I Have a Special Needs Child

The Make A Difference Fishing Tournament for Special Kids was developed, in 1996, by a group of Clearwater businessmen and friends. After contacting the City of Clearwater with plans to provide a day of fishing for handicapped children, the City generously opened Pier 60 for the "kickoff" fishing turnament. With donations of money, time, equipment, and food, Make A Difference hosted its first group of 58 "special anglers". Since that initial tournament, Make A Difference Fishing Tournament for Special Kids has grown to accommodate approximately 500 handicapped and special needs participants annualy.

Make A Difference has become much more than just a local fishing tournament. As a result of the Make A Difference expansion program, communities such as the City of Largo and the City of Belle Glade as well as the IGFA and the Port Manatee Fish Hatchery will host "special angler" events in 2003

Mental Retardation Fact Sheet

National Fathers' Network

Website: http://www.fathersnetwork.org/554.html?

Celebrates and supports fathers and families raising children with special health care needs and developmental disabilities. Provides news, stories, photos, resources, providers and events.

Pervasive Developmental Disorders Paper

Preemie-l Resources

Website: http://www.prematurity.org/

Resources and support for parents of children born prematurely.

Problemas Emocionales Hoja Informatica Sobre Discapacidades

Reading and Learning Disabilities Paper

Religious Disability Resources

Website: http://gbgm-umc.org/disc/rel-orgs.html

This website from Disability Concerns (DISC) provides a listing of various religiously-affliliated organizations that serve those with disabilities.

SenSwitcher

Accessible software for children with special needs

Website: http://www.northerngrid.org/sen/Menu-L.htm

Severe Multiple Disabilities Fact Sheet

Special Touch Ministry, Inc

Summer Get Away

Location: PO Box 25, Waupaca, WI 54981

Website: http://www.specialtouch.org/pages/get%20aways.htm

Camp-site retreat for people with mental or physical disabilities to find fellowship with others in a Christian atmosphere.

Speech and Language Impairments Fact Sheet

Spina Bifida Fact Sheet

The Boggy Creek Gang

A Hole In The Wall Gang Camp

Location: 30500 Brantley Branch Road, Eustis, FL 32736

Phone: 352-483-4200

Website: http://www.boggycreek.org

This is a camp that is designed for children with chronic or life threatening illnesses, allowing them to safely enjoy the activities of a “traditional” camp.

Therapy/Respite Camps for Kids

Kids with Autism and other Special Needs

Website: http://www.wmoore.net/therapy.html

This camp provides therapy for kids with special needs and/or respite for the kids and their families.

Trastornos del Habla y Lenguaje Hoja Informativa Sobre Discapacidades

Traumatic Brain Injury Fact Sheet

Visual Impairments Fact Sheet

Welcome To Holland

by Emily Perl Kingsley

Website: http://www.nas.com/downsyn/holland.html

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland." "Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met. It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned." And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

©2006 Nathaniels Hope | 2300 Jetport Drive, Orlando, FL 32809 | phone: 407-857-8224
Nathaniels Hope is an outreach of Teams Commissioned for Christ International,
a non-profit, 501(c)(3) Christian mission organization.

Nathaniel's Hope ~ Sharing "the Hope" with Kids with Special Needs and their Families

I Have a Special Needs Child

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