Elle's Enchanted Forest
Elle’s Enchanted Forest is inspired by the unconditional love Elle’s sister Nikita has for her younger sister and the dream to have a place to go with her Grandpappy, a disabled Veteran.
Elle was born on May 5th, 2014. She was born with bi-vocal chord paralysis and couldn’t breathe. Elle had to spend time in the NICU and at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Rehab Center for 3 months. After a ton of tests and all the specialist coming back with inconclusive results, the genetic results finally came back that there was a large deletion of chromosome #4. It is De Novo, meaning it is new in the medical world. The doctors can not give us a clear picture of what to expect, they can only compare to cases of patients missing only 5-10% of what Elle is missing. They said she may never walk or talk. We also had to make the hard decision to give her a tracheostomy and g-tube. We both strongly believe that Elle is going to prove all the doctors wrong. We are trying to give Elle the best chances and support we can. She is a busy girl working with multiple pediatric therapists and playing with her big sister, Nikita. We want to see our girls play together without limits and believe all children and families should have this same opportunity.
Our mission is to have a playground for all children, including children with disabilities, and for parents/grandparents/Veterans that are disabled to have a place to be able to play with their kids / grandkids. There will also be a focus to include elements for children/adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder, as their needs are unique from those with physical disabilities. We want the playground to be inclusive to everyone. It will truly be a great place for all families. And it will hopefully allow families to find support from other families going through similar experiences in a happy setting.
We have the full support from Rocky River Mayor Bobst and Bob Holub, the Director of Rocky River Parks and Recreation to start this project. We have lots of work to prepare for build day, as Phase 1 will be built by the community in just 1 day. The key to the success of this project will be volunteers on build day and donations to raise funding for the playground. Seriously, we can't thank you enough for taking the time to visit our website and hopefully support in any way that you can.