Thanks to the United Way!

I have been fortunate enough to work for companies that truly model a giving spirit. This past year, we benefitted from some of those gifts. I am a firm believer that you should always give credit where credit is due. 

 

I recently sent the below email to the United Way contact for the property management firm where Mr B and I both work. Please consider making a donation to the United Way!

 

Dear Meg-

 

For the past eight years, I have always participated in United Way giving campaigns, first while I worked as a banker and then for the past five years as a property manager. 

 

During the summer of 2012 I found myself in a position I could have never imagined.  My son, Lennon who was born in May of 2010 had developed fairly typically as an infant but by his first birthday, he began missing milestones.  By the time his second birthday was approaching, I was at my wit's end.  Lennon was not talking.  Some of the skills he had mastered were lost.  He rarely looked at me and was off in his own world most of the time.  He didn't interact with other children and had begun having severe temper tantrums.  My husband and I began living like hermits because Lennon was so predictably volatile in groups of people and public places that it was too stressful for all of us to even leave the house.  At his 2 year well-child appointment, we were referred to First Steps, Kentucky's Early Intervention Program, by his pediatrician.  First Steps was able to provide some support for us, but not enough.  Though all the therapists that evaluated Lennon suspected that he had autism, in order to have a diagnosis and qualify for more support, he needed an intensive level evaluation.

 

This type of evaluation is very costly and not covered by our insurance.  Thanks to funding from the United Way and some other groups, Lennon was able to have the evaluation at New Perceptions in Edgewood, KY.  The day his formal diagnosis came back was hard, but having the financial burden of the tests lifted off my shoulders made it easier to cope with.

 

Seven months later, Lennon is attending Redwood Rehab (also a United Way Recipient) in their inclusive pre-school program.  He has made many strides thanks to the therapy he has received and will continue to receive as a direct result of his intensive level evaluation that would not have been possible without donations to the United Way.  Additionally, in May, when he turns 3 and ages out of First Steps, he will attend a Summer program at Redwood to bridge the gap between early intervention services and school-age services for children with special needs.  This program is also funded at least in part by donations to the United Way. 

 

I am so thankful for the United Way and all the hard work that folks like you do to get funding for these programs.  I truly don't know where we would be right now if it wasn't for the support from the United Way!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

 

Yours Truly,

 

Leanna Bush