The Caroline Can! campaign formally began in early 2008 and raises money to endow a continuing education scholarship for therapists at the Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center (PNRC).  Caroline Can! started as a way to honor Caroline Owen.  Caroline suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in November 2006 when she was in a single-car accident while returning to college at Clemson following a weekend at home.  Caroline spent a month in intensive care at Greenville Memorial Hospital before being moved to Fort Sanders Hospital, in her hometown of Knoxville, TN.  Caroline was in a coma for almost seven months before she began to “wake up.”  Shortly after she emerged from her coma, Caroline started therapy at PNRC.  She did in-patient therapy there for several months and has continued out-patient therapy at PNRC since she returned home in the summer of 2007.  Caroline has benefited greatly from the knowledge of her therapists and also from some innovative technologies to help with TBI recovery.  The Caroline Can! campaign hopes to raise over $100,000 to support a continuing education endowment to send PNRC therapists to training classes to learn about the latest techniques and technologies for treating TBI patients.

Caroline is an amazing young woman, struggling to overcome obstacles and hurdles the rest of us pray we never have to face.  Cognitively, she is 100% fine.  Instead, her limitations are physical, such as still working to regain the gift of speech.  Despite this setback, she communicates through sign language and laughs with family and friends.  Several times she has worked so hard in therapy that she actually got physically sick!  Her dedication and desire to get well are inspiring.  Caroline and her family have never once given up hope that she will have a full recovery.  Thanks to the work being done at PNRC, the chances of that hope becoming a reality increase everyday.

But the Caroline Can! campaign is about more than just Caroline—it is about her family, friends, and the larger community impacted by TBI.  The campaign’s fundraising events have taken Caroline’s story across Knoxville, up to the lake shores in New Hampshire, and even across the ocean to England.  Inspired by Caroline strong will and determination, the Owen family and friends have attempted some impressive physical feats including a 7.5 hour swimming relay inside the Dover Harbor (typically bad English weather prevented a safe attempt across the English Channel) that raised almost $50,000 in 2008.  And this past August, a group of 15 friends of the Owen brothers in DC, many of whom had never even met Caroline, completed a half-Ironman race and raised over $13,000 for the cause.  They were inspired by her story, and all that she has accomplished over the past 3 years.

This campaign is personal.  It has grown through a grass roots effort to educate the public about Caroline, her plight, and the challenges of TBI treatment and recovery.  We hope you will join us in the fight to help others who will need TBI treatment and care in the future, because unfortunately, Caroline will not be the last.