Determined Parents hosts Fourth of July 5k, Family Fun day

If you're looking for a family-friendly way to celebrate and serve this Fourth of July, the Determined Parents Foundation's first DPF 5K Walk/Run/Roll and Family Fun Day event will give you the opportunity to do both.

Hosted by Determined Parents Foundation founders Heidi Dawson and Kelly Tipple-Moran, the fundraising event will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 4, at Lake Tye Park (14964 Fryelands Blvd.) in Monroe. All proceeds will go toward supporting the Determined Parents Foundation, a Sultan-based nonprofit that helps provide grants to families with special needs kids.

In addition to a 5K fun run, the carnival-themed event will feature bouncy houses, games, face-painting, hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy, prizes, snow cones and more.

The 5K run will loop around Lake Tye, providing an accessible surface for any participant. Wheelchairs and walkers are welcome.

A total of 20 local vendors have signed up to be at the event, and additional vendors are welcome. Volunteers are still needed to staff concession stands and operate carnival games.

Both parents of a special needs child, Dawson and Tipple-Moran started the Determined Parents Foundation in 2013 to provide financial aid and share their experience, strength and hope with other parents. The goal of the foundation is to provide grants to help families pay for insurance co-pays and deductibles, along with equipment and special therapies that aren't covered by insurance.

While their sons' conditions are very different, both Dawson and Tipple-Moran have overcome similar challenges while seeking the highest possible level of care for their kids.-á -á

Tipple-Moran's 6-year-old son Jack was born with cerebral palsy (CP), a neurological disorder that hampers the brain's ability to control muscle movement. Dawson's 9-year-old son Patrick has a neurological disability called Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), a relatively new diagnosis that causes sensory signals in the brain to become jumbled and confused, resulting in what has been described as a "neurological traffic jam.GÇ¥-á

Kids who have SPD can experience anxiety in social situations, depression, behavioral issues, difficulty performing mundane tasks and motor skill deficiencies. Kids who have from CP also have fine motor skill deficiencies, along with muscle weakness, muscle tightness, tremors and poor coordination.

Both Dawson and Tipple-Moran have discovered experimental therapies to be beneficial for addressing the needs of their children, but unfortunately, experimental treatments are not typically covered by insurance. Additionally, insurance companies will deny requests for things like wheelchairs and other hardware, leaving significant out-of-pocket expenses for the families.

What Dawson and Tipple-Moran have learned after years of experience is that a family shouldn't give up just because they've been denied. Sometimes insurance companies will reverse a denial after the family has navigated an appeal process.

"Some people don't even know that they can appeal a denial,GÇ¥ Dawson said. "There's all these little things that parents just don't know. The only reason we know is because we've had to do it.GÇ¥

Dawson and Tipple-Moran joined forces in 2013, officially becoming a 501C3 last year. As the result of a significant fundraising push that took place last September during the foundation's "SteptemberGÇ¥ challenge, Dawson and Tipple-Moran are in the process of awarding their first grants. Once they have actually distributed some funds, Tipple-Moran will begin to aggressively pursue grants that will enable them to help families on a larger scale.

"I can't write grants until we have helped families,GÇ¥ Tipple-Moran said. "Hopefully, that will start getting a continuous supply in for us so that we're able to pay it forward.GÇ¥

One thing that makes the Determined Parents Foundation stand out is that it does not restrict based on income level. They made the decision to remove income-based criteria because of Tipple-Moran's experiences with Jack. Currently, she and her husband pay approximately $20,000 out-of-pocket per year for experimental therapies like serial casting, because her husband's income is considered too high to obtain financial assistance.

"There's nobody out there like us,GÇ¥ Dawson said. "I've only found one other place that we could get a grant that wasn't income-restricted.GÇ¥

"We don't think that people should be punished because of what they make,GÇ¥ Tipple-Moran added.

An alternative to invasive surgery, serial casting, also known as constraint-induced therapy, helps improve Jack's fine motor skills. The therapy involves placing his strong hand or leg into a cast, thus forcing him to use his weaker side. Serial casting is not covered by most insurance.

An experimental therapy that Dawson has found effective with her son's SPD is called Integrated Listening Systems (ILS). ILS has helped her son achieve significant progress in terms of sensory processing, cognitive reasoning and social responses.

Dawson and Tipple-Moran raise money throughout the year by challenging themselves via different activity-based fundraising opportunities. Last September, as a way to both spread awareness and raise money for special needs families, they attempted to climb Mount Rainier. In addition to the climb, they challenged supporters to join them in their month-long "Steptember NorthwestGÇ¥ initiative, during which they pledged to take 10,000 steps per day.

This year, the two plan on participating in the Lake Stevens Iron Man, and Tipple-Moran will run from Mount Rainier to the Red Hook Brewery in Woodinville.-á

All donations to the Determined Parents Foundation are tax-deductible. Dawson and Tipple-Moran are currently seeking volunteers for to help serve concessions and operate the carnival games during their fundraiser.

For more information on the event, visit www.facebook.com/pages/The-DPF-5K-WalkRunRoll-and-Family-Fun-Day/455058454656061.

To sign up as a volunteer, visit www.signupgenius.com/go/20f054aa9a92da4ff2-volunteers.-á