Dear Poppy’s Special Friends,
We are so incredibly grateful for all the support that you have provided for our family throughout the years since our son Daniel as honored at your event in 2013. “Kool Kid” Daniel (with Koolen DeVries Syndrome) continues to be a clap-happy 6-year-old little boy who enjoys sharing pure joy with the world. Although he still struggles to speak due to his apraxia of speech, it doesn’t stop him from trying. He uses his Ipad “talker” to communicate and he often gets his point across through approximations, gestures and intonation. Some of his words are becoming more and more intelligible. His voice is slowly developing and we hope for him to be understood by most people soon.
Music continues to be one of his favorite things to do and he has great prosody, pitch and rhythm. He has a full repertoire of songs that he likes to sing. Despite his inability to articulate the words, you know what song he is singing from his perfect melody. His current favorites are “This Land is Your Land” and “Let it Go” from Frozen.
We recently went on our Disney World trip thanks to the generosity of Mrs. Linda DeJana of the Philip and Linda DeJana Family Foundation. It was absolutely one of the most incredible and magical weeks we have had as a family. Our kids were picked from the audience to perform in the Lion King production at Animal Kingdom, and also to ring the bell at the Liberty Tree Tavern in Magic Kingdom. In addition, we were chosen for some “Magical Moments” by some generous Guest Relations cast members at Hollywood Studios and given a Fast Pass for the new Toy Story ride and a bag full of Disney toys on our way out of the park!
To see how excited our children were to meet their favorite Disney characters was just so wonderful. Since our photos just don’t convey the excitement and joy of our trip, we hope you enjoy our little thank you video.
We thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts.
With much appreciation,
Bridge and Matt Green