(written on January 17th 2019)
*Author’s Note: The photographs in this blog entry are all my own. I respect that it may be easy to save them and print them on your own. But they are copyrighted and use of them is prohibited without my knowledge and consent. If you wish to use them, please send me an e-mail and we can discuss their use or purchase. Thanks for your cooperation.
MoonNStarMommy@gmail.com
~ Nissa Rae
** Note 2019 ** The very first Corey's Day we attended was in 2011. We missed attending in 2015 because Nathan was in the ICU, almost dying, and we missed Corey's Day. Sadly, we had no idea at the time but 2018 was going to be the very last Corey's Day. Mr. Corey died in 2014, but Coleta wanted to continue. Much to our great sadness, incredibly great sadness, Corey's Day celebrated it's 50th year and then decided to go out on a high note. **
Coleta & Nick Corey of Silverdale, Wash., have reveled in the spirit of selflessness and giving back for the past 40 years. They are the founders of Corey's Day At The Farm, an event during which special-needs children can enjoy a day of horseback riding, petting farm animals, being outside, taking hayrack rides and eating grilled hot dogs. The annual event takes place the Monday and Tuesday following Mother's Day and evolved after Corey's special-needs son, Danny, participated in a “show-and-tell” at his school in 1968.
It's geared towards kids who have unique medical issues...
Autism is just one of the special needs confronted by children who come to the farm. Kids with emotional, developmental and physical problems are all welcome. Even youngsters in wheelchairs are hoisted up on the backs of the horses and given rides. Each school is responsible for deciding which students need and would benefit from the day at the farm and busses them out to the event.
They work really hard at putting the event together....
The days at the farm involve work year-round for the former Department of Defense torpedo-builder-turned-embroiderer. At the beginning of the year, Corey sends letters to the merchants and organizations which have previously donated time, money, goods or all three, asking for their help again—and she rarely gets turned down. Corey's Day At The Farm won her Bridgewater, N.J.-based, Brother International Corp.'s first “At Your Side” award for community service in June. It has become a community event that the children look forward to from the first day of school, and that breaks down the walls which sometimes separate people from the truth about what it means to be a special-needs person. Some of the uncertainty about how to handle special-needs people, especially children, is lost by helping at Corey's Day At The Farm. After working the event, volunteers understand that all it takes to make a disabled person's day brighter is a simple “hello.”
ON a personal note, this event makes me so emotional - This is Noah's first year and Nathan's second year. Noah has Aspergers and a Trisomy, among other medical issues. Nathan has Autism and a lot of other medical issues. It's amazing when you can see the spark and your kids faces light up. Kaedyn has severe anxiety and he has zero interest in riding the horses, but he loves a lot of the other aspects.
Noah got to ride on the horses too... and he definitely enjoyed it.
Nathan climbed up on the gate and was watching the horses and riders ....
Kaedyn was all for it! Other than the food, he was most excited about this ....
We saw Diablo again - Nathan remembered him. So we introduced Noah to him. Nathan got to sit on Diablo with the Deputy Sheriff again. Noah passed on the opportunity ...
The great thing about this event is that they will do whatever they can to include not only your children but your family. They got out a ramp to get my (ex) husband up into the trailer for the "hay" ride so that he could enjoy it with his kids.
There are different trailers pulled by tractors or horses and some are just trailers - some are hay ... some are covered, some not....
Nathan on the bleachers when we took a rest
Sno Cones!
This is one of the horse drawn trailors - driven by one of the kiddos enjoying the day...
The days are very crowded, this is a very popular event.
As we were going over to try our hand at roping ... we saw this BEAUTIFUL HORSE .... and not only do I need to show you this picture of this horse because it's so BEAUTIFUL .... but because this horse is a part of a story .....
We stopped to see the horse, and then we saw this donkey - such a pretty donkey...
The owner of the horse walked the horse past the donkey and the donkey decided to follow the horse with her eyes... she was OBVIOUSLY smitten...
Nathan liked the donkey a lot. He kept petting her...... but the whole time...... the donkey had her eye on the horse. I told the owner, she has horse envy.... the owner laughed and said "she sure does, but who wouldn't looking at that horse" .... LOLOLOLOL... Maybe Nathan had a little horse envy too ... and he was consoling the donkey by petting her and thinking "I know how you feel" ....
Anyway - OUR MAIN MISSION ..... capture the HAY BULL ..... or just Bull as he likes to be called, after all, it's branded on his forehead.
Nathan too his turn ....
.... and so did Noah ...
We went and had lunch also. Hot dogs, chips, cookies, drinks and ice cream!!
Before going back out I got the boys to take one picture for me with Kaedyn and he and Nathan were trying to do "funny faces" ....
Bubba hung out FLIRTING while the boys rode horses ....
Both Noah and Nathan took SIX horse rides ... they got their flirts on with several Cowgirls ...
We took one more tractor ride.
Petting Farm ....
Before we left to go back out for more fun, the boys had gotten some popcorn to snack on while we were out in the sun, and then before we left, after Nathan and Noah took their final rides on the horses, I promised Kaedyn we would go get one more sno cone before we left. On our way across the un-even pavement - Kaedyn tripped and fell head first into the concrete... when he finally lifted his head (I almost wonder if he blacked out for a few moments) ... his face was already covered in blood.
Course, Mommabear took over, I knew Dennis would get the other kids out of the road (it's where the tractors were running for the hay rides, and the horses for the horse drawn carriage) .... I just concentrated on Kaedyn. I managed to get him over by the sno cone building and and asked if they had any paper towels or anything. They didn't, so I was digging in my bag, thank God for Mom's Magic Bag .... and I got some wipes out. I was vaguely aware of a lot of people, mom's, staff... volunteers, even the Deputy Sheriff had asked if he could help .... they were all concerned and asking if we needed help. I know someone had gone to get the medic ... One thing about Kaedyn though, when he's hurt or not feeling well - NO ONE will do other than mommy and he'll actually go into screaming fits if anyone touches him.... not even Daddy can console him when he wants Mommy....and by the time the medic came with the first aid kit, I had gotten the bleeding to stop, his face and his hands cleaned up.... I cleaned it up with an alcohol swab and blew on it to help the sting out .... then put some antibiotic ointment on it - but he refused a bandaid. The medic said "when you guys leave, come see me, I'll get you another cookie!"
Then they went to the ladies making the sno cones and Kaedyn wanted a grape one this time, and Noah and Nathan got rainbow ones. That little itty bitty cut on his forehead caused a lot of hassle!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for leaving some LOVE!