Hope for Kelian and Cassandra

Climbing one step at a time can get you to the top of the highest mountain...

Therapy

Kelian is still doing ABA therapy for the moment, but we plan on implementing the Son-Rise program gradually over the next few months.

However, we started to 'join' him in his "stimming" activities (repetitive behaviors) and saw an increase in eye contact and in seeking social interactions to play games he would usually prefer to play alone.  For example, the other day, Kelian was sitting in the gravel under the slides, and he started to throw handfuls of gravel against the metal slide post, totally oblivious of everything or anybody else around him.  I (his mother) would usually respond to such a behavior by redirecting him to something else, but having heard of the Son-Rise approach, I decided to try something else; I sat beside him and started doing the same thing.  He looked up at me (doesn't happen often!) and seemed surprised but pleased.  He threw another handful of gravel and looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to do it again.  It went on for a while and we had a really nice moment of eye contact and shared enjoyment...! 

Later, we did the same with his plastic eggs that he repeatedly takes one by one in his hands, name the color and throw in the basket; there again, he would usually play that game by himself, totally involved in his little world, but now, he is actually coming to me and pulling me by the hand so that I come to play with him and name the eggs colors with him, while he looks at me when my turn comes! This shows just how the Son-Rise program works: join the child in his world, show him how fun it can be to be around people, and he will come to seek other people's company and enjoy social interactions. 

In ABA, Kelian can attend to a short story; he will draw or play appropriately with toys on demand (which he sometimes does even out of therapy); he imitates his therapist's actions well (his imitation skills are getting better and better); he can follow simple commands; he makes simple crafts and he is learning to generalize his skills in other rooms of the house.

Language

In his ABA sessions, Kelian is able to do a lot more than he does outside of therapy.  He shows a good understanding of words, and understands questions like: "give me the one (picture) you drive with"; "show me the one (picture) who fights fire";  etc.  He has a wide vocabulary (we stopped counting after 150-200 words), but almost never uses his words when he is not in therapy.  He usually communicates to request things with single words, and rarely makes sentences of 2 words or more.  He has a few sentences he knows like: "Sheep, where are you?" (when he looks for his favorite stuffed animal); "high in the sky" (when we push him in the swing); and a few video parts he repeats from time to time. 

Daycare

At the moment, Kelian goes to a daycare 2 mornings a week with his home therapist to help him be in a social setting and to learn how to interact with other kids.  He is doing well with following the daycare's activities, but he isn't really interacting with the other kids on his own.  He will tolerate them around him, but won't play with them.

Therapy

We are currently in a transition period with ABA therapy; we have hired a new therapist, Ross, as our therapist is going back to University (thank you for everything, Allison!).  We are going to advertise at the MUN University to find volunteers for the Son-Rise program, hoping to find people for weekends and late afternoons at first.  We modified the ABA program a little and put more periods of non evaluated play, where Kelian doesn't have to "perform", and he seems to enjoy the changes.  We continue to play with him the Son-Rise way when he isn't in therapy, by joining him in his repetitive activities, and he just has this big smile on his face!  He even comes to us and asks us to go play with him.

ABA therapy with Ross

Language

Kelian is taking a new "supplement" called DMG since July 23rd, and he made good progress in language, but mostly in eye contact.  Last week, his senior therapist (who comes every other week) was impressed with how much he was looking at people in the eye.  He added a few sentences, like: "wake up, maman (or papa)!"; "oh no, not again!"; There you go!".  We don't know if this is all due to DMG alone, or to the joining, or to both, but it's on the right track...

Daycare

We took Kelian out of daycare, because we would like to implement the Son-Rise program soon (part-time) and we are going to continue with ABA during the morning.

A reporter from NTV news contacted us today, after seeing our article

in the newspaper, and offered to come over to our house for an interview.  

We did the interview, and it appeared on the NTV newshour tonight. 

Hopefully, it will serve our Son-Rise project with Kelian,

but we also hope that this information will provide awareness

for parents of autistic kids, as to what therapy programs are available.

End of ABA therapy around mid-September...  and beginning of Son-Rise!

The end of August, and beginning of September, was a period of obvious gains for Kelian; better eye contact, bits of interactions with sister Cassandra, occasional spontaneous language, and good compliance during ABA sessions.  He even started to say "thank you much (thank you very much)" when we were giving him something, which he learned from his sister...!    However, this period didn't last very long, as Phil went away for work for 3 weeks in September, and Kelian seemed very disturbed by his absence.  He sometimes looked through the window asking: "Papa?".  This is the first time Kelian seems to notice that his father is not there, even though Phil regularly leaves for several weeks at a time.  In addition to Phil being away, Kelian had a cold, the playroom was all changed, he didn't go to daycare anymore and Allison had left a few weeks earlier.  All these changes might have been too much to handle at once.  He started doing a lot of "stimming" (repetitive behaviors) and was very hard to reach; it was almost impossible to interact with him...   In spite of all that, we could say this was a step forward, since he now misses people he loves and feels the effect of their absence.

On September 17th, Ross, our new therapist, left for another family.  We had told him to start looking, as we were planning on implementing the Son-Rise program soon, but he left earlier than we expected, so we had to stop ABA before being completely ready for Son-Rise...  But we had to take the plunge one day or the other!  We found 2 volunteers to come and interact with Kelian; Laura and Lindsay, 2 students at MUN University (St.John's).  I gave them a little training and they did their first session with Kelian, following what I was doing.  It went really well!!!  When Laura arrived, we told Kelian: "Look, you have a friend!"; he looked at her, smiling, and said: "Friend!  I have friend!", and he looked at us happily!  He participated really well during the session; a lot of interactions, spontaneous eye contact, and a lot of running and chasing around!

We currently are in the mainly "joining" phase of the program, which means that we basically follow him; if he runs, we run, if he jumps, we jump, if he does some "stimmimg", we join him in that too...  But even if he does "stim" with his letters, we manage to transform that in an interactive activity as much as possible;  for example, the other day, he was taking his cardboard letters one at a time, naming the letter, and stacking them up in a neat pile, completely absorbed in his activity.  I tried to offer him something else, to no avail.  I then started to trace every letter he was naming on the magnetic board (Magnadoodle), making sure I was close enough and in his line of sight.  After a couple of letters, he realized what I was doing and became interested.  He was naming the letter, and I was tracing it on the board, and he was looking at me in the eye regularly.  At one point, he said "I have T", then "I have S", etc, so I started saying: "what do you have?" every time he took a letter.  After a while, he was waiting for me to ask my question before saying "I have..."  I took advantage of the fact that he wanted me to ask my question to wait a little before asking it, and as expected, he looked at me, so I said it right away.  This game went on for a while; at the end, he seemed less interested by the activity, and he even stopped "stimming" on the letters, for the first time since the morning!

A couple of days later, Kelian came to get me with his pile of letters and brought me in the playroom.  He seemed like he wanted something, so I asked him what he wanted and he pointed to the shelves.  I asked him if he wanted the Magnadoodle board and he said "yes!".  He wanted to play the same game we had played together the other day!

Kelian does more and more pretend play , which he wouldn't do before.  He sometimes takes Hotwheel cars and drives them on the floor, making engine sounds.  The other day, after he saw me doing that, he took a plastic flat stick and said "boat", then he put some Playdoh bits on it and pretended to cruise his boat on the floor, again with engine sounds...!  He really enjoys dressing up and seeing us with funny hats and huge glasses!  We are very pleased with  his progress so far, and we can't wait to go to our December Start-Up training!

Language : 

Kelian added several words and sentences this month, but seems much more comfortable with English than French, even if he understands French well. 

• One day, Phil put a huge hat on his head and covered Kelian’s head with the hat too; Kelian said: « It’s raining! », pretending this was an umbrella! 
• When I ask him :  « Where’s T? » or « Where’s book (etc) », he looks for it and when he finds it, he says : « there it is! ». 
• He often uses « I want… », « Don’t touch! », « Where is…? »…  One day, he was playing with Sesame Street Popsicle makers, and noticed «Oscar » was missing, so he said : « Oh no, where’s Oscar? ».  
• When we were playing with his letters, I placed a « W » on his head and said : « W is ON your head », he took it and put it next to him and said : « next to » .
• The other day, one of his Hotwheels cars got stuck in his garage, so he said : « Stuck!  It’s stuck! ». 
• Kelian loves alphabet books (A is for Apple, B is for Ball, etc); so when we play with his letters, I ask him : « K is for…? » and he says « Kelian! ».  When I ask him « P is for…? » he says  « Papa! » and points to Phil’s picture on the calendar (we placed his picture on the date he is supposed to come back from work).  Kelian also likes to take his letters one at a time  ad name an action word beginning with this letter, and then he does the action;  for exemple :  « T, turn » then he turns; « J, jump » then he jumps, etc.  He got that from one of his videos.  He copies a lot from what he sees in the videos, and now, he copies more and more what we do or what he’s observing around him.  He even threw his banana peel in the garbage one day, on his own! 

One of the best moments was when I was putting Kelian to sleep the other day; I usually give him a kiss and say: “Bonne nuit, je t’aime!  (Good night, I love you)” (which he then repeats), but that day, before I did or said anything, he said: « kiss! » and came closer to kiss me, and then he added: « bonne nuit, je t’aime! »…

Playing with Lindsay

Toilet training :

October 19 is a day to remember; Kelian got on the toilet (on his own) and did a number 2 for the first time in his life!!!  He now accepts to put underwear, but at first, he didn’t want any so he stayed bare-bottom most of the day.  He occasionally has accidents when he’s wearing underwear, but he never has any accidents when he doesn’t wear any.  He now goes on the toilet on his own regularly!  (Mommy and Daddy are really proud!).  When we go out, however, we still put pull-ups on him. 

Eye contact : 

Kelian loves to paint his face with Halloween make-up or even paint ; we had really good eye contact while he was painting our faces!  Generally, eye contact is improving, but we are still working on it.

Painting his face with Laura

 Kelian continues to add more words to his vocabulary, mostly in English, but also in French.  He sometimes surprises us by using words we didn’t teach him directly or words he heard in a video (or somewhere else), and he’s using them in the appropriate setting.  If Lindsay isn’t following him, he says : « Come on! ».  He even started to call Lindsay by her name when they play together.

Toilet training :

 Kelian is potty-trained during the day, but we still put pull-ups on him when we go out.  He tolerates underwear much longer than he used to, and even puts them back on after going on the toilet.  Wherever he is in the house, he gets to the bathroom without any problem.

Interactions :

 Kelian participates more and more in interactive games (sometimes he initiates, sometimes we do), or cooperative (puzzles, blocks, etc), and shares a bit more easily.  When he was painting letters on his cheeks and was sticking them to the mirror, he was waiting for Laura to get her own paint, so they would do it together!  The other day, we were chasing together, Kelian, Cassandra and I; Kelian got in a room and Cassandra got in another one, so he called : « Cassandra! » to get her to come, and was really happy when she came!

Mamie and Papi came to visit for a month;

Kelian was happy to have more volunteers to play with the letters!

Letters :

 Kelian is still as interested with letters, and the other day, he was copying the title of a book on the blackboard, one letter at a time.  I decided I would try something; I wrote 4 words on the blackboard: « Kelian », « cat », « dog » and « go ».  I then asked him « where is dog? », and after a few seconds (while he was figuring out what I was asking) he looked at the board, touched the word « dog » and said « there it is! », very happy to have found it!  I asked for « Kelian » and « cat », and he touched them.  For « go », I had to prompt him.  Afterwards, he found « papa », « kite », « zoo » and « maman »…!  I was really surprised with his ability to read these small words, even though I felt he knew that a bunch of letters together formed words.  Always full of surprises!

Kelian turned 4 years old on November 11!

 Kelian liked the candles on his birthday cake, but we didn't have to light them up again and again this time!  When he received his presents, he seemed really interested in seeing what was under the wrapping paper (Cassandra too!).

I attended the Son-Rise Start-Up training in Massachusetts (USA), from December 2nd to 8th, 2007, and what I have learned far exceeded my expectations.  The whole experience was extremely beneficial, and it was great meeting so many people living the same thing that we do.  Even William Hogan, the main teacher of the Start-Up training, is the father of Jade, formerly autistic (you can watch the story of her recovery HERE).  We also had the incredible opportunity to meet Raun Kaufman himself; he came the very last day as a surprise speaker for a Q&A session!

Note: I will eventually give a detailed review of my Start-Up training at the Autism Treatment Center of America.

At the ATCA, with William Hogan                             Raun Kaufman answering our questions

Regarding Kelian, he continued to impress us with his writings...  On his Magnadoodle, he wrote words like « Baby Mozart », « Baby Van gogh », « Baby Einstein ».  It's fascinating because he writes the letters in the exact same order of appearance as they do at the beginning of the Baby Einstein videos: they appear in 2 rows one on top of the other, one letter at a time, randomly!  Afterwards, he wrote « Kanga » then « Roo » on top, just like in the Winnie The Pooh video, where we can see 2 mailboxes on on top of the other, with these 2 names...  His visual memory is incredible!   One day, Phil wrote the letter C and said: « C for… », and Kelian answered « car! »; Kelian than erased the board and wrote the word « car »!

Kelian writing "Baby Van Gogh"...!                 Spelling colors with the foam letters and the Magnadoodle.

Laura, one of our volunteers, wasn't available for December, and Lindsay, our other volunteer, left for the Holidays around the 2nd week of December, so we didn't do much Son-Rise sessions in December.  But Kelian had fun with Papi and Mamie, who went back to Quebec on December 12.  We gave them a ride to the airport, and Kelian didn't want to let go of Mamie's hand when she said goodbye...  He is probably sick of seeing people leave, as Daddy travels a lot for work, and I have left for a week recently.  Fortunately, we use pictures on the calendar to help him know when people are leaving and coming back, and he seems to understand.

                                Papi and Mamie going back to Québec...                                                       Our calendar with pictures

Around mid-December, Kelian woke up one morning, took off his diaper and put on some underwear and pants on his own.  He then came into our room and said: « Yes…  zip! » while putting my hand on his zipper.  A few moments later, Phil asked him to go open Cassandra's bedroom door to let her out (like he had asked regularly without success) and Kelian went!

For Christmas, we stayed in Newfoundland.  This year (just like at his birthday) Kelian showed interest and curiosity for the presents.  But as soon as he saw the Cariboo game, nothing else existed; he loves that game!!!  (He had used it with his speech therapist over the Fall).

The Cariboo game...

In general, Kelian seems more aware of what's going on aroud him, and he becomes more involved in our everyday life.

Gluten and casein free diet :

We started the gluten free/casein free diet at the beginning of January; most of the time, the whole family is doing it because it is much easier that way.  We noticed a period of mild regression shortly after starting the diet, as Kelian seemed less interactive and more in his “bubble” (it may be the addiction effect often associated with the implementation of the diet).

Sessions:

Lindsay came back around mid-January.  Kelian is paying more and more attention to what she is doing, and he is even initiating games where he tickles or chases her, whereas he usually has her tickle or chase him.  Shortly after, we had a new volunteer, Wendy, and Kelian seems happy to play with her.

Wendy joined the team!

Kelian loves the “hunt and seek” board game he received at Christmas and has an excellent memory; he likes it when we play the game with him.  He still enjoys writing words on the Magnadoodle, and he likes reading words too.  Chase games are still daily occurrences…!

With Mom and Dad in the playroom

Kelian really likes when I’m in the room with the volunteers, and regularly gets out to find me when I’m not in there;  the volunteers are having a hard time trying to join him around the house.  It’s not easy, as he gets distracted with Cassandra and I, and is less focused than in the playroom.  So I installed a childproof handle on the door, but he got really mad!  We will have to think of a plan to have him stay in the room…

Cassandra:

Before the Holidays, as well as at the end of January, Cassandra met with members of the “child development” team at the hospital, as we were worried with some of her behaviors.  The psychologist and the developmental pediatrician recommended that she does the ADOS test, to investigate further, because they felt she had some autistic tendencies, even if it’s not as obvious as Kelian.  The test is scheduled for April, and we can’t wait to see what comes out of that.

We know that there are many families with more than one autistic child (genetic component), but our research on the Internet (see this link) taught us that children with an older autistic sibling tend to display delays and/or autistic behaviors until approximately 4.5 years old, but these delays/behaviors often go away without intervention after that age.  To be on the safe side though, we will enroll Cassandra in a daycare 3 mornings a week, to have her socialize with “typical” children.

Trip to Quebec:

We went to Quebec at the beginning of February, for 2 weeks.  We met with DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) practitioners (a doctor and a nutritionist) at the Westmount Wellness Center in Montreal.  Kelian had blood and urine samples taken, and they will be sent to specialized labs in the USA.

Kelian played a little bit with the other kids (cousins); he really enjoyed when everybody was chasing around in the house, he liked to play with his “find and seek” game with the family, and he even participated in a tag game with his cousins.  However, he often needed to be alone, and regularly asked for the computer.

We attended a baptism one day, and when the people were applauding in the church, Kelian was saying: “Good job!”.  When Kelian’s aunt Julie was giving him bracelets, one after the other, he was saying: “Oh, thank you!” every time…!  Most of the time, Kelian went to the bathroom withour any difficulty, but we visited many different places and he didn’t always know where the bathroom was, which gave us a couple incidents.

Following the gluten free/casein free diet when we’re not home is not easy, and there were a couple of times where Kelian took food from his cousins plates, or Cassandra grabbed the baby bottle…   But overall, we managed to do the diet as much as possible.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do any Son-Rise sessions while we were there.

Back to Newfoundland:

Back home, Kelian was asking Cassandra more and more to chase with him.  He likes to write non-sense words and finds it funny when I try to read them.  He also spelled words like “train (from last to 1^st letter…), flower, leaf, frog…”  Around the end of February, I put the child’s safety handle on the playroom’s door (when I was in the room with him), and Kelian got upset for a moment, asking to get out.  I realized that he was always going out to the computer, so I hid it, and it was a bit better after that.  When the volunteers were coming, I was asking them to close the door, but to open it whenever Kelian asked for it to be opened.   Kelian was staying a bit longer with the door closed, but regularly requested to get out. 

We have a new volunteer since the end of February; her name is Natasha.  We now have 3 volunteers on our team!

 Interactions:

 Communication/language:

• Kelian added new words/sentences: « Higher », « sandwich » (when he asks us to squeeze him in big air mattress), « chase maman », “under”, “rocket”, “super fast”, “I’m gonna catch you!”, etc;
• loves to sing “twinkle, twinkle little star” and corrects Lindsay when she messes up the words while singing with him;
• loves to name the planets on his puzzle;
• With Disney vocabulary book, he asks Kerri to say the words, then asks “where’s the twigs (etc)?”
• Often repeats the words we say (not in an echolalic way, but more as if he was memorizing them)
• Repeats the words we read in the Disney book as well;
• He still does a lot of verbal stimming (words or sentences, sometimes long texts from videos).

With Lindsay, our first volunteer

Interactions:

• He still loves the physical games/activities and is most interactive during these occasions;
• He gives “Hi-five” and “good job” (fist to fist);
• He likes it when Natasha draws shapes on the mirror and he shouts the names of the shapes;
• Plays hide and seek behind big air mattress with Estrella: Kelian says “where are you?” and she pops out (he loves that game!);
• He sometimes seeks physical contact, like leaning against Melissa when they read a book together, taking the volunteers’ hands and touching their faces, and even puts his arms around Kerri’s neck once!;
• Sometimes look at the volunteers pictures, spell their names and says it to them;
• Claps hands with Kerri;
• Likes to name the cards (2 of hearts, 6 of spades…) and likes it when we name the cards with him;
• Sometimes, he will play games and allow turn-taking;
• Overall, Kelian has periods where he is more interactive, and others where he is more exclusive (cycles).

With Estrella

Eye contact:

• Eye contact is often good while having physical activities, and when looking in the mirror;
• There are other situations where eye contact is excellent, like when he plays a game where he pulls his doudou (blankie) through a hole under the table with Melissa, or when Natasha pretends to sleep and then wake up suddenly, or playing clapping game with mirror with Terrilynn or Kerri, etc;
• The longest he usually looks is not more than a couple of seconds at a time, except for a few occasions where it was for about 10 seconds.

With Natasha

Stimming (Isms) and exclusive behaviors:

• Kelian still does a lot of scripting;
• He likes to play with shapes sorters, trucks, Cariboo game (with balls), etc;
• He sometimes takes the paint bottles, putting them in and out of the box, or lining them against the mirror;
• He likes stacking his letters books (it comes and it goes);
• He reads his Nemo books over and over again; he remembers the words from the CDs (read along-books and CD).

Biomedical:

On april 10, Kelian and I had to go back to Quebec to visit the Westmount Wellness Center (D.A.N. doctor) to have some more blood samples taken, because the first sample that they took in February was unusable…  But it went much better this time.

Son-Rise training Maximum Impact:

I attended my second Son-Rise training at the ATCA from April 14 to 18.  What a wonderful experience!  I came back all energized and with lots of useful tools to do group meetings, feedback sessions, getting volunteers, etc.  Plus I met with many extraordinary people, including the mother from Quebec who initially told me about the Son-Rise program (on an Internet autism forum) , and the founders of the program themselves, Barry and Samahria Kaufman!

                       Kelian on the wall of fame...                                                  With Raun Kaufmann (1st Son-Rise child!) 

                                                                                                                and Chantal (another mother from Québec)

                        With Barry "Bears" Kaufmann                                              With Samahria Kaufmann

The whole group for Maximum Impact April 2008

(1st on the left is William Hogan, one of the teachers)

Volunteers:

At the beginning of April, we had 2 more volunteers, Kerri and Helen!   Unfortunately, we lost our senior volunteer, Lindsay, who moved back to Ontario.   Estrella also had to leave for the summer, but she should be back with us when University starts again in September.

We now have 7 volunteers! 

On April 21, Cassandra did the ADOS test at the Janeway Hospital of St.John’s.  This ended a long series of evaluations (home visit from the psychologist, office visits (developmental pediatrician and psychologist, phone interview (ADIR), forms filled out, occupational therapist consultation…) and the team gave her the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (same as Kelian).

It appears that her biggest challenge is dealing with transitions and change; it's about flexibility, how things have to be done a certain way (never ever break her banana in 2...).  She had 4 or 5 major tantrums during the ADOS, with head banging on the floor, because they where following an agenda (which serves to highlight potential problems with flexibility...).

Her eye contact is also very inconsistent, and she often looks at the objects instead of the person in an interaction.  For example, the lady was blowing bubbles and Cassandra said "encore bulles" while looking at the bubbles container, but never went back and forth from the container to the person, as a typical child would do. 

She didn't come to me to show me anything (share of enjoyment), but instead she was coming to me to get help to open a box or a toy, etc (she is often using my hand as a tool).  Even when she was happy that the Jack-in-the-box popped open, she barely glanced at me (she was right in front of me).  The only time where she actually played interactively and had good eye contact was when the lady played peek-a-boo with a plastic bag in front of her face, which she thought was hilarious.  She didn’t respond to her name except when I was calling her. 

Her play didn't involve any pretend play whatsoever (she even threw the baby doll away when the lady handed it to her!), and she was choosing "causal-effect" toys like those pop-up toys, jack-in-the-box, etc. (which, as I was told later, are there at the ADOS for a reason, as autistic kids love these, even past the typical age for these toys, and they tend to play repetitively with these).

Even if she is learning 2 languages at the same time, her communication skills are still very basic and didn't improve much since last summer.  Last June, she was ahead of her cousin who is 4 months older, but we saw him in February, and he is much further ahead now.

Stimming-wise (repetitive behaviors), she does a bit of “scripting” too, but we thought she was imitating Kelian.  She can do puzzles one after the other in a compulsive way (she can do puzzles of 48 pieces…).  Her sensory issues are mainly related to “mouthing” everything.  Last year, I had to put several pieces of clothing on her when I was putting her to bed, because she almost always pooped in her diaper at that time, and played with it (I would get her out of bed with feces everywhere, and around the mouth as well, she had this urge to “dig” in)…  She was almost potty-trained last summer, but around September or October, she started licking her pee off the floor and had been playing with her feces up until that time (that’s when I decided to put her back in diapers…).  Thank god, this period is over since November, but I’ll wait a bit before I try to potty-train her again.

But she has some eye contact, she has some communication skills, and she has some interactions with people (mostly us), so I think this is why we didn’t think it was autism.  Especially since Kelian is so different (but as the saying goes; “when you met one child with autism, you met… one child with autism”).  As the doctor said, she is starting with some skills in all these areas, so it might be “easier” to get her to improve these skills, whereas Kelian had almost none at that age. 

So we started to build her playroom in the basement right away and we will look for even more volunteers…  We will do everything we can to make sure both of them have excellent Son-Rise programs and biomedical treatments.  I sent another update to the reporter of The Telegram of St.John’s who wrote 2 previous articles on our journey, hoping this could help us get more volunteers and funding.  Here’s the article, as it appeared early May: