Support Rylee Scamaldo

Rylee Scamaldo was born on November 26, 2018 and was the easiest baby ever. She was a “put me down and let me sleep” baby and toddler. She is now 4 years old and is so bright and full of life and spunk… but only to those closest to her or with whom she feels most comfortable.

The one area where we had concerns for Rylee was in her speech and communication skills. We have been worried about this area of her development from the beginning, but were always told by doctors to “wait and see”. Rylee sang songs from Cocomelon before she ever held conversations. She knew her letters, colors and numbers very early on. However, she primarily used gestures until about her third birthday when her doctors finally acknowledged concern, and we were finally referred to a specialist instead of always being told “She’s smart. She’ll get it.”

While she can now speak, her speech is very inconsistent. Now that she’s getting older and in preschool, we see the way her speech deficits affect her ability to communicate and stop her from wanting to socialize in a lot of situations. She gets extremely defeated after having to repeat herself so many times in hopes that someone will understand what she’s saying. We have taken on the position of advocate for her as her parents and we will continue to do so until she tells us “I got this!”

We have been searching for additional therapy options for Rylee. That has been a difficult task for us as most places that we found were too far away or had year-long waiting lists. We recently found Sara’s Garden and were excited about the services they had to offer. Our hope, is to take Rylee to Sara’s Garden this summer and have her participate in a month-long intensive intervention program. We feel that this program would be extremely beneficial to her.

This month-long camp experience is tailored to Rylee’s needs and will help her to work on her communication skills and towards increased independence. We know that all of the therapy she can get will ultimately help her succeed in the future and that’s what we hope for so very much! These summer therapy services equate out to be only $35 per hour at Sara’s Garden as opposed to $100-200 per hour at a clinic. The camp runs for four hours each day, for 20 days, and the cost of $2,800.00 is not covered by insurance.

If you could assist us with the cost (or even just part of the cost) of a single $35 hour of therapy it would help reduce our overall expenses greatly. 100% of the funds received go into an account in Rylee’s name and will be used for her therapy sessions. Any contribution made would be considered a tax-deductible donation as Sara’s Garden is a 501(c)(3) non-profit facility. Checks can be made out to Sara’s Garden with Rylee’s name on a sheet of paper accompanying the check. Please do NOT write her name directly on the check. You can also donate online via credit card by clicking on the DONATE NOW button below.

Thank you so much for considering to support Rylee’s summer program at Sara’s Garden. We are so grateful for anything you decide to donate and we will never be able to thank you enough. Please consider donating to help this little ray of sunshine shine even brighter.

Marissa Scamaldo