By Ann Marie Shambaugh
Most parents will never forget the moment a child takes those first steps. For Debbie Weidner, that memory is extra special.
Her daughter Shea, 7 years old at the time, had been confined to a wheelchair because of complications from a rare genetic chromosome disorder. She had just taken a ride on the popular children’s train at the HAWK Foundation’s VIP Carnival at the Zionsville Fall Festival.
“When she got off she stood up and took two steps,” Weidner said.
That was one of many firsts for Shea at a HAWK (Helping All With Kindness) Foundation event. The Zionsville-based nonprofit organizes several events each year for children with special needs – and their families. Weidner said Shea, now 10, also experienced her first visit with Santa and first carnival ride at foundation events.
“There are opportunities that we would normally not do or seek out, but we do them with (the HAWK Foundation), because we know it’s safe,” Weidner said. “We make sure we go to all of their events.”
Meeting a need
The next HAWK Foundation event will be the annual VIP Carnival at the Zionsville Fall Festival. The carnival area will be open from 5 to 8 p.m. Sept. 9 for children with special needs and their families before it is open to the general public.
Weidner, a Zionsville resident, said she’s been to every VIP Carnival, even before the creation of the HAWK Foundation in 2014. The first one was organized by members of the Zionsville Lions Club as part of the 2008 Fall Festival.
Club member Leigh Ann Akard said she had heard about a Lions Club in Texas running a similar event and thought it could work well in Zionsville, as she knew several families with children with special needs. The goal for the first year was to have 75 people attend, but they nearly doubled that amount. Attendance grew each year, most recently drawing approximately 1,300 people from as far as Ohio, Michigan and Illinois.
“That solidified for us there was a need,” Akard said. “There are wonderful things out there for special needs persons, not necessarily for the family as a unit.”
So organizers designed the event as an experience for the entire family. Weidner said that helps set the VIP Carnival – and other HAWK Foundation events – apart, and that her sons, Von, 11, and Cruz, 8, want to experience as much as they can “as a family.”
“It’s nice for my boys to see their sister having fun with them,” Weidner said. “It almost makes me cry, because they say they don’t want to go unless Shea’s going.”
Foundation takes flight
As the VIP Carnival continued to grow, Lions Club members didn’t want the event to take away from the fundraising efforts of the Fall Festival, but they still wanted families to be able to attend for free. Thus, the idea of forming a separate foundation to run the VIP Carnival was born.
Today, the HAWK Foundation and Lions Club are still intertwined, as many of the foundation’s board members and volunteers are also part of the Lions Club. But the foundation is able to fundraise for the carnival and its other events separately throughout the year.
In addition to the VIP Carnival, the HAWK Foundation organizes a visit with Santa around the holidays and a luau with Santa in the summer. St. Nick, in fact, has become a bit of a mascot for the HAWK Foundation, said Akard, as she believes the spirit of joy and giving should be alive year-round.
“Those families still have needs when it’s 100 degrees outside,” she said. “Maybe they’re not in school, and maybe they need a fan instead of a pair of mittens.”
As the HAWK Foundation continues to expand its influence, Akard said its volunteers benefit as much as those they are serving.
“It just totally proves that you can’t give without being blessed in return,” Akard said. “While we make these families feel like a million bucks, they touch us just as much if not more. We probably leave there that night feeling better than they did.”
Wish granted
In addition to planning its annual events, the HAWK Foundation grants wishes for special needs children – and other members of their families.
For the Weidners, that wish was getting to attend an Indianapolis Colts game together. The foundation arranged for special accommodations so Shea could join her family at the game.
“Many times it’s the siblings of the kids with special needs that sometimes need extra attention,” Weidner said. “I think we forget sometimes they’re the ones that make a lot of sacrifices.”
Thanks to the foundation, Weidner said the entire family was able to enjoy the game. It’s a memory they’ll never forget.
“My boys were able to meet a couple players, which was just the icing on the cake,” Weidner said.
