Karen Thor (Executive Director, Next Step Raleigh) and Tyler Helikson (Co-Founder/CEO, Happy +Hale)
The most fulfilling aspect of what we do is partnering with a community of like-minded individuals in building a culture of belonging. We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with Ashley Christensen and Poole’side Pies in support of the incredible work of NextStep Raleigh. A special thank you to our partners at Reinhart Food Service and Toast POS for joining in contribution. Lastly, a sincere thank you to Karen Thor - mother to Michael Thor and Executive Director of NextStep Raleigh. Your passion and dedication to this cause is nothing short of inspirational and we could not be more proud to know you and call you a friend.
From Karen:
"All of the funds will either be used to purchase additional equipment for our clients or towards our scholarship fund. What we are working to get funding for right now is a LiteGait gait trainer with the corresponding treadmill. This is a harness system that allows us to help people "walk" without putting all their weight on their legs. With repeated training, they can sometimes recover the ability to walk or at least get some movement back in their legs. The rest of the money will fund our scholarships. We charge $100/hr, none of which is covered by insurance or medicare/medicaid (which is ridiculous). We can contribute up to 50% of that amount from our scholarship fund. Our scholarship fund is very limited at this point because we haven't raised much yet (being in business only 1 year). We also have submitted several other grant requests for scholarship money. So for every $100 raised for us that we don't use to purchase equipment, we can give 2 hours of rehab training at half price. Believe me when I tell you that makes a world of difference to many of the people who come here."
Next Step Raleigh director of training Arlene Peters, left, and activity based trainer David Wright, right, work with Mike Thor to stand up and take steps during one of his therapy sessions at Next Step Raleigh on Dec. 6, 2018. Thor is determined to walk again and pushes himself through multiple therapy sessions a week. Juli Leonard JLEONARD@NEWSOBSERVER.COM
Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/living/article235204167.html#storylink=cpy