Sara's Garden Quarterly Newsletter

Sara's Garden ● 620 West Leggett Street ● P.O. Box 150 ● Wauseon, OH 43567 ● 419.335.SARA

An Angel Spreads His Wings

Solange has always referred to her son Jose as her angel. He was born a healthy, happy baby. However, when Jose was just 18 months old he contracted a virus that led to a multi-organ system failure. He was first diagnosed with Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome and required dialysis, blood products and respiratory assistance.

As time went on Jose began to improve physically but his cognitive abilities seemed uncertain and he still required intensive care. Further complications ensued when Jose began convulsing during a meal. He aspirated milk into his lungs causing him to suffer a stroke. From this moment on, Jose did not develop as he should either physically or cognitively. Jose’s official diagnosis was Cerebral Palsy but he exhibited strong Autistic tendencies and traits.

By the time Jose was eight years old, he was still unable to stand or take steps independently. He crawled everywhere he needed to go. His mother had to walk behind him, holding him around the chest in order to provide the balance and support he needed to take steps. She also had to feed him at every meal as he was unable to grasp utensils or his glass by himself. He had very minimal verbalizations and was not able to follow even simple requests. He displayed almost no emotion and would not notice or acknowledge anyone entering or leaving the room.

Jose’s family was told that he would never walk independently. They were told he would not have the strength or coordination to pedal a bicycle and he would never be able to communicate beyond a few unintelligible syllables. He would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair and need constant care and supervision.

Thanks to a loving and supportive community, Jose’s family was able to travel to Sara’s Garden from New York City in June 2012 so he could receive Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and Autism Intervention services. By the end of his initial month of treatments Jose was starting to do things on his own. He started to initiate standing and began taking steps with minimal assistance. At meals he began holding his own drink and started using the utensils to feed himself. Read more.

New Horizons Academy at Sara's Garden

We are so excited to announce that we've started a school! New Horizons Academy at Sara's Garden offers a holistic, all-encompassing educational path for children who have special learning needs and are preschool through grade twelve. Our mission is to provide the highest quality of educational programming available and empower children with disabilities to recognize and optimize their full potential.

New Horizons does not solely focus on any one area of development; rather, each developmental domain (social, emotional, communicative, physical, and cognitive) is developed simultaneously throughout the school day. Great importance is placed on setting high goals and expectations and providing students with the appropriate assistance required for them to achieve their individual goals. Providing an academic curriculum that is challenging is of utmost importance, while simultaneously discovering and exploring the ways our students are best able to access that curriculum.

New Horizons Academy enrolls children age 3 and up with problems that interfere with satisfactory functioning and progress in regular classroom programs or at home. This may include but is not limited to: Autism, Attention Deficit Disorders, Intellectual Disabilities, Developmental Delays, Physical Disabilities, Seizure Disorders and Speech & Language Disorders. Read more.

2013 Harley-Davidson Street Glide Raffle

On June 22, 2013 the Delta Eagle Riders will be raffling off a 2013 Harley-Davidson Street Glide from Napoleon Harley-Davidson. Tickets are $50.00 and include dinner the evening of the event. A percentage of the proceeds from the raffle will go to support Relay for Life and Sara's Garden.

1st Prize: Motorcycle or $15,000.00 Cash
2nd Prize: $1,500.00 VISA Prepaid Card
3rd Prize: $1,000.00 VISA Prepaid Card
4th Prize: $500.00 Cash
5th Prize: $250.00 Cash
6th Prize: $100.00 Cash

Tickets may be purchased at the Sara's Garden main office via cash, check or credit card. For additional information regarding the 2013 Harley-Davidson Street Glide Raffle please click HERE.

2013 Capital Campaign: Jackson House

Sara’s Garden provides clients with specialized, comprehensive Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, Conductive Education, Autism Intervention and Sensory Integration Services. We are the only non-profit facility in the United States to offer all of these services.

Even though we are located in Wauseon, our licensed professionals serve those from neighboring communities, counties and states through programs that are not offered in conjunction elsewhere. In the past twelve months alone, Sara’s Garden will have treated clients from as far away as Oregon and Washington in the Great Northwest, California and Arizona in the West, Alabama and Louisiana in the South, Maine and New York in the East, as well as Canada.

Our 2013 capital campaign is seeking to fill a tremendous need for the families that we serve: raising funds for the construction of an onsite Jackson’s House. This project is a 1-story, 8-12-bedroom facility for clients and families to stay during their treatment sessions at Sara’s Garden. Our current 2-bedroom home is simply not adequate to serve all of the families that are traveling to Sara's Garden for service and is limiting the number of families that we are able to serve as families are not able to afford the additional cost for hotel lodging when our current Jackson House facility is full. Read more.

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