MDA Honors Monroe Resident with Top Achievement Award for Connecticut

The Muscular Dystrophy Association has named Paul Breslawski of Monroe the recipient of its 2011 Robert Ross Personal Achievement Award for Connecticut.

Breslawski, 22, was selected for MDA’s highest achievement award in Connecticut due to his outstanding academic achievements and his dedication and commitment to serving as a role model for others with disabilities.

Breslawski is affected by Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which causes severe muscle weakness and atrophy. He uses a power chair for mobility and has had a cardiac defibrillator implanted to help his heart beat normally.

In May, Breslawski graduated from Sacred Heart University summa cum laude with a degree in political science. He has a strong interest in government and politics, served as an intern in the office of Congressman Jim Himes in Bridgeport in 2009. He also worked on the campaign for Governor Dan Malloy in 2010.

Other notable honors Breslawski received upon graduation include the Gold Medal of Excellence in Political Science and third place in the Writing Across the Curriculum contest for a research paper on Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone in his Constitutional Law course.

Breslawski plans to attend either graduate school to become a social studies teacher, or law school. He credits his family, friends and faith in God with helping him to maintain a positive attitude and keep going, no matter what his muscle disease may throw at him. In addition to politics, Breslawski enjoys video games and rock music.

“It gives me great joy to announce that Paul Breslawski is Connecticut’s Robert Ross MDA Personal Achievement Award recipient for 2011,” said MDA President & CEO Gerald C. Weinberg. “He is a wonderful example of the kind of leadership that people with disabilities contribute to their communities every day.”
About the award

Breslawski was selected as Connecticut’s state award recipient after having been selected for a local award by MDA’s Westchester Area Chapter.

One person will be selected from among all the state honorees around the country and named MDA’s national 2012 Robert Ross Personal Achievement Award recipient.

The award is named in memory of Robert Ross, MDA’s longtime chief executive who died in 2006. Ross created the Personal Achievement Award program in 1992 to recognize the exemplary accomplishments and community service of people who have any of the 40-plus neuromuscular diseases for which MDA seeks treatments and cures.

MDA’s 2011 national award recipient is Thomas Hale Arrington III of Chesapeake, Va. Mr. Arrington is a clean-energy entrepreneur who founded Atlantic Wind Energy, a company that promotes the use of renewable energy. He currently is president of Tidewater Biodiesel, a company that plans to produce fuel from waste vegetable oil. Arrington, 48, has facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy.

MDA is the nonprofit health agency dedicated to curing muscular dystrophy, ALS and related diseases by funding worldwide research. The Association also provides comprehensive health care and support services, advocacy and education.

For residents with muscular dystrophy and related diseases in the Monroe area, MDA maintains a clinic at White Plains Hospital and Medical Center in White Plains, N.Y.

The 46th annual MDA Labor Day Telethon will air Sunday, Sept. 4 from 6 p.m. to midnight on FOX61 in the Monroe area.