January 2009
Since Travis has been helped by the Shannon Daley Memorial Fund, he has made some wonderful progress. With the funds he received, Travis was able to utilize a program at the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential. Before attending that program Travis was 38 pounds overweight, wore eyeglasses, was not able to communicate, spent most of his day in a wheelchair, had very little use of his hands or arms, was on a lot of different medications for several ailments, and was pretty much in his own little world. At that time Travis was seventeen years old and was at a preschool level.
Things are much different now. After two and one half years of being on this program, Travis is now communicating with a facilitated communication board. He can spell words at a high school level. He has recently read his first adult novel, and without glasses! He learns math facts faster than I can prepare them. He loves to read about the subject of chemistry. He gives hugs with his arms now and loves to hold peoples hands (this is a dream come true for our family alone!). He is also learning how to combat crawl on a special board his father built for him. He has also lost 38 pounds since then and is so much healthier. Being able to finally communicate with Travis has helped us to see what a wonderful young man he is, and to also see what a prankster he could be. The first thing he spelled on his Intellikeys keyboard was, “now I have a voice”.
We are grateful for the help Travis received from the Shannon Daley Memorial Fund. If we never had the pleasure of having them in our lives, I would not want to think of where Travis would be right now.
Needless to say, it has changed our lives dramatically.