Top Secret things are currently growing in the garden. But rest assured you will be just as excited to see them all sprout in the upcoming months as you are the GoTo Seat and Upsee. The Firefly Team and those at Leckey have some amazing ideas to light up family participation on a whole new level than has ever existed before!
We spent a morning meeting with the creative minds behind the scenes, those who work tirelessly each day to bring new ideas that will be life changing to children with special needs. We were able to see how an idea grew into a concept design, and how a concept design was modified, changed and improved upon in order to produce a final product.
Where do the ideas start you might wonder? Well they start with parents who need something for everyday life that doesn't yet exist for their child with special needs. Leckey is there listening, creating demo products and conducting valuable research on how to bring ideas to life!
Our meetings took place in a room that was beautifully designed as the most beautiful garden you could imagine. Lights, trees, little bears, little make believe fireflies in jars... butterflies on the ceiling and lots of green leaves. And the most beautiful Firefly background logo, with the gentle sound of crickets and outdoor life. You could feel the magic. Most importantly it was sensory heaven for the children who attended. All the children were so content and happy. Face painting, balloons, laughter, warmth, love and hope in a room full of blossoming ideas.
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| Firefly Screen |
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| Firefly Meeting Room |
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| Noah's balloons painted on his hand. He enjoyed getting his first painting! |
We had delicate sandwiches for lunch, hot teas and coffee, and pastries that beat anything you could ever find in the US. The elevator to the building broke the day of our firefly fun. The Leckey team was mortified hosting families with children in wheelchairs. But there was lots of help there to carry wheelchairs up and down the stairs. And they likely didn't realize that those types of challenges we have to deal with on a daily basis here in the States... stairs, no ramps, elevators that quit working, handicapped buttons that no longer work to open doors. One time I remember having to go up the escalator with a wheelchair. So, in the larger scheme of things, it wasn't terrible in our eyes at all. At least we had a whole ton of loving hands to help us out, something we don't have back home. We're on our own unless a stranger passing by takes pity on us and offers to lend us a helping hand! And besides it is kind of like any big event, there has to be something that doesn't go as expected to add some extra fun and give you something you can look back at and laugh about later! Remember when as the story follows...
I didn't want to leave the garden. Felt so wonderful there. Good memories happened in that garden that we'll carry with us forever as a family and Noah was so happy.
One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides
Love,
Noah's Miracle by Stacy Warden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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