It's a start, folks........
http://www.news-press.com/article/20090508/NEWS0101/90508074/1003/ACC
Understanding and compassion are as important as the technology used in tracking and finding people afflicted with Alzheimer’s and other debilitating mental and physical problems, said Cape Coral Police Officer David Wagoner.
Wagoner and three other officers — Chad Hartzell, Morgan Bessette and Christopher Gugliotta — recently completed training in the department’s Project Lifesaver program, which is designed, with the aid of an electronic device, to track and find people with Alzheimer’s, autism, and Down’s Syndrome who wander away from their caregivers.
The training he and the other officers received “gave us a more in depth understanding of their problems,” said Wagoner, 41.
Under the program, 22 residents suffering from Alzheimer’s, autism and Down’s, each wear a $300 bracelet that emits a radio signal. Those signals help Wagoner and a dozen other officers track people if they wander off and become lost.
The officers are equipped with receivers. As they get closer, the signals get stronger until they find the missing person.
The training Wagoner, Hartzell, Bessette and Gugliotta just completed included 10 to 12 hours of instruction by in house teachers over a couple of days, including classroom work and training exercise in finding a lost person using the transmitting and receiving equipment, said Martha LaForest, a crime prevention specialist who coordinates the program.
But besides learning how to find a person suffering from Alzheimer’s, officers are taught about the disease, how it affects people and how to deal with them once they are found.
“You need to make sure that you don’t make a situation even more traumatizing to the person,” Wagoner said.
People with Alzheimer’s often wander off because they’re going somewhere “they may remember from years ago. They’re on a mission,” Wagoner said. He said they then become disoriented and often weak and dehydrated because of the area’s subtropical climate.
“When you find them, it’s important to make eye contact with them. You don’t want to surprise them and panic them,” Wagoner said.
Also, “you never argue with them. You listen to them and then try to get them medical help, if they need it, as quickly as possible,” Wagoner said.
Then they can be reunited with their caregivers, he said.
The program gives the caregivers peace of mind, said Theodosia McPherson, 79, of Cape Coral, whose husband, Cleveland, 87, wears one.
About two years ago, before the family knew he had Alzheimer’s, her husband wandered off one morning after she left home briefly to stop by their church.
“When I came back, he was gone. Our neighbors helped search for him, but we couldn’t find him. I was frantic. I couldn’t sit down. I was screaming,” McPherson said.
Eleven hours later, drivers reported seeing a man they said was drunk walking along Veterans Memorial Parkway, McPherson said. She said it was her husband and police found him.
“He wasn’t drunk. He’d walked for miles and was dehydrated, weak and confused,” she said.
After doctors diagnosed Alzheimer's, McPherson said she found a support group in Fort Myers who referred her to Project Lifesaver.
Cleveland hasn’t wandered off since, but if he does, she’s confident police will find him quickly with the transmitter he’s wearing, McPherson said.
Cape Coral police have used the tracking equipment three times to find the same man in his early 60s who suffered short term memory loss from an aneurism, LaForest said.
Project Lifesaver, LaForest said, continues to grow. She said she has interviews within the next week with three more people whose caregivers want to enroll them in the program.
Each caregiver is asked to pay for the transmitter, but can receive free ones in hardship cases, and she is always looking for individuals and organizations to donate money to buy the bracelets.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
11-year-old from Savage gives kids TV show 'Arthur' a new character
11-year-old from Savage gives kids TV show 'Arthur' a new character
By Maja Beckstrom
mbeckstrom@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 05/08/2009 03:20:18 PM CDT
Sixth-grader Connor Gordon doesn't watch "Arthur" — anymore.
The animated children's television show was his favorite program, he said, until he was in "like about third grade." But his little sister still watches it every morning at 7 a.m. And when he was a second-grader, his teacher devoted an entire unit to the picture books by author Marc Brown that inspired the popular PBS series.
So, Connor was in a strong position when a contest was held to create a new character for the show, which is about an aardvark family and their fellow animal friends. Still, to beat out 8,500 submissions from across the country is quite a feat. He did it with Lydia Fox — a girl fox in a wheelchair, who loves to draw and plays basketball.
On Thursday, a film crew from public television station WGBH in Boston crowded into the Gordon kitchen in Savage to film Connor and Marc Brown side-by-side at a table discussing drawing techniques and storylines. Later they filmed at Connor's former school.
The live-action segment will air nationally as part of the "Arthur" show on June 30. The contest did not guarantee that the winning character would actually be written into the animated portions of the show, but producers were so impressed with Connor's creation that we can expect to see Lydia Fox in upcoming episodes alongside Arthur, Buster, Francine and all the other animal kids in Ellwood City, producers said.
"I was just blown away by how carefully thought out
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she was," Brown said. "She'll fit right in."
The contest was conceived after CVS Caremark All Kids Can signed on last year as a corporate sponsor of the series. The pharmacy's charitable arm works to raise public awareness about children with disabilities, and the contest was designed to foster a message of inclusion.
Submission guidelines asked kids ages 6-12 to create characters with "a unique ability, character trait, or disability that might make life a little bit different, but not any less fun."
Finalists included a stuttering girl cat, an autistic boy bear and his service dog, a girl cat with Down syndrome, another boy bear with diabetes and a deaf ballerina cat.
But Lydia Fox — with her blue-and-red sneakers and her monogrammed backpack — rose right to the top.
"The drawing is fabulous," said "Arthur" senior producer Jacqui Deegan. "And she just has that spirit of creativity and positive energy. We also love the idea of her being able to play wheelchair basketball. We like to show kids playing sports."
Connor thought up the character at his kitchen counter while chatting with his mom. He decided that Lydia started using a wheelchair after she had become paralyzed from the waist down while diving into the shallow end of a swimming pool.
"Some kids are born needing a wheelchair," he said. "But I had the idea that she got the wheelchair later on, so it would be harder on her, so she'd have to adapt to it."
Connor drew on his own experiences to bring Lydia Fox to life. Like him, she had just started a new school. This fall, after six years at St. John the Baptist Catholic School in Savage, Connor left his friends behind to start sixth grade at Twin Oaks Middle School in Prior Lake. His parents said it's been a hard transition.
Lydia also likes to use fabric paint to create colorful T-shirts.
Unlike Connor, Lydia is a girl.
"When I thought of a fox, I thought of a girl because of their big bushy tail," he said. "I guess I think it looks sort of elegant."
On Thursday morning, the aspiring cartoonist and the world-famous cartoonist leaned over a thick spiral-bound sketchpad and chatted about character development.
"I'd love to know what Lydia puts in her backpack," Brown said.
"I didn't really think about that," Connor said.
"You know there might be a story here," Brown said.
"Whoa!" said Connor, suddenly inspired. "She carries plans, you know, for the shirts she makes. She has a drawing pad, a sketch pad, and probably some colored pencils, some fabric paints."
Connor would like to be a cartoon animator when he grows up.
"It's my life's dream," he said. He asked his parents for a drafting table for Christmas. He takes art classes in the summer and sketches the animals he sees in his back yard.
Until now, his father has been trying to channel his talents into a more practical career — perhaps architecture.
"But now I may have to rethink that," Terry Gordon said.
By Maja Beckstrom
mbeckstrom@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 05/08/2009 03:20:18 PM CDT
Sixth-grader Connor Gordon doesn't watch "Arthur" — anymore.
The animated children's television show was his favorite program, he said, until he was in "like about third grade." But his little sister still watches it every morning at 7 a.m. And when he was a second-grader, his teacher devoted an entire unit to the picture books by author Marc Brown that inspired the popular PBS series.
So, Connor was in a strong position when a contest was held to create a new character for the show, which is about an aardvark family and their fellow animal friends. Still, to beat out 8,500 submissions from across the country is quite a feat. He did it with Lydia Fox — a girl fox in a wheelchair, who loves to draw and plays basketball.
On Thursday, a film crew from public television station WGBH in Boston crowded into the Gordon kitchen in Savage to film Connor and Marc Brown side-by-side at a table discussing drawing techniques and storylines. Later they filmed at Connor's former school.
The live-action segment will air nationally as part of the "Arthur" show on June 30. The contest did not guarantee that the winning character would actually be written into the animated portions of the show, but producers were so impressed with Connor's creation that we can expect to see Lydia Fox in upcoming episodes alongside Arthur, Buster, Francine and all the other animal kids in Ellwood City, producers said.
"I was just blown away by how carefully thought out
Advertisement
she was," Brown said. "She'll fit right in."
The contest was conceived after CVS Caremark All Kids Can signed on last year as a corporate sponsor of the series. The pharmacy's charitable arm works to raise public awareness about children with disabilities, and the contest was designed to foster a message of inclusion.
Submission guidelines asked kids ages 6-12 to create characters with "a unique ability, character trait, or disability that might make life a little bit different, but not any less fun."
Finalists included a stuttering girl cat, an autistic boy bear and his service dog, a girl cat with Down syndrome, another boy bear with diabetes and a deaf ballerina cat.
But Lydia Fox — with her blue-and-red sneakers and her monogrammed backpack — rose right to the top.
"The drawing is fabulous," said "Arthur" senior producer Jacqui Deegan. "And she just has that spirit of creativity and positive energy. We also love the idea of her being able to play wheelchair basketball. We like to show kids playing sports."
Connor thought up the character at his kitchen counter while chatting with his mom. He decided that Lydia started using a wheelchair after she had become paralyzed from the waist down while diving into the shallow end of a swimming pool.
"Some kids are born needing a wheelchair," he said. "But I had the idea that she got the wheelchair later on, so it would be harder on her, so she'd have to adapt to it."
Connor drew on his own experiences to bring Lydia Fox to life. Like him, she had just started a new school. This fall, after six years at St. John the Baptist Catholic School in Savage, Connor left his friends behind to start sixth grade at Twin Oaks Middle School in Prior Lake. His parents said it's been a hard transition.
Lydia also likes to use fabric paint to create colorful T-shirts.
Unlike Connor, Lydia is a girl.
"When I thought of a fox, I thought of a girl because of their big bushy tail," he said. "I guess I think it looks sort of elegant."
On Thursday morning, the aspiring cartoonist and the world-famous cartoonist leaned over a thick spiral-bound sketchpad and chatted about character development.
"I'd love to know what Lydia puts in her backpack," Brown said.
"I didn't really think about that," Connor said.
"You know there might be a story here," Brown said.
"Whoa!" said Connor, suddenly inspired. "She carries plans, you know, for the shirts she makes. She has a drawing pad, a sketch pad, and probably some colored pencils, some fabric paints."
Connor would like to be a cartoon animator when he grows up.
"It's my life's dream," he said. He asked his parents for a drafting table for Christmas. He takes art classes in the summer and sketches the animals he sees in his back yard.
Until now, his father has been trying to channel his talents into a more practical career — perhaps architecture.
"But now I may have to rethink that," Terry Gordon said.
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