Lawrence Rotarians are rallying around Chris and his Mom, Kathy, who is a long-time member of the Lawrence Rotary. The Rotary plans a number of fund raisers for Chris, but the first one is our Annual Golf Tournament and Fund Raising Dinner.

If you’d like to know more about Chris and his plight, see the Lowell Sun story below his picture. If you’d like to help, please go to our Golf/Dinner Registration site to register to help.

Chris Boshar

Click Here to register for the 2011 Golf Tournament in support of Chris

Click Here for the Chris Boshar Care Page Facebook link

Friends rally for paralyzed Chelmsford man

By John Collins, jcollins@lowellsun.com

Posted: 07/23/2011 06:36:03 AM EDT

BOSTON -- Having been paralyzed from the neck down in a horrible, life-changing instant on a New Hampshire lake only a few days before, Christopher Boshar was lying in his bed at Boston's Mass General Hospital, partially sedated and with a breathing tube in his mouth, struggling to tell his mother something -- a name.

"It was an Italian name, 'Louie' somebody," whose photo her son was asking her to bring to him and hang on the wall where he could see it at all times, Kathy Boshar said.

"We're an Irish-Catholic family here, I didn't think we knew any 'Louies' here," she said after her son was able to say the full name later. "Then he told me it was Louis Zamperini, the Olympic athlete and World War II hero who was profiled in author Laura Hillenbrand's book, Unbroken.

"He said, 'I want that picture on the wall in front of me, because if Louie can do it, i can do it,'" his mother quoted her son. "And that's what Christopher is approaching this. His attitude is, 'You can break my body but you can't break my mind or my will.'"

Boshar, 25, a Chelmsford High School and UMass Amherst graduate, has inspired literally thousands of friends, family members and acquaintances with his determined spirit since he was paralyzed on July 2 when he somehow impacted a sandbar headfirst beside the family's boat in Lake Winnisquam in Meredith, N.H.

It was about 5 p.m. on that Saturday after a day of fun at the lake during the family's annual gathering at their lake house in Meredith and family members were preparing to return to the house when Kathy Boshar said she was the first to notice her son lying partly out of the water atop of the sandbar.

"We don't know exactly how it happened. And he has no memory of it," said Kathy. "I was the one that found him in the water, and I went over to him and rolled him over and was about to read him the riot act, and then he said, 'Ma, I'm in trouble.'"

Family and friends speculated that Christopher may have tripped and tried to convert it to a dive off the boat.

"I've spent my time looking back, saying 'Why, why, why?' Now what we need to concentrate on doing is the only we can do -- live for today, hope for tomorrow, and be his strongest advocate and help him toward the best recovery that we can pull him to," said Kathy Boshar. "And that's what I will do."

On Monday morning, Christopher will be flown by Lear jet-air ambulance to the Shepherd Center, in Atlanta, Ga., one of the top spinal-cord injury rehabilitation hospitals in the nation. The cost of the $12,000 plane ride is being covered by his employer, Boston Capitol Corp., and a grant from the Shepherd Center, his mother said.

Before he leaves town, family and friends are staging a large "Bosh Rally" today at Unity Church in Somerville at 11 a.m. to help boost Christopher's spirits. About 200 supporters have pledged to attend the rally, which will be web-streamed to Christopher's hospital room so he can watch live. Planned as the opposite of a memorial service, the Bosh Rally's organizers plan to play some of Chris' favorite rock songs, including journey's "Don't Stop Believin."

"If it wasn't for our strong belief in prayer, I would've avoided any newspaper coverage like this because this is a painful family thing for us right now, but the more people who I can get -- for even one minute -- to bow their head and say a prayer for Chris, it makes it worthwhile," Kathy Boshar said.

"He's a very, very driven, goal-oriented young man," she said of her son, "This is a very tough place a hard condition to be in. But he has such inner drive and inner spirit that -- combined with medical assistance -- he will do well."

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