Please Give to 5th Annual Run for Isis

RUN FOR ISIS 2010
PORTLAND MARATHON

Dear Friend:

Your contribution to the Run for Isis these last five years has impacted the life of my niece, Isis, tremendously. I want to express thanks and gratitude on her behalf. I have once again chosen to do the Run for Isis, more specifically, the Portland Marathon, on October 10, 2010. In this sixth year, I am asking for you to consider a financial contribution to enhance her life.

Isis, who is eight years old, has spastic, athetoid quadriplegia Cerebral Palsy (CP). Barring phenomenal breakthroughs in medicine, she will remain speechless, taking nutrition from a gastric feeding tube, and confined to a wheelchair, for the duration of her life.

Each year, I raise money and put my body to the test, as a means of working hard for the contributions, and a way to honor the physicality we all take for granted, so that Isis may attend a private physical therapy clinic, Euro-Peds, where she undergoes intensive therapy. The assistance she receives at Euro-Peds greatly enhances the possibility of Isis' progression in an effective and innovative manner toward inclusion in everyday life.

Your contributions have made a considerable difference. Since 2005, the first year of fund raising, Isis has taken six trips to Euro-Peds (each trip costs approximately $8,000) in Pontiac, Michigan where she has benefited from countless hours of one on one physical therapy. This intensive therapy has helped Isis learn the basic proprioceptive knowledge that in order to walk she must lift one leg at a time - something she had no concept of before – and something most parents of typical, able-bodied children cannot comprehend.

Isis has a wonderful spirit and tremendous will to live. She has an irresistible smile. Her disposition is sunny; she laughs at goofy jokes, adores music and watching people dance, and generally movement of any kind. How unfortunate that she was born into a body that has made purposeful movement of any kind a mist, a wisp of a scent that constantly eludes her.

Like all children, Isis is growing every day, and growth spurts that cause typical children some aches or pains can be devastating to a child with cerebral palsy. A large growth spurt could cause Isis to lose the somatic knowledge she has learned over the long and grueling schedule of therapies. Growth spurts can cause muscular weakness and risk of spinal curvatures, or scoliosis, which can only be corrected with bulky braces or neurosurgery to straighten the spine. Currently Isis has a sixteen-degree curve in her spine, so these are possibilities we fear and attempt to prepare for. The only hope to impede this rather dire setback is the possibility housed in the little body and enormous mind of Isis. Intensive therapy at Euro-Peds helps tone and exercise her body, and it has also given her a chance to be in a nurturing place where there is a sense of belonging and where people really believe she has the potential to excel. This is why I run a marathon on her behalf: I believe in and honor her quest for independence and inclusion in community activities, sports, school and, eventually, employment. I train hard and run as fast as possible to glorify the independence you and I take for granted. I suffer in training sometimes at 4am due to my work schedule to baptize this sentiment.

Suffice it to say, your contributions these past two years have helped Isis avail herself of opportunities, which previously were out of her reach and made them possible. As with training for any race of any distance, preparing Isis for a better life starts with one day at a time. Can you help me get her closer to her life dreams by contributing again this year? Your consideration is deeply appreciated.

Please Note:

In their restructuring as a for-profit hospital, the Doctors Hospital of Michigan (where the Euro-Peds clinic is housed) has consulted with tax accountants and decided to end the named accounts. Whereas in previous years donors had the option of sending a tax-deductible contribution for Isis to the North Oakland Foundation, this is no longer legal or possible. We were very sad to learn of this and are seeking other, tax-deductible options in the future.

If you wish to contribute, please send a check payable to Euro-Peds with "Isis" in the memo line. These funds are aggregated by staff at the Doctors Hospital of Michigan and will be reserved in a special account just for her (to pay for another visit to Euro-Peds.) The mailing address is:

Doctors’ Hospital of Michigan
Euro-Pēds
461 W. Huron St., Suite 406
Pontiac, MI 48341

We hope you will still choose to contribute. On behalf of Isis and my sister, we thank you for your consideration.