Tournament aids special needs children
By Jim Morrison
www.thesuburban.com
The Windmill Golf and Country Club, in Ile-Perrot welcomed the inaugural Golf for a Cause fundraiser, Monday September 22, 2014 to benefit the Montreal Special Needs Foundation (MSNF) and Nourishment for Hope at the West Montreal Rehabilitation Centre.
Montreal resident Maddie Pettigrosso founded MSNF in 2010, after the birth of her fourth daughter, Victoria, in the year 2000.
Victoria was a healthy seven pound girl, who developed multiple seizures at 13 months, with a 50:50 chance of living. By the age of two, she regressed to a three-month-old and doctors advised Pettigrosso that she may never walk or talk.
‘I wanted to help raise funds for therapy aimed at special needs children, through occupational, physiotherapy, and speech,’ Pettigrosso told The Suburban.
Pettigrosso struck a friendship with Jennifer Mundee, specialized educator, at the West Montreal Readaption Centre, who has been Victoria’s teacher the past decade.
MSNF’s mission is to ensure that every Special Needs Child and their family receive the resources and financial support towards their child’s therapy, in order for the child to reach their full potential. Nourishment for Hope, under the guidance of Mundee, and co-worker, Laurie Philipps, provide holiday baskets to underprivileged families who have a child with an intellectual disability or autism.
‘Maddie joined my practice over a year ago. We have been in touch the past seven years because of her daughter Victoria. Maddie felt that since I had all the services in house that there was no reason to reinvent the wheel—so to speak—so she decided to come in to Abby’s Office.’
It has been a wonderful partnership.
‘She wants the very best for the families and wants to make it possible for each child to have the therapeutic services they need’ said Abby Kleinberg-Bassel, special needs consultant at Abby’s office.
Abby’s office helps with children who have been diagnosed with a global developmental delay, autism or a pervasive developmental delay.
The Golf for a Cause received much needed awareness to the children who benefited from the day.
‘It was a wonderful venue, a great turnout with enthusiastic participants,’ said a beaming Mundee.
More information can be viewed at: www.golfforacause.ca
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