In October 2011 we launched Maddy’s Car Appeal to help raise the almost $30,000 needed to modify the family car to be wheelchair accessible for Maddy.  With the help of the members of this wonderful I Give A Buck Community and the amazing team at Melbourne’s Gold 104 radio station, the funds were raised and the car was off to NSW for its modifications!

Recently, we received an update from Maddy’s family and a few photos too and we’d like to share that with you all…

Hi Barb & Liat

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Some great news for you both, we finally have our car back and Maddy can now be driven around comfortably and safely in her wheelchair.

It took quite some time to do, twice as long as they originally told us (12 weeks instead of 6!) but its all over and done with.

Maddy seems quite impressed with her new seating position and it is a dream come true for me as I can now take her out and not worry about how my back is going to be feeling at the end of the day.

The transition time getting her in and out of the car is remarkably fast as well, I can’t believe how little time is needed to dock the wheelchair, put her brakes and seat belt on and then away we go.

No more lifting her in and out of the wheelchair and squeezing her into that horrid car seat, those days are now behind us. YEAH!

Our many heartfelt thanks goes out to all the loyal staff at IGAB and to all those kind and generous people who donated to Maddy’s appeal; on behalf of our entire family we say thank you once again!

Without the immense support that Maddy received from the public this would not have ever been possible.

Adrian and I feel an overwhelming sense of relief that this major hurdle has been overcome and we would like to pass on our sincerest gratitude to all those who contributed.

THANK YOU EVERYONE!

All the very best,

Traci, Adrian, Madison and Josh.

If you were one of the special people that made this family’s dream come true, take a bow! And, if you weren’t part of our community back then but would like to share in the love, hop on over to make the same dream come true by giving a buck to Harry and to Zac.

Great work again people!

Barb Blashki – Founder

The Rifton Activity Chair prescribed for Belinda is a pretty special chair. Following two years of therapist-guided design, the result is the most easily adjusted, versatile and therapist-friendly special needs chair on the market.

There are lots of benefits for both Belinda and her mum:

• No tools are needed for any adjustment
• It can be easily adjusted while Belinda is in the chair
• The tilt–in–space feature allows varying degrees of recline for safe swallowing
• Springs allow for a self-calming movement
• The armrests can be height and angle-adjusted. The forearm prompts are extremely versatile in adjustment to facilitate trunk and head control while sitting
• The chair features a foot pump for height adjustment. This allows Belinda to be lowered until her feet are on the floor, or raised to sit comfortably at 32″ high table. The chair’s height can also be easily set for lateral transfers.
• The contoured headrest supports the head and keeps it in proper alignment for safe swallowing.

This chair is absolutely necessary to offer Belinda adequate postural control and good positioning during meal times instead of being propped up on her mum’s knee as is the case at the moment.

But, in addition to meal times, the Activity Chair has a multitude of other uses.

Belinda is fully wheelchair dependent and the chair can be used not only at home but at school too – enabling her to sit independently to enjoy table top activities wherever she may be. Belinda attends Croydon Special Development School full-time.

Can you imagine how it will feel for Belinda to be so much more independent? To not have to rely on her mum supporting her at the table? Meal times will actually become the social events that they should be rather than the nightmare that they currently are.

Please help us to fund this chair for Belinda – both we and Belinda will never be able to thank you enough.

To donate to Belinda’s Appeal visit her Appeal Page

Harry’s Appeal is the first appeal we’ve ever had that hasn’t been completed within 6 weeks.

We’ve always had a policy for what would happen if we had a large, long-running appeal but we’ve never had to put it to work until now.

So here’s how it works:

In the first 6 weeks of any appeal (what we call Phase 1) we really get to work. We feature the appeal as far and wide as possible. It’s in our newsletter every week, it’s talked about on our Facebook Page all the time and we issue press releases about the story to all the local papers and major dailies too. In addition to that we contact business and service clubs and schools in the local child’s area and ask for their assistance in running a fundraiser or hosting a collection tin etc.

Now, we are a small charity – in fact up here in QLD there’s just me (Barb) and my husband Peter. And in VIC there’s just Liat for 20 hours a week.  Yep, three of us. That’s it. Between us we do everything. So to keep up the Phase 1 activities for every appeal would be pretty hard. That’s where Phase 2 comes in.

In Phase 2 the appeal stays open – we’ll never close an appeal until it’s finished – and the appeal page stays on our web site so that online donations can still be received for that child.  And we still work behind the scenes looking for every opportunity there is to raise the shortfall. We also keep updating everyone once a week or so on our Facebook page as a reminder that help is still needed.

The biggest difference between the two phases is feature spots in our weekly e-newsletter. During Phase 1, every appeal gets a feature spot in the newsletter but during Phase 2 they don’t.This is for a couple of reasons:

• everyone on the newsletter mailing list that was going to donate to any particular appeal would have done so within that 6 week period if they were going to
• we know from experience that most of our members donate to a given appeal just once and then they wait for the next child to help
• we know from experience that we get the best results when we give people just one or two stories at a time

What this means for Harry is that he’ll no longer have a feature spot in the newsletter, but everything else will stay the same.   We’re going to get Harry back on the road again. We won’t stop until we do.

Tara was born in 2005.  She seemed like the perfect baby who never cried until she was rushed to hospital at just 6 weeks old with what seemed like an ordinary case of bronchiolitis. During that evening she suffered a seizure that lasted for over 90 minutes and she has never had a seizure-free day since.

Tara’s underlying condition remained a mystery until she was diagnosed with Dysphagia and Floppy Baby Syndrome in 2006 and with Autism in 2007.  In 2009 Tara was also diagnosed with Dravet Syndrome – one of the most catastrophic forms of epilepsy. This is a very rare condition effecting only a few hundred children in Australia, and probably less that 1000 worldwide.  It is life threatening and there is a high chance that one day a seizure will take Tara from her family.  In order to do everything possible to prevent this from happening Tara has a seizure response assistance dog to be beside her particularly at night.

On an average day Tara has over 100 minor seizures and around 5 to 10 seizures that render her unconscious.

We first met Tara earlier in 2011 she was five and a half years old and still not fully toilet trained as, although she knew how to use the toilet, every major seizure resulted in an accident, meaning that the amount of nappies needed on a daily basis was similar to a new born baby.  Tara was on a costly, special thickened fluids diet and regular medication.  The costs associated with these day to day expenses added to the special equipment that she needs to support her and keep her safe during seizures have put a big strain on the family budget.

Tara’s mum is her full-time carer and her dad helps during the day after working night-shift as a baker in the country town in which they live.

Due to the severity of Tara’s seizures she often ends up unable to walk, on a good day she can walk but a bad day she cannot even support her head.

In February 2011 we were able to support the family by contributing $2,000 (via Tara’s Car Appeal) towards a full transmission rebuild on the family’s wheelchair modified Tarago which had stopped working in reverse. Without the van, Tara couldn’t access her Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and other medical appointments.

Tara’s Appeal raised a little extra than required and we were able to put that to good use in July by buying Tara a much needed new bed that could fit her mum in it too for those nights that Tara needed someone to sleep with her.
During the time that we’ve known Tara she has sadly deteriorated and needs additional supports.  She’s using a walking frame now and really needs a special seat that will give her support through her seizures, and the rest period after each seizure, as well as for use during feeding as she is losing the ability to feed herself.

These special seats, called Gravity Chairs, are $1,895 each.  Tara could access $1,200 of funding towards the chair via her Helping Children with Autism package and this appeal sought to raise the remaining $695 – and did so in just 7 days!

What a great community!
Australian children’s charity I Give A Buck Foundation of Australia Ltd assists children from disadvantaged families who also suffer from a life-threatening or life-altering illness or condition – with particular focus on terminally ill children.

Joshua’s was an appeal like no other!

While we always run appeals that aim to raise a specific amount of money to purchase specific items for a specific child, just like Joshua’s Appeal, we usually don’t have a class full of amazing year nine students taking on responsibility for raising all those funds!

This month, in what we hope will become an ongoing schools program; the year nine students at Footscray City College ‘sponsored’ Joshua’s Appeal for us as part of their Community Action Program.

Joshua is one very cute 5-year-old boy! Suffering from a range of conditions including cerebral palsy, an intellectual disability and seizures, Joshua needs support in all areas of his daily living and relies on a wheelchair for getting around.

Although he can’t sit up on his own, he doesn’t let that stop him – he loves being on the floor where he’s figured out a way to pull himself across the room on his elbows to get to where he wants! Joshua can say a few words but mainly uses a communication book to help him in conversation with others.

He lives at home with his wonderful family: parents Tracey and Chris and older siblings Nathan and Daniel.

Joshua is very social! He loves company and greatly benefited from the time he spent in 3 and 4 year old kindergarten – making some really positive gains in relation to his interaction with other children.

It’s very important that Joshua can keep up this positive interaction with other children his own age. So in 2011, not only had Joshua started at Belmore School (a terrific school for children with disabilities), but he’d also be en enrolled to start at a mainstream school one day each week. Joshua’s parents want Joshua to have the same opportunities their other two sons have had without his disability being a barrier – and we couldn’t agree more. It was a very exciting time for the whole family.

Joshua’s Occupational Therapist had visited the school to make sure that everything was in place to make Joshua’s attendance go as smoothly as possible – and sheds recommended that Joshua have a special chair bought for him. Without it, Joshua would have to sit in his wheelchair all day and, since that won’t fit under a classroom table, he’d also have to sit on his own at a separate table. But, as with most pieces of disability equipment, the chair – called a Kelly Chair – was very expensive.

We all thought that it would be so much better for Joshua if he could sit at a classroom table with all the other kids and so, through this appeal, we hoped to raise the $1,125 needed for the Kelly Chair.

So the Year 9 Footscray City College kids set to work to see how much money they could raise in 4 weeks – with the intention that any extra funds that they raised over the required $1,125 would be donated to our general fundraising account.

The college’s Community Action Program is value driven; where respect, caring, giving, empathy and trust are integral. The project with Joshua was a perfect fit with those values – and would continue to enhance the school’s community connections. For the kids that participated it was real and engaging and a very practical way of making a difference.

It was with HUGE admiration and pride that we were able to watch the kids raise an incredible $1,961.85!  Well done to each and every one of them!