F-M Holds First Ever Special Needs Walk

The F-M Special Needs Support Network Group put on the walk

MOORHEAD, Minn. — Whenever Brianna Schjei takes her son Evan to a restaurant, she calls ahead to make sure she’s allowed to bring a lunch bag for him.

“So far we haven’t been turned down, everybody’s been pretty accommodating,” Schjei said.

Evan is one of many kids in the metro who has special needs.

While he has autism and can’t eat certain foods at restaurants, other kids’ special needs can vary.

“There’s so many things that all these kids have, different sensory issues and we don’t know what triggers what when we’re out in public,” Danielle Kolp said.

To bring more awareness to the community, Schjei and Kolp started the F–M Special Needs Support Network Group.

Now they’re putting on the first ever F–M Special Needs Walk which is helping bring awareness.

“It brings a little more awareness to families in the community to help them understand families with special needs and how to accept them and incorporate them into daily activities,” Schjei said.

For those families who do have children with special needs, the walk and the group are meant to provide them with a sense of comfort.

“You meet other families with special needs and they understand what you’re going through, your everyday life,” Tiffani Hase said.

Which is especially important for Hase when she says her son Kaden’s medical future is always a question mark.

“Is he going to be able to live on his own? We don’t know, we just don’t know,” Hase said.

That’s why she says resources are everything for not only the families of children with special needs but those individuals who have a special needs diagnosis.

Hase says it could eventually help to provide that future for her son which she has always wanted for him.

“He’s been in therapy since he was two years old. He’s almost 10 now and he’s actually graduating from speech therapy very soon and I just can’t say enough for the people that have worked with him. They’ve been amazing,” Hase said.

The F–M Special Needs Support Network Group has meetings once a month throughout the school year.

If you’d like to learn more about the organization, click here.