Young visually impaired girl sets an example for runners!

While about 9,000 runners and walkers were finishing up the Trolley Run to benefit the Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired, I took a peek at the much smaller kids’ run that was getting under way.
That’s when I saw 5-year-old Carleigh La Voy, who has cerebral palsy and limited vision, being pushed in a stroller by her cousin while another cousin ran alongside her. Other children were rushing by her, but Carleigh didn’t seem to be in a hurry.

The cheers for her at the finish line were deafening.

“We came to the Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired when Carleigh was 6 months old,” her mother, Carrie La Voy, said. “The doctors told us she wouldn’t see, hear, talk or walk, all these devastating things. Without CCVI she wouldn’t be where she is today. She can hear, she started talking, and her speech has improved dramatically.”

Carleigh’s older brother, Jake La Vo y, 7, took part in the run, too. He also has been part of a “sighted peer program” for the last three years at CCVI. “My son was exposed to children who were deaf and couldn’t see or couldn’t walk, all kinds of problems,” Carrie La Voy said. “To him they were really no different that he was.”

While the main Trolley Run this year will raise more than $300,000 with sponsors such as Sabates Eye Centers and Perceptive Software Inc., the 500 participants in the kids’ run also had a sponsor for the first time — JP Morgan, which donated $15,000 to the children’s center.

Parents of children at the center also have raised thousands of dollars over the years by taking pledges for the kids’ run. “We are fortunate that I can drive Carleigh to the center and pay her tuition,” Carrie La Voy said. “But there are lots of families that cannot and really need our support.”
The kids’ run is a celebration for everyone involved, including graduates of the children’s center who return each year to see old friends and support CCVI. This year Kansas City Chiefs player Ronnie Cruz was in charge of the starting line, and there were face painting, a baseball toss and a magician for the more than 500 children who participated.

Lucinda Hall and her husband, Darin, brought their 8-year-old triplets, Hunter, Haley and Harrison, to the run this year, as they have done every year since they were 1-year-old. Hunter, who is blind, graduated from CCVI and now attends Hazel Grove Elementary School in Lee’s Summit with his brother and sister.

“The center is still like our extended family,” Lucinda Hall said. “We will always be a part of CCVI. When we had no other place to turn to, they were there for Hunter.”

This was Hunter’s first year to also run the main Trolley Run. He used a cane and walked alongside his mother for the 4-mile walk/run. When it was over, he headed to the kids’ run.

“He didn’t quite finish the loop, I think because he was too tired from the big race,” Lucinda Hall said. “But every kid gets a blue ribbon, no matter if they take one step or finish. This day is just so special to any child at any age.”

CCVI, 3101 Main St., currently provides therapy, schooling and other services for more than 200 visually impaired children from infancy through kindergarten. Mary Lynne Dolembo, executive director, said that when she began working there in 1980, most of the children who were blind were premature babies or children with genetic eye conditions.

“The eyes are one of the last things to develop, like the lungs,” Dolembo said. “So many babies are being saved early now, so we’re seeing more of those kinds of problems.”

Today the other half of the children at the center have cortical visual impairment, a condition where the eyes appear fine but the brain has been damaged in some way so that it can’t process what is being seen, Dolembo said.

“And that requires a totally different approach from the teacher when compared to, say, a child who is blind and needs stimulation,” she said.

Dolembo said the first kids’ run was organized 15 years ago by families at the center who wanted their children to be involved. “I remember someone saying that the children from CCVI should run separately in their own heat, and the parents said, ‘No, no, no, we want our kids to be included.’ ”