In late July, after meandering around an office park in Provo, I located the Now I Can Foundation and went it. I was greeted warmly by the Development Director, Brent Nelson, who was sporting a goatee and polo shirt. He spoke with energy about the foundation and his love for their patients as he took me on a tour of the facility and gave me the background.
"It's amazing," Brent told me, "you cannot have a bad day while working here. You come in and the kids are smiling and it picks you up."
Now I Can founders, Joel and Tracey Christensen began with their own search for help. Their first child, Colby Anne, was born with Cerebral Palsy. As directed, they participated in many interventions including physical and occupational therapy. But as time went on, they felt that Colby was capable of more than she was doing. They found a facility in Poland (POLAND!) that did intensive physical therapy and they felt it was worth trying.
The Christensen's made the trip and the results were impressive! Their daughter began saying, "Now I can use righty better." They knew this new treatment was making a difference in her life. When they returned to Utah, they were determined to have a physicality with intensive--four hour a day, five days a week--physical therapy in the intermountain west. The Now I Can Foundation was born of that dream.
The facility has three main physical therapy rooms, where the kids work with both a therapist and a volunteer to increase what they can do. I met a darling little girl who was getting a massage to help limber her up. And a little boy who asked what my favorite canyon was (what a great question!) who was working on balance.
The children who come to Now I Can, spend 3-4 weeks of 4 hours of therapy for 5 days a week. These are expensive treatments (approximately $6000 per round) and insurance companies will often not cover the costs leaving thousands of dollars burden on the parents.
So, twice a year, Now I Can does a big fundraiser to provide grants for patients. The grant pays the difference between what insurance will cover and what the family can afford. 100% of the fundraiser donations go to these grants. Now I Can fundraises in other ways for facility improvement and overhead--largely using corporate sponsors. (Each physical therapy room is named for the organization that made that happen.)
You can understand why Dr. Matthews is behind this organization!
On Sept 14th, Now I Can has a benefit concert at the SCERA Shell. Country bands Bootleg BLVD and Firefly will be performing. If you have been touched by the awesome Now I Can kids, join Dr. Matthews and
make a donation so that we will have more and more kids saying, "Now I Can!"
