Cole Rutter: What I Can Do

Author: Kim Bischoff

Published On: 05/03/2018

On April 15, 2018, the NF Network was proud to host the Inaugural Chicago NF Hope Concert.  At each NF Hope Concert, we award the Paul Bodner Memorial Award to an individual who lives with the spirit that Paul Bodner lived by every day, “Living with Love, Laughter & Lemonade”

Cole Rutter exemplifies these traits even when times are difficult, so we were pleased to honor Cole Rutter with the Paul Bodner Memorial Award.  Here is Cole’s “What I Can Do” acceptance speech. 

Hi ! I am Cole Rutter and I have NF! I was born with it.  I can't change that!

I could stand up here for a long time and tell you just how bad NF is.  I can talk about all the horrible things that people with NF suffer from, but I'm not going to do that.

 I want to tell you what I CAN do!

If I didn't have NF I wouldn't have been able to:

• Travel to NF Camp every summer
• Travel to Washington DC to tell my story on the Hill
• Travel all over the country and,
• I wouldn't have met some of my best friends

I have friends all over the United States that I would've NEVER met if I didn't have NF!!

You see, NF is BAD; but I've been able to make having NF GOOD. I have NF, but NF doesn't have me!

Thank you ALL for the support you give! And, especially, thank you to the NF Network for everything that you do!!