My friend Scott Harding, aka Scotty Hard, a musician and music producer, was returning home from his Brooklyn recording studio late one night in February 2008 when a car sped through a stop sign and broadsided his taxi, paralyzing him below the shoulders. The occupants of the other car fled the scene and were never apprehended. Not only were no criminal charges brought against them, his civil suit has yet to go to trial. He has not seen a cent in damages from any of the liable parties and he may never.

While he was in hospital, Scotty’s friends rallied across multiple cities on four continents to raise funds for a special needs trust set up in his name. With no compensation in sight, he would need resources to find accessible housing, pay for equipment not covered by Medicare and Medicaid, and provide daily living expenses while he undertook the formidable physical and mental challenge of rehab.

The proceeds and donations from concerts, dinners, auctions, merchandise, and personal appeals did just that. A year after his accident, Scotty was back in the studio, making music.

However, he tried to do too much too quickly. A persistent problem with pressure ulcers, a common problem for the paralyzed, seriously compromised Scotty's ability to work for the last three years. And after eight years of providing essential services, supplies, assurance and succor, the Scotty Hard Trust has almost run out of funds.

The ulcers have finally healed and Scotty is ready to get back into the studio. We want to make sure he stays strong enough to do this longterm.

Scotty's strength, mobility, and resistance to infection and pressure ulcers benefit demonstrably from regular visits with three health specialists:

Dr. Jonathan Vapnek, a top NY urologist specializing in treatments for people with spinal-cord injuries;

Jerry Snee, a certified yoga instructor who teaches "chair yoga" to people with mobility challenges;

Richard Zukowski, a practitioner of Hoshino deep tissue massage therapy.

​ This combined therapy program has had spectacular and long-lasting results. However, they are expensive and not covered by Medicare or Medicaid. Scotty has to pay for them out of his own pocket.

Our goal is to raise enough funds to allow Scotty to have:
- three sessions a year with Dr. Vapnek;
- a weekly session with Jerry Snee;
- six sessions a year with Richard Zukowski.

It will cost roughly $10,000 dollars for a year's treatment.

Scotty's a proud guy, and very stoic in the face of the bad luck he's been dealt. What follows is the only information about him that he'd like people to think of when they hear the name Scotty Hard:

Scotty Hard's musical career spans decades. A producer, engineer, composer and guitarist, he has been a vital member of the NYC music community since emigrating there from Vancouver, Canada, in the early 1990s. Although based in Brooklyn, he has made records in Africa, Europe, South America, and in cities all over Canada and the U. S.

He has worked with a diverse range of musicians and artists, including Teo Macero, Wu-Tang Clan, De La Soul,
Jungle Brothers, Bjork, The Master Musicians of Jajouka, Salif Keita, Vernon Reid, Nação Zumbi, Crash Test Dummies, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Vijay Iyer, Prince Paul, Chris Rock, Vernon Reid, Stan Douglas, Matthew Barney, and Arto Lindsay.

His recordings include two solo albums, The Return of Kill Dog E (1999, Wordsound) and Radical Reconstructive Surgery (2006, Thirsty Ear), several albums with the NY hip-hop community, and numerous songs in collaborative collections around the world.

We would be so grateful if you could help us help Scotty do what he does so amazingly well -- make music.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. And thank you for considering helping Scotty.