The 11th annual David Busta Basketball Tournament and Silent Auction once again proved successful as the benefit attracted many families, friends and community members to the Chetek-Weyerhaeuser High School Saturday, Nov. 30.
After raising $26,000 at last year’s tournament and silent auction, this year’s event topped $55,000 for spinal cord injury research at the University of Wisconsin’s Waisman Center. That brings the 11-year total to more than $370,000.
Money from the event will help pay for the work of researcher Su-Chun Zhang, who has had success coaxing human embryonic stem cells into becoming early stage brain cells. Ultimately, scientists hope the cells can be transplanted into people to repair the damage caused by neurological diseases and spinal cord injuries, like the one that paralyzed Busta after a 30-foot fall outside a concert in Milwaukee in 2002.