally just by luck. The hostess of this private holiday friendraiser invited me to come, and I offered to donate photos to the cause.
This is something which literally touched my heart.
The backstory: Back in 2016, Lee Lee Jones was your average student home for Christmas. She was a graduate student at The University of Pennsylvania where she was working towards a graduate degree in social work. A lifelong rider, she was enjoying a December ride when the horse she was riding spooked and threw her. Although wearing a riding helmet she was still knocked unconscious.
As the story continues, allow me to share part of the story from her namesake fund page on the Main Line Health website:
She was airlifted to the Level 1 Trauma Center at Christiana Medical Center, where she was rushed into emergency surgery. Due to significant brain swelling, doctors removed part of her skull. Lee Lee barely survived the night and remained in a coma for 7½ weeks. She was diagnosed with Diffuse Axonal Injury, a severe traumatic brain injury.
During her time in the ICU at Christiana, Lee Lee faced numerous complications, including pneumonia, MRSA, severe respiratory distress syndrome, and neuro storming. Once stabilized, she was transferred to Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital in an emergent state—non-verbal, almost completely paralyzed, and only able to open her eyes slightly.
Over her nine-month inpatient stay at Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital and continued outpatient therapy over the past eight years, Lee Lee has made remarkable progress. She relearned how to swallow, walk, and perform daily activities. Thanks to the dedicated and experienced team at BMRH, Lee Lee has regained significant independence.
Not all families can endure the financial responsibility which comes with these treatments and stays, hence the fund. There is such a need for these endowments because in my humble opinion the medical community has not lost their compassion but health insurance companies kind of have. For all of the money insurance companies make in this country, they really need to realize that they can have more generosity at times. Maybe some health insurance executives will see my post and donate to this endowment fund, for example?
When I was growing up I devoured the books about Jill Kinmont and she was incredibly inspirational to many of us, but because she died in 2012, a lot of people have forgotten about her. Jill Kinmont Booth was a was an American alpine ski racer and schoolteacher. Her life story was turned into two major Hollywood movies The Other Side of the Mountain and its sequel The Other Side of the Mountain Part 2.
Obviously, Jill Kinmont was well into adulthood when we learned about her as kids through the movies in the 1970s. Through the movies we learned that Jill in 1955 was the reigning national champion in the slalom, and a top hopeful for a medal at the 1956 Winter Olympics, a year away. As an 18 year she suffered a near-fatal skiing accident that resulted in paralysis from the shoulders down. She fought her way back with rehab, very primitive compared to what patients have today. She eventually graduated from college, married had a long career as an educator, first in Washington State and then in California. She was also an artist. She lived as a quadriplegic for more than 50 years. That doesn’t make her story Lee Lee’s story, but it reminded me of young women who overcome great obstacles after accidents to continue their lives.
Lee Lee Jones is a remarkable young woman and I also find her incredibly special and inspirational. Just as I find her friends, family, and support system. I was honored to meet her, her family, one of her nurses, friends, and her former boyfriend, now an adult with his own family. His name is Kareem Rosser and he is another major part of this story, and a driving force behind this endowment becoming a success at Bryn Mawr Rehab. He is doing this out of love. Love still for Lee Lee and her family with whom he remains incredibly close. He also does this out of an amazing ability and desire to pay things forward.
Kareem began his life in one of Philadelphia’s toughest and baddest neighborhoods. It was in West Philadelphia and known as “the bottom.” I actually know where this is because once upon a time when I was barely 21, I got not one but two flat tires there on my way home with a friend late one night. We had been dancing at the. Pagano’s and been to the then Chestnut Cabaret. It was the era before cell phones and a Philadelphia cop just happened to drive by and would not leave us until a tow truck arrived. I remember we said to him in our young invincibleness that we would be fine on our own and the cop said to us no we might not, this was “the bottom.”
When Kareem was 8, he discovered a stable full of horses in Fairmount Park. Chamounix Stables. Through Work to Ride he learned to ride and play polo. Eventually he earned a scholarship to Valley Forge Military Academy. In 2011 he led his Work to Ride team to a National Interscholastic Polo Championship. Next in In 2015, he led Colorado State University to a collegiate National Championship.
Kareem is on the board of Work to Ride and is an Executive Vice President today of Work to Ride , and has led development efforts there since 2018. This non profit completed an amazing state of the art barn renovation project not so long ago. He is also the co-founder of the Philadelphia Polo Classic.
Kareem was Lee Lee’s boyfriend at the time of her accident. They were in love and then life had a plot twist.
Kareem is still close and devoted to Lee Lee and her family. This shows how the power of love is so integral to life itself, and how it grows and changes yet remains a constant.
Kareem is also a best selling author. He was also one of the nicest people I have met in a while.
Compassionate and honest and eloquent. Listening to him speak was just wonderful. Hearing about Lee Lee through his eyes and how her accident affected him and her friends and family.
One of the things I liked about listening to Kareem speak with his openness. He wove the tail of his life and how it intersected with Lee Lee’s. And the small world of it all, one of his closest friends is the son of an old neighbor.
Learn more about Kareem here:
Now is the season of giving I am going to share a video of the speakers I recorded during this event so you can learn more about this fund and you can also go to Bryn Mawr Rehab’s site :
https://giving.mainlinehealth.org/blog/blog-posts/2025/05/07/lee-lee-jones-endowment-fund
If you have it in your hearts, this holiday season before your end, please consider even a small donation. I think if you’ve ever known anyone who’s had a traumatic brain injury, you will be interested in supporting this fund.
Thanks for stopping by. Please note that I have not been compensated to write this and I made a small donation to The Lee Lee Jones Patient Assistance Endowment Fund.