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PARENT'S PERSPECTIVE
“So many children
So many problems
Too few places
Too few choices”
By Roger M. Rose, MD
And with these lines ringing between your ears, you and your disabled child, your challenged child, commence the search for a stable, caring, comforting, quality permanent residence as your special child starts to “age out” of the local school district. If you’re really lucky you find an Opengate early on because, as we discovered some ten years back, Dickensian hovels are available.
After a few truly depressing “residence” encounters Alyce and I serendipitously heard about Opengate from Bill Guilfoyle, but from the other visits her hopes were not high the day Alyce brought Brett for his interview. As she entered the grounds, she tearfully knew at a glance that Brett had struck gold. The ten subsequent years have not dimmed that first impression.
When you find an Opengate you end the nightmare of the uncertain and unplannable future. When you find an Opengate you’ve won the lottery, literally and figuratively. Six to eight hundred dollars a week for life – a year’s college tuition, room and board forever – for that’s what your child’s residential care will cost. Think of it as a permanent 100% scholarship and there’s no means test.
Alyce and I had prepared to fund Brett’s future and when we found we didn’t have to we started Homeward Bound, our family foundation to raise money for Opengate mostly but not exclusively.
Through Homeward Bound we’ve collared generous friends such as Norman and Betty Menell whose own foundation has built the gazebo and has contributed significantly to the greenhouse project. We’ve given ourselves a 20th anniversary party, invited 40 friends and raised $13,000 via silent and live auctions. We’ve had a tag sale for Opengate and raised $2,000. And when Opengate honored us last year at the Golden Hearts Gala, we wrote notes to 800 former patients (we retired in 2000) and had a spectacular response for Opengate.
The point of all this is not to pat ourselves on the back and toot our own horn but to show other parents that there are myriad ways to raise money for Opengate and that we are all duty-bound to do so. Think of the complete lifetime scholarship your child has received and we implore you, get to work now!
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