My Nonprofit Reviews

We learned of The Down Syndrome Foundation of Florida (DSFF) when our child was approximately 1 or 2 years old and we had recently moved to Florida. Karsten is 8 years old now and with DSFF’s scholarship support, Karsten has increased his abilities in many different areas.
Initially, as a toddler, he was supported in inclusive music and play classes. He can keep musical time and beat. Though he has Apraxia of speech, he can hold a tune and verbally sing songs now. Speech is still a work in progress but showing great improvement with the Talk Tools therapist who we learned of through the DSFF. He has learned to swim and dive for toys. He gets to learn with a tutor 2 hours a week and can recite the first 20 US Presidents from memory. He has started to ride a bicycle with training wheels, and yesterday rode his bike more than 5 minutes for the first time and rode 2 miles. We hope he will get to participate in iCan Bike next summer to learn without training wheels. My husband and I would not have been able to financially afford all of the activities Karsten has been lucky to participate in and with the DSFF Hs become the boy he is through their support.

The Foundation also supports the family as a whole through various activities like camping weekend, the Christmas party, 321 meet-ups for the teens, play dates for the littles, music therapy via Zoom as well as Mom’s night out, and learning opportunities though in-services or meetings. They promote volunteerism which is an important life lesson and often so fun to participate in. I am definite, I am forgetting other activities.

I’m not always great at expressing my thoughts but we will always be more grateful than I can articulate for the Down Syndrome Foundation of Florida’s support to our family.