Ainsley's Angels of Americais super excited to be spreading awareness and smiles through activism and education! Please take a moment to enjoy this note from Caleb's Mom:
We are Harley and LaShawn, parents of Caleb Saiz, a sweet four year old boy living an awesome life, but living that life with a condition called Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 2 (SMA 2), which has taken his ability to crawl or walk. This condition causes all the muscles of the body, voluntary and involuntary, to be weak. This is said to be a life long condition with no cure. He was diagnosed at 11 months after we noticed that he had yet to start crawling and had issues keeping himself upright when left to sit on his own. Despite his condition, Caleb has tons of energy and loves to participate in outdoor activities and endurance events with us.
His ability to participate has been hindered by the fact that he’s recently outgrown his jogging stroller - so he can no longer join my daughter and I on long runs and is unable to participate when we do events such as 10k or half marathons, which makes me unhappy because he feels left out and cries when I say, “No.” to his requests to join. For shorter runs I’ll occasionally cave into his pressure, stuff him into his old jogging stroller and take him (hey, he’s cute and very persuasive!) but I opt out of long runs to protect his spine; scoliosis is a secondary condition that often plagues children with SMA and being hunched into a small jogger could expedite it’s development.
We met the Ainsleys Angel’s SoCal Family at the starting line of the Special Olympics Fun Run in Long Beach. Caleb was participating in this event in his manual wheel chair. Our plan was to push him in his manual wheelchair and take turns carrying him if he began to experience pressure discomfort along the way. We were so blessed to have just so happened to pull up our chair next to Ainsley’s Angel’s So Cal leaders, Robin and Heath. They were so sweet to allow us to borrow an extra Advanced Mobility Jogger for our son to use during that event and he was able to run smoothly, in full comfort instead of being pushed in his wheelchair, which would have called for a long, bumpy walk. He prefers to go fast and is very vocal about it when others are running past us on the course.
As any family who is blessed to be in the care of a child with any medical challenge, there are many additional costs of raising their child and sacrifices made to accommodate their extra challenges. Because of Caleb experiencing two extending hospitalization over the past two years, purchasing a jogger would be a stretch for our family as those hospital bills flow in. Over the years, we’ve learned that sometimes we need to call upon our village and this is one of those times.
The Advanced Mobility jogger was perfect for him and had so much room for him to use for years and years to come. He has asked about the “big blue running chair”, as he calls it, since the day of the race and would be happier than one of Santa’s elves with a pocket full of candy canes on Christmas Day if he were able to have one of his very own and able to run with mommy like old times. (Plus, I wouldn’t mind having ‘Coach Caleb’ in front of me yelling,”Run faster, mommy! You have to catch up!”
Thank you in advance!
Together, WE Shall ensure this becomes a reality! Click the pink button in the upper right of this page or email: Info@AinsleysAngels.org for a link to make a donation using PayPal and/or for a mailing address should you prefer to donate by check. We will ensure all donations appear on this page as off-line donations and any funds that exceed the goal, will go to aid in execution of the Ainsley's Angels of America mission!
Another way to help, is to spread our message and efforts:
1. Visit www.AinsleysAngels.org to purchase the children’s book, Born an Angel, written by Ainsley’s then 11-year old sister and donate it to a local elementary school library!
2. Follow us on Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter: @ainsleys_angels
3. Lastly, we invite you to enjoy this amazing video and subscribe to our YouTube channel!
Additionally, all contributions to are TAX DEDUCTIBLE under section 170 of the IRS Code, as Ainsley’s Angels is qualified to receive tax-deductible bequests, devises, transfers or gifts under section 2055, 2106 or 2522 of the Code. Our tax ID is EIN 45-3576353 and our IRS tax exemption ID (DLN) is 17053067330003. Of note, all donations through this page will receive a Donation Receipt from Crowdrise for upon donating and all goal overages will aid Ainsley’s Angels in mission execution!
