Hi Volunteers!

I want you to know that you’ve changed my family’s lives. Before Horse Boy we were watching M*** retreat into himself and become more and more sensory sensitive. At it’s worst M*** wouldn’t leave the house without a hoodie with a particular neck width and made out of a particular material on. Long sleeves, hood up. His jogging pants had to be a particular length and with a particular kind of material and a particular kind of drawstring. Each stipulation we agreed to just to get out of the house led to yet another one. He had no friends and I couldn’t imagine how he could make any. When I went to pick him up at summer camp the summer of 2017 he was sweating, wearing a fleece and jogging pants in 27 degree weather. They told me he had refused to wear anything else all week. A colleague at work last September tried to comfort me, saying “he’s still your same little boy”, but I felt like it wasn’t true. I felt like we were losing him, and that he was less and less able to function in the world.

Since starting Horse Boy he has been able to clip his fingernails, brush his hair, get a haircut, and wear shorts and a t-shirt on every hot day. He now has a best friend that lives near us and they regularly sleep over at each other’s houses. The positive changes are beyond anything I could dream. It’s true that I think of it as miraculous, but I’m very aware that it’s a miracle you all made. I can never thank you enough.

Love from M***’s Mama and the rest of the family