Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Apraxia Walk ...

I have shared on my blog before that our first grandson, Maddox
has Apraxia. He is non-verbal
he tries, oh he makes some sounds and he really tries
but his speech is not there
his brain just cannot make that connection to give him a voice
We had never met anyone who had a family member with this
then I met someone at work and her daughter has Apraxia
it felt good to just make one connection with someone else
who understood
And this is what our daughter was missing.....someone else who understood
She tried to come up with ways to form an Apraxia community
but with privacy restrictions with doctors and teachers, how 
could you ever meet anyone.
Then she had the idea to have a walk to raise awareness and through
that would be able to meet people
She got in touch with CASANA and they told her that a couple of 
people had tried in the past to get a walk together for Richmond
but it lost steam and never came about.
But she was determined and with social media, it was easy
to get the word out. They told her do not be discouraged
if you have a small number of registered walkers and you only
raise a small amount
So imagine her surprise and delight in ending up with 175 registered
walkers and raising $11,847
this money goes directly to help children with Apraxia with speech therapy
iPads equipped with speech apps, grants for helping speech therapist
and families and research
but even more than that, she met families that are here in
Richmond who have children with Apraxia
she has made a great connection and plans to next year start
parent support groups and children play dates

We are very proud of our daughter for pulling this together
She did an amazing job. She made each child there feel special
She re-enforced to each of them that this walk and all of these 
people, it was all for them. She handed each one a medal
and spoke such kind words to them.
Johnny and I were very proud
and she also had Tyler, Gabe, Maddox and even little John
who have helped her and supported her through all of the months
of planning and the day of the event

here's a pile of pictures from the event that was held on Oct 17th
The morning started with doughnuts, coffee and hot chocolate
there was face painting, brochures and literature about services
that can help families with special needs children, 
a city fire truck came and a state policeman so that the children
could enjoy seeing those


everything started getting busy with registration and giving
out t-shirts for the walkers


here's my sister-in-law Susan and my niece Mallory ready to walk


here's Tyler, Nicole's partner in life




here's the part that Nicole was most nervous about but
she did a great job....the CASANA folks gave her lots of advice and tips
and she really just spoke from her heart so it was great




Maddox receiving his medal


the top fun raising team was given the honor of starting 
the walk and carrying the banner



my sister Vickie with Susan and Mallory


Tyler, Nicole and their 3 boys


Maddox showing off his medal



already looking forward to next year
it will be even bigger and better

later.....

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