Evie is three years old, and loves playing with toys. When she was 15 months old, she was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome, a progressive neurological disorder that saw her lose much of her function of her hands.
“She can’t functionally pick up anything with her hands, but she still has the ability to smack things,” says her mother Carey.
Thanks to your support of our #HackingForTheHolidays campaign, we were able to adapt two Linkimals toys — a sloth and a penguin — with adaptive switches that match the buttons on the toys. These switches allow Evie to play with the toys with a smacking motion on her own rather than needing someone else to activate the toy for her.
“She loves it,” says Carey. “You can just see the joy in her face in being able to not have someone else hit it for her and being able to touch it herself and make it work.”
While Evie has played with switch toys before on loan, these are the first adapted toys she can call her own, not needing to return them.
“She has such limited things she can play with,” says Carey. “So having switch adapted toys that make her able to not only play with the toys but do it on her own and not having someone always do it for her is amazing.”
The switch toys have brought joy to the whole family, with her brother and sisters cheering Evie on as she plays with them.
“Thank you for giving my little three year old the access to play, like any three year old wants to. These toys have now given her the independence to play on her own,” Carey shares.
“It’s really emotional, I feel like I can’t express enough how much these toys mean to our family and to Evie.”
While the holiday season may be coming to a close soon, our goal to provide children with disabilities accessible, affordable adapted toys continues. We need your help to cross the finish line to our goal of raising $100,000. Any donation made before the end of the year is tax deductible on your 2023 taxes. With your donation, we can continue this program and serve more families into the New Year.
