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June 2, 2008

Local family to be featured on annual childrens’ telethon

Bryan Marshall The Richmond Register Mon Jun 02, 2008, 07:33 AM EDT

A Richmond family will be featured on a televised fundraiser Saturday to share their story about caring for a special-needs child.

Michelle and Brian Doty, who have a 2-year-old daughter, Campbell, and an 8-year-old son, Matthew, can be seen during the 55th annual WHAS Crusade for Children telethon at Cardinal Hill Hospital in Lexington.

The telethon will be televised locally at 7 p.m. on WKYT channel 27.

Campbell was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate and also has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, epilepsy and cortical visual impairment (CVI).

She receives vision therapy from visually impaired preschool services (VIPS) for CVI, a neurological visual disorder that is caused by damage or injury to the brain.

“The eye itself is often normal, but the brain does not process information properly,” said Michelle Doty. “It is the fastest-growing visual impairment among children. Campbell also is near-sighted and requires glasses. Glasses cannot help with CVI, so that is where the therapy comes into play.”

The WHAS Crusade for Children helps to fund VIPS.

“Through VIPS, our daughter receives direct one-on-one vision therapy,” Doty said. “In addition, the money helps to fund other VIPS services, such as extensive resources for families, workshops and activities, such as day camps and family outings. All of these services are either free or at a significantly reduced rate for our family.”

When Campbell was first evaluated for vision therapy, she was very delayed in her vision, her mother said.

She would stare at light and would not look at anything purposefully because her eye contact was not good and she was not able to track objects, Doty said.

“Now, she will look at books and follow the pages without much help,” she said. “She can track objects much more consistently. Her eye contact has improved and she is starting to reach out for people and toys. She can look between two objects and make choices.”

“Vision is such an integral part of a child’s development,” Doty said. “Campbell has difficulty reaching and grasping toys. Not only does this have to do with motor impairments, but also because she cannot see the object well. Choosing high-contrast colors or objects that have lights help to draw her attention to objects. These strategies were taught by her VIPS therapist.”

For the telethon, 100 percent of each donation is returned to communities through grants to agencies, schools and hospitals that help special needs children in all 120 counties in Kentucky and more than 50 counties in Indiana.

Approximately 3 million children have been helped by the Crusade for Children since 1954.

“You can actually see your money being used to help children who desperately need these services,” Doty said. “The state has had to make so many budget cuts and sometimes families have trouble with insurance covering services, so we have to rely on money from charitable organizations to get our children appropriate services.”

For details or to donate to WHAS Crusade for Children, go to www.whascrusade.org.

Bryan Marshall can be reached at bmarshall@richmondregister.com or 624-6691.

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