Fashion show to raise funds for Mikey Nichols

By ADAM C. UZIALKO
Staff Writer

OLD BRIDGE — Stylish fashion and raffle prizes will abound at the Grand Marquis on April 16 for the benefit of a Monroe teenager recovering from a spinal cord injury.

Members of the Stonebridge Women’s Club organized the Grand Marquis Fashion Show as a fundraiser to benefit Michael “Mikey” Nichols, a former Monroe Township High School hockey player who was injured in a January 2014 game.

Event tickets, priced at $55 each, sold out quickly.

“We’re very enthused about it,” said Joan Maggio, co-president of the 474- member Stonebridge Women’s Club. “We have about 375 reservations.”

The show will include designs featured at Chico’s of West Windsor and Castle Couture of Freehold, as well as prizes as extravagant as a night out at the Borgata in Atlantic City. Other raffle prizes include assorted baskets, an iPad and a largescreen television, Maggio said.

Nichols sustained a fracture to the C5 vertebra in his neck during a hockey game against Vernon High School last year.

Since graduating from high school, Nichols said his focus has been on physical therapy and working to get stronger.

“I’ve been doing therapy three days a week,” Nichols said. “I really just keep on getting healthier and stronger.”

On April 8, Nichols started a new, fiveday per-week protocol during which therapists assist him to walk on a treadmill for an hour and a half each session.

He said it is part of the hockey mindset to never accept defeat and to refuse to quit. Nichols added that he avoids taking painkillers.

“I don’t want to rely on meds to get through the day,” he said. “I can live with pain. Pain is something I will probably have until the day I die.”

His motivation to keep working toward recovery comes from his friends, family and supporters, as well as the will to show others with spinal cord injuries that recovery is within their grasp.

“Nothing is impossible,” he said, “and I can help so many people … just by my recovery and by my work ethic.”

Maggio said members of the community were more than happy to come together to support Nichols in his ongoing recovery because of that attitude.

“The community of Stonebridge really stepped up to raise money for these prizes,” Maggio said, referencing the residents of Monroe’s Greenbriar Stonebridge adult community.

“All of the proceeds will go to Mikey because the community stepped up to the plate,” she said. “This is such a family-like place, and everybody really pulled together.”

According to Maggio, the fundraising chairs who spearheaded the local outreach are Helyn Sloan and Sandy Rubin. The basket organizers, who Maggio said “hit the ball out of the park,” are Liz Silecchia and Bonnie Silleck. Joan Vardaro served as co-president alongside Maggio to help organize the event. All are Stonebridge residents.

For Mikey, the outpouring of support from local communities since he sustained his injury has been astounding.

“I’ll never quit,” Nichols said. “I just would like to thank everyone for the continued support.”