Doing it for Drew this Sunday at Pilgrim High

Jen Cowart
Posted 2/5/15

On Sunday, Feb. 8 a fundraiser will be held at Pilgrim High School for Andrew “Drew” Wheaton, just in time for his seventh birthday. The spaghetti supper fundraiser is being held in order to …

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Doing it for Drew this Sunday at Pilgrim High

Posted

On Sunday, Feb. 8 a fundraiser will be held at Pilgrim High School for Andrew “Drew” Wheaton, just in time for his seventh birthday. The spaghetti supper fundraiser is being held in order to raise funds for Drew’s family to purchase a new handicapped accessible vehicle.

His mother Tara Townsend explains a little bit about Andrew’s disabilities and how his daily life is affected, as well as what prompted the fundraiser for him.

“Andrew is a soon to be seven-year-old boy who was born five weeks early. Due to a rare and undiagnosed genetic disorder that causes low fetal movement, he was unable to develop his muscles and joints so he has extremely low muscle tone and no elbow, wrist, knee or ankle joints,” she said. “The low muscle tone makes it so that he only has slight shrug-like movement and doesn’t allow him to take deep enough breaths to oxygenate himself. He needs to be on a ventilator every day, 24 hours a day.”

She explained that travel is particularly difficult for Andrew, and traveling in a regular car is unsafe as well.

“The limited joints makes travel extremely difficult as he can only bend at the waist but only to 115 degrees comfortably,” she said.

Andrew, who is in the first grade at Park Elementary, enjoys his time in school but also enjoys events that take place outside of school, requiring his family members to transport him there in regular vehicles. After having taken him on his first vacation to New Hampshire recently, where they found that the adjustments they had to make to his car seat for the trip didn’t keep him as comfortable as he could’ve been in their standard minivan, they realized it was time to look into the possibility of a handicapped accessible van that could accommodate both Drew’s needs and the needs of the growing family, which includes a 3-year-old son Shamus Hayes and a new baby on the way.

“There are programs available to help you modify a vehicle if you have one,” Townsend said. “But once you do that, the integrity of the car is compromised. With the condition of the roads in Rhode Island, I’ve heard some horror stories of what could happen.”

However, she said that the cost of the investment in a safer, more comfortable vehicle for Drew is making it very difficult for the family to make that desire a reality.

“A used accessible vehicle can range from $15,000 to $30,000, and new ones run from $40,000 to $80,000,” she said. “This is why we need to raise this money.”

Last summer, as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was raising millions for ALS research, a friend of Andrew’s family decided to donate his funds to their cause instead.

“Charlie Doughty helped get the ball rolling when he decided to donate to us instead of doing the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge,” said Townsend, and from there the fundraiser came together quickly. “Donations were received in the form of food, raffle prizes and cash from friends, local businesses and community organizations. Drew’s teachers and friends at Park Schooland Drum Rock Early Childhood Center and the entire Warwick Public School community have really rallied around Andrew and this cause to make this day and dream possible.”

Anyone interested in helping Andrew Wheaton’s family can attend the Doing it for Drew spaghetti supper fundraiser at Pilgrim High School on Sunday, Feb. 8 from 2 to 5 p.m. The cost per person is $7. For information about how to make a donation, contact Tara Townsend at townsend@ripin.org or visit the family’s GoFundMe page, www.gofundme.com/d897u0.

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