Variety Club donors and supporters in Aldergrove should know that this British Columbia children's charity also assists many families in Aldergrove.
Children and young people with special needs, from all walks of life, can often need help beyond that which is provided by the health care system, and beyond the means of their parents.
Three of these families reside in Aldergrove.
In the case of Blake Davey-Hawitt, Variety Club stepped up to assist paying for his speech therapy sessions even before he was diagnosed with autism. Without Variety's financial support for his speech therapy since December of 2009 when he just three years old, he would not be able to construct simple sentences today.
Chase Schwann-Campbell, aged four, has severe digestive problems. Without Variety's help in providing $5,600 worth of feeding tubes and special formula, her doting parents Chantel and Kenneth would have had to sacrifice other basic necessities to ensure Chase had a healthy diet.
Variety helps not only the wee little kids.
Steven Pelkinen is a big husky 18-year-old, but he's been dealing with Leff Calve Perthes disease in his right leg's hip ball-joint since he was six. He can walk but if it's any distance — such as from home to school — he can be in such excruciating pain that he can't concentrate on school work. For this reason Aldergrove Secondary staff successfully applied to Variety Club for a new electric scooter for Steven.
Star readers may remember that the Aldergrove Elks and Aldergrove Legion assisted Steven with a loaner scooter and other equipment when he was recovering from major surgery five years ago. He's also worked in local restaurants and hopes to get an apprenticeship as a cook when he graduates.
"The community has been really good to us," said Steven's mother, Ella.
"This was the first time Variety has helped us, and it was because he was having trouble in school, because of the medications, and he was 'zoning out' from the pain.
"So the school therapists said they'd try to figure something out. Three months later their application to Variety for Steven's scooter was accepted."
Steven has been seeing the best orthopedic surgeons at Children's Hospital, and now VGH because of his age. He declined the proposal of simply fusing the leg socket together — he would no longer have severe pain but he didn't like the prospect of a lifetime of no mobility.
On the other hand, doctors have told him that a hip replacement would not be a good idea in the immediate future. Such a procedure would have to be done again within 10 years, as the replacements wear out, and each time it's performed there is less chance of it being successful.
There is also the prospect of improved new technology in hip replacements over the next 10 years.
Steven has bravely made it his goal to hang on for another 10 years, and learn new ways to deal with his disability.
Thanks to Variety Club he has greater mobility within his hometown of Aldergrove, and can simply roll aboard transit buses when he travels further afield.
In Blake's case, he has made incredible progress over the past 18 months, according to his mother, Lisa Davey.
"It has helped him socially, because a lot of his behaviours were from not being able to communicate," said Lisa.
"Blake used to be able to only express one word and it was often incomprehensible — he would scream and grab what he wanted without asking. Now he can construct three word sentences and he pronounces it so you can understand what he's saying."
This has all come about due to weekly one-hour sessions with local speech therapist Robert Boyd-Whitley, with funding assistance from Variety.
Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children has diagnosed Blake as having "high functioning autism" but Boyd-Whitley said, "In spite of this, he has made exceptional progress during his therapy due in large part to his mother. Lisa should be commended for her loving patience, dedication and her willingness to do as much as she can to help him overcome his difficulties."
"He knows a lot of words now, 50 or more, and he can now approach other kids and say "Want to play?" instead of grabbing them," said Lisa. "He's been able to go to daycare and I think he'll be good to go to kindergarten next year."
Variety also help pay for Blake's dental work, which had to be done under general anesthetic due to his inability to accept so much as a toothbrush inside his mouth.
"He had cavities because it was such a drama to brush his teeth. He'd clench his mouth shut so I couldn't reach his molars. So Variety helped fix his teeth," said Lisa.
Variety has also taken Blake along on their outings, such as the Santa Claus flight and the "Pirate Boat" cruise last summer.
"He talks about the outing for months after," said Lisa.
The 45th Annual Show of Hearts Telethon comes to Global TV this weekend, Feb. 12 and 13. Tune in from 7 p.m. on Saturday until 6 p.m. on Sunday to catch all the incredible stories and great entertainment.
Steve Darling and Sophie Lui host a segment called Relive the Dreams, in which they catch up with Telethon's featured kids from the past and learn more about Variety's work.
A special new feature will be a performance by Variety's Got Talent winner, Shylo Sharity, on Saturday from 9-10 p.m. Sharity, 22, of Langley, beat out close to 300 entrants, aged 13 to 29, from every corner of the province at the finals on Feb. 4.
International performers include Il Divo, Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Cirque du Soleil, Shall We Dance on Ice, David Foster and Friends.
Every year, over 2,700 volunteers donate their time and more than 1.5 million viewers donate funds to make The Variety Show of Hearts Telethon a success. The show is hosted by the Global BC news team as well as Sesame Street alum Bob McGrath among others. Last year's Telethon raised $7,431,869.
See Variety's website at: www.variety.bc