The little girl who grew up in Schenectady, N.Y., and whose first driving experience was on her uncle’s John Deere tractor upstate, near Plattsburgh, on the shores of Lake Champlain, and the young Indiana boy who napped up in the luggage rack of the bus in the early-morning hours as he and his dad made their first excursion together to the Indianapolis 500 grew up to drive race cars and make their marks in motorsports.

And this Monday, the two – Shirley Muldowney and Tony Stewart – will be among the honorees at New York City’s Marriott Marquis at Times Square at the 37th annual Great Sports Legends Dinner. The charity gala will benefit the Buoniconti Fund To Cure Paralysis, a fundraising arm of The Miami Project that includes the Darrell Gwynn Quality of Life Chapter.

Football’s Edgerrin James, baseball’s Vladimir Guerrero, basketball’s Tim Hardaway, and skiing’s Lindsey Vonn and Sarah Will are among the athletes who will share the spotlight at the event the Tudor Group and the Mack Family present each year.

Muldowney has the most direct connection of Monday’s honorees to The Miami Project’s mission.

She was, by her own description, “barely able to walk” in April 1990, nearly six years after her horrific Top Fuel crash in 1984, at Montreal when she learned of friend and on-track rival Darrell Gwynn’s ugly accident in England, during a practice pass before an exhibition run against Al Segrini at the U.K.’s Santa Pod Raceway.

As she sat in her hotel room at Atlanta that Easter Sunday and in the days afterward, she feared for Gwynn. She knew all about multiple fractures, immobility, muscle grafts, trip after trip into surgery, and extended hospitalizations. She knew what might await him but had heard only “a little of this and a little of that” about his condition and the extent of his injuries. He was young and healthy and at the height of his career. But she just had an uneasy feeling.

Muldowney said she recalls deciding, “I’m not liking this. I’m not so sure we’ve heard the whole story.” So she flew to England to investigate for herself and to visit Gwynn. She also knew the isolation of being so damaged, in a hospital surrounded by strangers, in a foreign country. Her accident had happened in 1984, in Canada, near Montreal. She was just across the border. He was across the Atlantic Ocean from his home at Davie, Fla.

Gwynn had lost part of his left arm and was left paralyzed from the chest down. She arrived at at Stoke Mandeville Hospital – home to Europe’s largest spinal-injuries ward and the birthplace of the Paralympic movement – with heartfelt encouragement and $15,000 in donations from colleagues, friends, and fans for Gwynn and his parents, Jerry and Joan Gwynn.

Gwynn since has become an inspiration to thousands of individuals living with paralysis, first establishing his own foundation that offered motorized wheelchairs to those in need and prevention messages to the general public. In 2015, as the 25th anniversary of his life-changing wreck approached, Gwynn folded his foundation into the Buoniconti Fund To Cure Paralysis. Today it’s known as the Darrell Gwynn Quality of Life Chapter of the Buoniconti Fund To Cure Paralysis, which is the fundraising extension of The Miami Project To Cure Paralysis.

Stewart, too, has a long history with Gwynn and his foundation.

Back in 2014, Stewart donated to Gwynn’s foundation the scooter he had used to move around the pits the year before, when he had broken his leg in a sprint-car accident. It fetched $22,500 at the Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach auction that April. Stewart also kicked in airfare, tickets, garage passes, and lodging for the purchaser to attend the NASCAR race at Daytona that July as his guest.

By then, Stewart had had a longtime friendship with Gwynn that includes participation in his annual Hot Rods and Reels Charity Fishing Tournament on the infield lake at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Stewart’s own foundation benefits drivers injured in racing accidents.