Dear SOFT families:

We are starting to receive the conference registrations and it is so exciting.  Every year we attend and it is such a long year in between each conference.  Registrations coming in mean it is almost time to get together again!  The brochure is out in the mail and the Denver conference committee is really working hard.  I have been looking through the brochure.  Do you think the siblings will let me go on the White Water Rafting?  It looks like so much fun.  I am looking forward to the transition clinic as we are working on ways here in Rochester to better transition any young adults with medical issues.  Look your brochure over and get your registration in to help SOFT Rock the Rockies!  You won’t want to miss it.  Check the newsletter for another brochure or get on the website at www.trisomy.org to get another copy and updated information on the conference.  Please remember to get your hotel reservations in at the hotel as the rooms could sell out and you can not sign up after the deadline.  Those that cannot attend but want to send in a balloon release you can do so on the registration form or email Jack at jlaird@rochester.rr.com and include all the necessary information included in the registration form.  We are able to offer some Joey Watson memorial funds this year again.  If you family is interested, please send a self addressed, stamped envelope to SOFT and I will send you an application.  Don’t wait till it is too late we will be awarding the money by the end of May.

This week is finally turning sunny and warm here in Rochester.  It has been a long winter and we are looking forward to nice weather.  I am not fooled though because we have had snow in April before.  We can only hope it continues to stay warm and mild and we have an early spring.  Stacy has done well this year and is just now getting her first cold.  It has been a very good year.  She was diagnosed with cataracts last year and we decided then not to do anything due to her health.  Now that we see her not attending to her surroundings as well we will be consulting with a surgeon to try and get her cataracts operated on.  Hopefully, we can get one eye done before conference and then get the other one done after conference.  We are not looking forward to another surgery but we need to give her opportunities to see her surroundings better than she is at this time.  Stacy still attends her day hab program daily and loves being out in the community volunteering.  She has many friends; especially Jason who loves to hold her hands every day.  She never fights the young men away.

In May Anna, Andy, Stacy, Judie and several others will be walking in Spike’s hike for Special Olympics. The nice thing this year is we can also raise half of the money for SOFT that we raise.  Check out the web page Anna set up at www.firstgiving.com/softsangels.  Nancy Swanson put together a logo for us to put on t-shirts with the Soft logo and an angel halo.  They are really great and we may even get her family to walk along with us and add Jake into our walk that day.  Anna has a high goal of $2000 and we are almost a quarter of the way there.  Pray for me that day as I hope the weather is good and I can walk the whole distance.  Judie wants to drop them off and pick them up at the end.  We’ll have to see how the day goes!

Stacy, Judie, Jack and I attended the American College of Medical Genetics meeting this year in Phoenix.  It was wonderful to have people look in and say they send people our way all the time.  We did not have that many new contacts so we are wondering if this is the most effective way to spend SOFT’s money or could we reach others another way.  We want to have that discussion at the Board meeting in Denver and are open to ideas to discuss from all of you.  E-Mail Barb if you have any suggestions.   We will be having our 6 month conference call with the board soon.

We at this time do not have any proposals for future conferences except for Chicago.  We have no place for next year.  We were hoping to attract a new and exciting site after the conference workshops in Utah. If you are interested and just have not come forward with a proposal yet please let me know so we can approve the site or at least help you get started.

Ann Barnes has completed a new Care book and we are in the process of trying to find a new printer as the Media Center will no longer be printing our books.  I hope we will have the new books ready by conference to share with all of you.

WE hope that everyone is thinking about conference this year from near and far.  We have such a great time and learn so much from the workshops as well as through the families that attend.  The committee has been working so hard, please come and join us.

SOFTly,
The VanHerreweghes
Barb, Dave, Stacy, Andy and Anna says from her too!