It may have been a $100,000 campaign but it brought a million dollar smile to the face of two and a half year old Jaxson Stange this week as he played with a variety of musical instruments purchased through the Chatham-Kent Children’s Treatment Centre Foundation’s Kids Can’t Wait campaign.
Jaxson takes part in the music therapy program at the centre. It’s a way for him to overcome his current difficulty with verbal communication, said Heather Sarson, one of his therapists.
“We’ve waited a long time for this,” she said. “It makes a huge difference to the children.”
The campaign grew from the treatment centre need for equipment for which it could not obtain provincial funding.
The campaign began in the autumn of 2014 and received recent support from the Blenheim SunLife Financial golf tournament and Chatham-Kent Police Association golf tournaments held this summer
The list includes materials and related costs for the centre’s popular Music Therapy program, development costs of enhanced outreach services, the creation of a specialty autism treatment area, accessibility and safety enhancements, upgrades to the physiotherapy and occupational therapy programs, and maintenance and programming costs for the centre’s hydrotherapy pool.
Shelby Sanchuk, the foundation’s manager of communications and donor relations said she was thrilled with the tremendous support shown by the community.
Sanchuk said there will be another assessment to prioritize the centre’s additional requirements going forward.
“We’re working away at establishing the needs of the centre and what the centre will be needing from the foundation in terms of support,” she said.
