Below are some of the amazing children the Children's Ability Fund has been able to assist in recent years. Click on our clients pictures for more about their stories.
Below are some of the amazing children the Children's Ability Fund has been able to assist in recent years. Click on our clients pictures for more about their stories.
"Reach for the stars, you have the ability!"
CARTER
Meet Carter
The Children’s Ability Fund has been helping to keep a smile on Carter’s face since he was a preschooler.
Carter likes to be involved in the activities going on around him and because he has a neurological disorder that has caused low muscle tone, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and global developmental delay, he has needed special help.
Thanks to the Children’s Ability Fund, Carter and his family have received several of the special supports he has required over the past six years – the cost of which extended beyond his family’s reach. The funding has contributed toward his basic needs and has enabled him to participate in everyday life to the fullest extent possible.
Carter’s mother, Heidi first wrote to the Children’s Ability Fund when Carter was in playschool and growing quickly. Children’s Ability Fund provided funding for a specialized stroller that was easy to man-oeuvre, big and strong enough to hold up to 100 pounds, and yet light enough for mom to easily handle. Carter was now able to play tag in preschool. Schoolmates pushed him in the stroller around the gym in chase, while he held a foam pool noodle as an extended arm to tag others when he was “it.”
The Children’s Ability Fund helped again by financing the cost of a custom-built bicycle with a pull handle that would make the pedals turn for him. It enabled him to get out around the neighbourhood, at home and at playschool on bike day.
Carter continued to grow into a big boy and get heavier, and mom found it increasingly more difficult to take care of his needs.
By the age of seven he was using a wheelchair, which had to be left at school since the family home was not wheelchair-accessible. Adapting the house became a pressing need and Heidi set out to raise the funds required for the modifications, including turning to the Children’s Ability Fund for a contribution. “I am carrying and lifting Carter for all activities and movement within the house (including bath time), back and forth from the car, and at any external activities that we participate in,” Heidi wrote to the Fund in 2010.
Once again, the Children’s Ability Fund came through and made life easier for Carter and Heidi by funding an overhead tracking system in Carter’s bedroom, which helps to lift and move him in and out of his bed and also in and out of the bathtub.
The most recent equipment provided to the family by the Children’s Ability Fund was in 2012 – a motorized lift to get Carter and his wheelchair in and out of an adapted minivan. Carter may not be able to walk – but thanks to the Children’s Ability Fund he’s still on the move.
“The Children’s Ability Fund has been an exceptional resource for me and my family. Without their support we would have struggled with the regular daily activities that most families take for granted,” says Heidi. “As well, everyone we have worked with has always gone out of their way to make sure we are satisfied with the final products.
“Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the Children’s Ability Fund and made Carter’s life just that much easier.”