Maryland doesn’t have a lot of funding for disabled kids – the money is really so short that when I’m on the phone with the state, they ask me – “Well, is Edda going to be homeless within 48 hours?” and I say no and then they tell me, well they only have enough money to help the folks who are imminently going to be homeless. So then I end up feeling that I need to be giving money to the state programs rather than asking for some help with a van modification or something.
Anyways, there was always this kind of extra bit of money that they put aside called “Rolling Access” where every year you could file a one time request and they would try and fund the request and distribute it among all the applicants. I don’t think the total was very much money in terms of the whole operating budget, I think the average pay out was something like $1000. Some people asked for help with therapy bills or camp bills. We asked for a jogging stroller about a year ago and we were finally lucky enough to get it, because a month after we got our check, the Rolling Access funding was cut. (That really wasn’t a huge surprise.)
I am very excited to go hiking again with the whole family. Hopefully, we can do it soon once all the snow melts away.
