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.....