Donating to Dream Catchers

Dear Friend,

Kristen was told her daughter, Summer, would never sit up, never walk, talk, or feed herself. Doctors said her beautiful little girl didn’t have the capacity to learn. Summer was only one of 500 people diagnosed with Pachygyria. Summer’s brain doesn’t have the deep folds that store memory. Memory is a critical component of learning.

Summer first came to Dream Catchers as part of a Special Education class in York County. She came in her wheelchair—one of five in that particular class. After four weeks of riding an hour weekly, Summer did something she had never done before—she pulled herself upright using the coffee table at home. This activity is well known to parents of most young children—but Kristen, Summer’s mom, had never seen this before and Summer was eight years old! Summer 2009 was Summer’s summer- she came back to ride, on a scholarship generously funded by donors like you. After nine weeks, Summer walked into the barn, holding her mother’s hand on one side and the hand of a family friend on the other. Summer was walking!

I stood at the barn entrance that day, not believing what I was seeing—Summer walking. She was coming to ride “her” horse. Her mother says these are miracles. I believe her. Today I watched Summer ride. She leaned over and “pushed the button”—the tactile cue to her horse to “walk on.” Summer was proving the doctors wrong. She was sitting up like any other eight-year-old could. She remembered the signal to make her horse go forward, and her instructor said Summer was beginning to add sounds to her cues. Summer said “wwwww” when her instructor asked her to “whoa.” This was a great accomplishment!

Summer is one of 83 students who ride weekly at Dream Catchers. The number of diagnoses that we have seen is staggering, to date we have seen 126 distinct diagnoses in just our current and recently served students. The number of diagnoses are great, but we don’t see these, we see the children. Children like Summer. Won’t you support them? Help them reach their potential, help them reach their dreams. Help another child learn to walk. You can help create other success stories.  Please consider a gift to Dream Catchers Today!

Warmly,
Karen A. Jamison
Board President