Welcome Sharing and Solidarity

Welcoming is not opening the door of your own home, but is a spirit, an inner attitude. Is taking the other within yourself, also if it is bothering and subtracts safety, it is worrying about the other, being careful, help him find his place in the society.

Miami, July 9th 2015 – Miami Project, Lois Pope auditorium

For this reason I want to express deep gratitude to the University of Miami, who welcomed me warmly and shared with real interest my project and, in particular, i feel to express my gratitude to the Professors Camillo Ricordi and Dalton Dietrich, Scientific Director of the Miami Project, one of the largest research centers on spinal cord injury in the world, for contributing with their knowledge to the conference Sports, Technology and Disability Politics, held on July 9th in the prestigious Auditorium Loi Pope.

With equal gratitude I express great affection to the BIOM, center founded by my friend Hugh Herr, thanking particularly Chuck Carignan and Tony Tremaglio, respectively CEO and Vice President of Marketing, for participating to the conference, illustrating the enormous effectiveness of the bionic ankle developed by Professor Herr recently.

“Swimming in the Seas of the Globe” logo

All this is made possible thanks to the support and closeness of the friend and fellow member of the Rowing Club Aniene, Piero Salussolia, lawyer of international renown, a former member of the International Section of the Lawyer Association of Florida with the position of Vice Chairman of the Foreign Tax Committee. Piero, as it commitment since always shown, is a sensitive and attentive person to social issues.

I would also like to thank for having expressed affection and friendship Professor Gennaro D’Urso, President of Genetic Net Works Inc., Francesco Theodoli, President of Theodoli Marine Group, Robert Strauss, the swimming Mexican national Olympic in Monaco in 1972, and many others who were close to me during my stay in Miami.

Last but not least I would like to thank Captain Vanessa Linsley, of the Florida Yacht Group, met in Key West, the town where Ernest Hemingway lived for many years, for her availability to assist me with her significant experience during the swimming crossing from Cuba to Florida.

Unlike my information, the distance to cover will be 111 nautical miles, instead of 103, and the time required to accomplish this task is between 60 and 90 hours.

Vanessa will assist me managing three boats and a team of about forty people including experienced sailors, kayakers and at least 10 divers, who will take turns in the water to protect me from shark attacks. The price of this project will be approximately $ 350,000.00

Key West, 11 luglio 2015 -Salvatore Cimmino with Vanessa Linsley and Piero Salussolia

I will have to move to Key West at least five months before the crossing to measure the enormous difficulties that will arise during this incredible challenge. We have estimated that the total cost of the entire operation could arrive to half a million dollars.

This is why, since this moment, I ask for your solidarity and your contribution at my battle to break down all the barriers that separate People with Disabilities from Freedom.

With love,
Salvatore Cimmino