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 Angela's House Upcoming Events:
Angela's House 20th Anniversary Spring Gala - March 29, 2012 Angela's House Golf outing
Hello Porsche enthusiasts!
My name is Donna Dominick. Some of you may know my husband, Anthony (Tony) Dominick, a.k.a. the driver of the 1983 White Pirate 911SC, from Driver’s Ed or Autocross events. I’ve known him since we were both 15 years old. One of the first things I learned about him was that he was a huge car nut. I am so very thankful that he has Metro NY Region PCA in his life to provide him with well-deserved enjoyment, friendship, and stress relief. Anthony and I were so happy to hear that Metro has chosen its 2012 charity to be one that is near and dear to us... ANGELA’S HOUSE. I was asked to share a bit about what Angela’s House is and how they make our family life easier. We Dominicks like to think of ourselves as an average-family-with-a-twist. We have two sons; Vincent who is 10 and Max who is 4, and a Jack Russell Terrier, Indy, who thinks he is also a person. In April of 2001, after an uneventful, totally normal pregnancy, Vincent entered our world not breathing due. His umbilical cord was wrapped tightly twice around his neck. His first moments in this world were unimaginable as we held our breaths while he was being resuscitated back to us. We soon realized that he wasn’t like other babies. The MRI that was done on his 5 month old brain told us that the unthinkable had happened...during his delivery, his brain was deprived of oxygen for so long that it caused brain damage... Cerebral Palsy. To what degree the damage would affect him would show in time. As time went on and Vin wasn’t reaching any of the infant milestones such as holding his head erect, smiling, drinking from a bottle without losing half out the side of his mouth, visual tracking, sitting, etc., we quickly got him all the therapies available. He had physical therapy, occupational therapy, feeding/speech therapy, vision therapy, and a few unconventional therapies as well. He continues with these therapies to this day as he is 100% dependent on us for all things. You will agree that when he smiles, he lights up the entire room. Even though he is non-verbal and eats via a G.I. tube into his stomach, Vin daily attends a wonderful school for the physically and mentally challenged, enjoys music, and watching TV. He also plays on a Challenger Baseball team with his school friends. Having Vincent in our lives puts everything else into perspective.
We have been fortunate enough to be able to appreciate every developmental milestone that Max reaches and excels at. All of the things that most take for granted, we have been in awe of while watching him grow these past 4 years. We are also blessed to be surrounded by a very loving and supportive family. Angela’s House is our extended family that helps us to care for Vincent at home by overseeing all of his medical equipment, nutritional, and personal hygiene needs, as well as the day-to-day things that occur sometimes. Bob Policastro, the founder of Angela’s House, and his wife realized the need for such an agency in 1989, when their daughter, Angela, was born. She was very medically frail, requiring nursing care 24/7. The Policastros received tremendous support while she was still in the hospital but they realized there were few services available to help them if they were to to take her home. The daunting task of home care seemed overwhelming, especially without an agency available to coordinate the services needed to support Angela at home. They endured emotional and physical strains as they traveled over 2 hours away from their home to Connecticut to spend time with their daughter in the only place they could find to care for her. Sadly, Angela succumbed to her frail state and passed away shortly after her first birthday. Faced with their personal tragedy, they committed themselves to improving the lives of medically frail children and their families by pushing forward with advocacy and educational efforts to promote a greater knowledge and understanding in the community. In 1992, the non-profit Angela’s House, was created to offer families and professionals an agency to contact to help families with these precious children. Angela’s House has helped to simplify home care options for families like ours by coordinating the extensive array of services needed to support children like Vincent at home. I strongly believe with my entire heart that keeping these special children in their homes, surrounded by the love and everyday happenings of their family, is the best medicine anyone could ever prescribe.
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with special needs in order to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience, to understand it, and to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this...... Welcome To Holland By Emily Perl Kingsley
When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum, Michelangelo, David, and the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting. After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland.” “Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.” But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place. So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met. It’s just a different place. It’s more slower-paced than Italy. It’s less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts. But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.”
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss. But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland. Donna and Anthony Dominick |
