Judy Vorfeld’s Office Support Services

On March 4, 2005, we were overjoyed to welcome our second beautiful son, Joshua, into our family. Around the time of Joshua’s first birthday, however, we started to notice elements of his development which caused us some concern. He was not speaking, and was not responding to us when we spoke to him. His behavior seemed different than other children his age. Over the next few years, we walked through the long, difficult journey of seeking answers to the questions looming in our minds. What was afflicting our son? And what could we do to help him?

After many medical tests, consultations with a Neuropsychologist, and evaluations with First Steps and a program through the local school system, Joshua Bontrager was finally diagnosed with Autism in January of this year. It is news that no parent wants to receive, but we are thankful to finally have an official diagnosis, which puts to rest some of the questions we’ve carried, and also provides us with opportunities to further explore treatment options and other ways to maintain a safe and happy life for Joshua.

Joshua is an affectionate little boy who likes to hug and snuggle. He loves letters and numbers and enjoys coloring, climbing, and running. He also has many struggles which affect his life and the life of our family on a daily basis. Autism makes it difficult for Joshua to focus, communicate, and process information.

At five years old, his speech level is that of a two-and-a-half year old, and he cannot comprehend the consequences of many of his actions; including ones that could be potentially dangerous. We have had to install locks on the doors, windows, and cabinets throughout our home, as Joshua is undeterred by most child-proofing equipment and has an incredible ability, and frequent desire, to escape.

As Joshua’s parents, our goal is to fight this disease alongside him by providing all the help we possibly can. Speech and occupational therapy sessions at Joshua’s special preschool and our local hospital have made some improvements in his ability to communicate with us.

Our major concern at this point is his safety, as his physical abilities combined with his delays in comprehension can often place him in harm’s way. We were encouraged to recently learn about 4 Paws for Ability, an organization which trains assistance dogs and provides them as companions for people with disabilities. In the case of a child like Joshua, for instance, an assistance dog would provide security and a calming presence, all the while helping to keep the child out of danger.

Our family has been approved to receive an assistance dog for Joshua, and we are hopeful about the difference this opportunity could make in our lives.

Our lives have been profoundly impacted by the harsh realities of Autism. Despite the difficulties, however, we are thankful for what we have learned about love and patience, and the increased understanding and awareness we now have about other people who are living with disabilities. We are thankful for our family and friends, and our faith in God, all of which have been great sources of strength for us in the hard times. And we are thankful that organizations like 4 Paws for Ability exist to help improve the quality of life for people with Autism, and give peace of mind to their families.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story. Please consider making a donation to 4 Paws for Ability in honor of Joshua Bontrager, as your contribution will undoubtedly make a difference in the life of a child like Joshua. All donations are tax deductable and can be made online at www.4pawsforability.org or sent to:

4 Paws for Ability

253 Dayton Ave.

Xenia, Ohio 45385

Jeremy & Shivy Bontrager

4 Paws for Ability as a source for extremely well-trained service dogs. The organization is sound and its goals exceptional. Judy Vorfeld.

What choices do parents have when they discover their child is autistic? That the child can’t communicate well with anyone, that socially the child is in another world, and that this beautiful child has no understanding of words like “safety,” “home,” “name,” etc? And that for parents, the words “sleep” and “rest” may become strangers, while “stress” becomes their close companion?

“Autism,” says Bianca Merino’s mother, “affects every aspect of our lives. From the moment I started to see some delays in Bianca’s development, our lives changed. The worries started and have not stopped. She was diagnosed when she was three-and-a-half years old.”

Every day as nine-year-old Bianca grows, she also claims more independence. She wants to cook by herself, stay in her room alone, and watch TV alone. She is a huge fan of Hannah Montana. There are times when she refuses to interact with her four-year-old brother, who doesn’t yet understand why she pushes him away when he wants to play with her. When the family goes to the mall or the grocery store, Bianca wants to walk down other aisles by herself, but of course, she can’t. It breaks her mother’s heart.

Safety issues present major challenges. Some nights Bianca has trouble falling asleep, or wakes up in the middle of the night and wanders around the house and kitchen. Even though the Merinos have an alarm system, her parents are always afraid that they might be in a deep sleep and unable to hear her.

“I want to give her the independence that she claims and deserves,” says her mother, “but I can’t. A service dog would be wonderful for Bianca. She’ll have the companionship that she needs and more of the independence that she demands, and a higher level of safety. This is why we’re raising funds to get a specially trained autism service dog that also does search and rescue from 4 Paws for Ability. This new friend, and new member of our family, won’t give up on her and might help her make friends. Plus,” she says, “this will create a stronger bond with her little brother.”

There are times that Bianca wants to interact with other kids her age, but she doesn’t have the proper language skills to interact well, and usually other children lose interest and walk away. At such times, her facial expressions reveal the frustration and pain she feels.

Usually sweet and cooperative, Bianca can change moods unexpectedly. No one knows why. According to nonprofit 4 Paws for Ability, a well-trained autism service dog helps in this and many other areas, and 4 Paws has a high success rate training dogs and families. Convinced that the child and dog will form a close bond, her parents also believe that this new family member will reduce the stress for everyone.

“I know that they say that autism service dogs are not the cure for autism,” says Bianca’s mother, “but in my heart I feel that it may be the key for her treatment. If not, at least we will have tried, and in the process we’ll have this wonderful dog that will understand and help us all be more at peace with her autism.”

The Merinos must raise the $13,000 required to train their special dog to Bianca’s specific needs, and look to the community to open its heart to this sweet little girl whose life will change significantly once she has her service dog. All funds go directly to 4 Paws.

Learn more about 4 Paws for Ability by going to http://www.4PawsForAbility.org. All money donated in Bianca Merino’s name will go for the training of her autism service dog, and the donations are tax deductible. People and organizations can donate online at the 4 Paws Donation Page, or pay by check to:

4 Paws for Ability

253 Dayton Ave.

Xenia, Ohio 45385

If you prefer making an online donation, please reference “In honor of Bianca Merino” in the box asking for special instructions.

Thank you so much! The Merino Family

4 Paws for Ability as a source for extremely well-trained service dogs. The organization is sound and its goals exceptional. Judy Vorfeld.

No offense to cat lovers out there, but this Sagamore Hills, OH family has a need only a furry canine can fulfill, and they need your help. Beth and Rich Polk of Sagamore Hills are raising funds on behalf of 4 Paws For Ability, a non-profit organization out of Xenia, OH, specializing in training and placement of service dogs for autistic and disabled children.

Eight-year-old Sarah Polk is beautiful, rambunctious, and has autism. Sarah is non-verbal with severe developmental delays. She is unable to respond to her name, and wanders off unaware of environmental dangers like traffic, bodies of water, and ill intentions of strangers. She struggles academically and has difficulty making social connections and friends.

The Polk family was thrilled to learn about how 4 Paws For Ability was helping kids just like Sarah by means of an autism service dog.

Sarah and other autistic and disabled kids need a strong companion at their side trained to provide the special assistance they need. In addition to providing constant companionship and unwavering friendship, these four-legged wonders are specially trained in search and rescue skills. Remarkably, over 75% of the dogs that are trained to be service dogs are rescued from shelters.

4 Paws for Ability strives to provide service dogs to families and children that struggle with life’s daily challenges and who would otherwise be turned away by many other agencies.

4 Paws trains a variety of assistance dogs, including but not limited to seizure assistance, mobility assistance, hearing ear dogs and autism assistance dogs.

As Sarah’s family raises money for 4 Paws for Ability, they earn a point for every dollar. When they reach their pledged goal of 13,000 points, 4 Paws for Ability will begin training a dog specifically for Sarah’s needs.

You can help bring some magic of a service dog to Sarah’s life by making a tax deductible donation to 4 Paws For Ability at http://www.4pawsforability.org and clicking on “donate now” and referencing “In honor of Sarah Polk” in the special instruction box.

Checks can also be mailed to 253 Dayton Avenue, Xenia, OH 45385.

Please be sure to reference “In honor of Sarah Polk” in the memo portion of the check. All help is greatly appreciated.

For additional information contact Beth and Rich Polk at (330) 467-6564 or bethpolk@windstream.net. To contact 4 Paws directly call (937) 374-0385 or check out their website at www.4pawsforability.org.

Note: I highly endorse 4 Paws for Ability as a source for extremely well-trained service dogs. The organization is sound and its goals exceptional. Judy Vorfeld.

January 24, 2010  Excerpted from CargoNews Issue 110 with permission of Air New Zealand, Los Angeles

LAX Cargo had the rare privilege to assist a most worthy cause, the transportation of 4 trained dogs for 4 Paws for Ability to Auckland on NZ01/24 Jan, 2010. Executive Director Karen Shirk started 4 Paws for Ability in the 1990’s because of the difficulty she experienced in obtaining a service dog for her own family. Many of the current agencies have waiting lists or age specific requirements which make obtaining a service dog all but impossible. With this experience in mind, Karen then started 4 Paws for Ability, “…and to keep as a founding principle the willingness to provide service dogs for any individual regardless of age or disability.”

4 Paws for Ability, Inc, mission is to:

• Enrich the lives of people with disabilities by the training and placement of service dogs to provide individuals with companionship and [to] promote independent living;
• Educate the public to accept the use of service dogs in public places;
• Assist with animal rescue whenever possible by obtaining many of our animals from shelters and rescue groups.

Eric Bimber, Cargo Sales Manager, Southwest, worked closely with 4 Paws to provide the passage to New Zealand, (with great thanks to CEO Rob Fyfe for his personal approval) for these 4 beautiful, fully trained dogs to help children with disabilities. Also, great thanks from 4 Paws to Sandro Penzo, Rick Nelson and Sal Sanfilippo.

The cost for one of these dogs can normally range from USD$240-$14,000, based on the amount of training necessary. But—this cost is absorbed by the applicant, who uses fund raising activities to gather the necessary resources, with assistance from 4 Paws as necessary.

This shipment to New Zealand was actually the second one from 4 Paws, and was destined to 4 Paws for Ability New Zealand Charitable Trust. All 4 of these dogs went to children with Autism or Seizure disorders.

LAX Cargo received a heart-warming, hand-written letter of appreciation, and Karen described her experience with Cargo/LAX as “wonderful.”

Looking forward to the next time we can be of assistance, Karen!

Here’s a link to the PDF document with the article and a thank-you note from 4 Paws for Ability New Zealand Charitable Trust.

Have you ever applied for a Web site award, and come across the term White Space?

Some people think it’s a NASA program, an degenerative eye condition, or the result of taking a hallucinogen. According to design experts like Grant Crowell, white space is the open space between design elements, and an important layout technique. Text is a design element.

I like to think of placing text the same way Ritz-Carlton chefs present fine food on exquisite tableware. If we offer lots of good text on our sites, but without order and organization, no one may understand what we have to say.

When you’re working with text in a table, use at least six pixels of cellpadding to set it apart from the margins, visible or not. The exception would be if you’re just using one table data cell.

Avoid big chunks of text. Break up your paragraphs into readable elements, keeping in mind that people tend to skim. Large paragraphs are not just confusing, they’re sending a subtle signal that the reader isn’t important.

Verdana and Georgia have a bit more space between letters than Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, etc. If you can afford to use either of these two, do so. They reinforce the idea of more white space. Smallbusiness.com uses Verdana for its body text.

If you need to squeeze your words together a bit more, go with Arial or Times New Roman, making sure to break up the text with lists, blockspacing, etc.

Just for fun, when you’re reading magazines and newspapers and watching TV, look for white space in advertising. Once you catch on to how type can be used in design, you’ll be hooked!

Further reading:
Internet Brothers: Desktop Publishing
Polished Presentations by Judy Vorfeld
Using white space in Web page design and Layout by Grant Crowell

Have you often wished for a bigger budget for promotional items and gifts? You’re in the same situation as many small business owners, but that doesn’t mean you can’t say “thank you” in many imaginative, inexpensive ways.

Your tokens of appreciation don’t need to be lavish. And clients don’t expect (or want) a constant barrage of mugs, magnetic business cards, imprinted pens, and calendars.

Take the time to snail mail a thank-you note or letter each time you get a referral from a customer. Send little notes at random times just to stay in touch, letting them know they are appreciated. These days, an occasional brief phone call when you don’t want anything but to say “thanks” is novel enough to be appreciated.

When you find an article on the Internet that reinforces a client’s point of view, send her/him the link. If you find a newspaper or magazine article that s/he might like, take time to clip it and mail it, along with a short note.

You show appreciation when you place a link from your site to theirs, refer them to a third party, or mention their expertise in a forum or newsgroup.

And most importantly, regularly use one of the most important phrases in every language, “Thank you.”

Guest post by Charles H. Baughman, MD

Colorectal cancer can affect anyone - men or women alike - and your risk increases as you age. But some people are at greater risk for the disease.

· People with a personal or family history of benign colorectal polyps.

· People with a personal or family history of colorectal cancer.

· People with a personal or family history of inflammatory bowel disease -ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s.

· People with a personal or family history of ovarian, endometrial or breast cancer.

· People of African American and Hispanic descent, who are often disgnosed at a later stage of the disease.

· Men and women over the age of 50.

6 Steps to Lowering Your Risk of Colorectal Cancer

1. Get regular Colorectal Cancer screenings beginning at age 50. If you have a personal or family history of colorectal cancer or colorectal polyps, or a personal history of another cancer or inflammatory bowel disease, talk to us about earlier screening.

2. Eat between 25 to 30 grams of fiber each day from fruits,vegetables, whole grain breads and cereals, nuts and beans.

3. Eat a low-fat diet

4. Eat foods with folate such as leafy green vegetables.

5. If you use alcohol, drink in only in moderation. Alcohol and tobacco in combination are linked to colorectal cancer and other gastrointestinal cancers. If you use tobacco, quit. If you don’t use tobacco, don’t start.

6. Exercise for at least 20 minutes three to four days each week. Moderate exercise such as walking, gardening, or climbing steps may help reduce your risk.

Please call Peoria AZ office (623) 977-0955 Toll Free: (866) 569-1092 or E-Mail (mailto:cb@baughmanagemanagement.com) our office for free brochures on Colon Cancer Screening and Colonoscopy.

To learn more, visit the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons website at www.fascrs.org or www.preventcancer.org/colorectal or call 1-877-35-COLON. Of course, you can contact our office or visit us on the web at www.BaughmanAgeManagement.com

Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month was founded by the Cancer Research Foundation of America in collaboration with the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable and the American Digestive Health Foundation.

Have you ever written a report or business letter and felt something was missing, but you couldn’t figure it out? It might be that you didn’t think to express parallel thoughts in parallel form.

Parallelism is very helpful when you’re creating documents that have items bulleted and numbered. It helps the reader quickly grasp your meaning. Example: read the items in the first group, then the second group, and decide which is more understandable.

This report covers:

1. How to manage employee absenteeism.
2. Handling problem employees.
3. What the role of the supervisor should be.

This report helps supervisors to:

1. Manage employee absenteeism.
2. Handle problem employees.
3. Function in the business environment.

Those three action words (manage, handle, and function) help organize the thoughts into parallel areas.

It also helps if you use parallel structure in long sentences.

WRONG: Safeway has begun implementing a new area of promotion and to produce a bigger market share.

RIGHT: Safeway has begun implementing a new area of promotion and producing a bigger market share.

WRONG: The software is inexpensive, easy to use, and it’s powerful.

RIGHT: The software is inexpensive, easy to use, and powerful.

If you get stuck, contact me!

Which to use? Due to or Because of? Here are a few tips to keep you aligned with the latest style guides.

Due to modifies nouns and is generally used after some form of the verb to be (is, are, was, were, etc.). Jan’s success is due to talent and spunk (due to modifies success and introduces an adjective phrase and should modify nouns).

Because of should modify verbs. It introduces an adverbial phrase. Ted resigned because of poor health (because of modifies resigned). He did not resign due to poor health.

In a quandary about how to abbreviate days of the week and months? Welcome to the twenty-first century! Let’s take three excellent style guides and see what they offer.

THE GREGG REFERENCE MANUAL, NINTH EDITION says, “Do not abbreviate days of the week and months of the year except in tables or lists where space is limited.”

Gregg is addressing business documents, for the most part. It suggests that abbreviations are appropriate when the emphasis is on “communicating data in the briefest form. In other kinds of writing, where a more formal style is appropriate, use abbreviations sparingly. When in doubt, spell it out.”

The latest AP STYLEBOOK says, “When a month is used with a specific date, abbreviate only Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. Spell out when using alone, or with a year alone.”

It says that in tabular material, use three-letter forms without a period (the first three letters of each month).

The stylebook, published primarily for journalists, also says to capitalize the days of the week, and to not abbreviate them except when needed to facilitate tabular composition.

THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE, 15th Edition, targets authors, editors, proofreaders, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers. “Where space restrictions require that the names of months be abbreviated,” it says, “one of the following systems may be used. The second and third, which take no periods, are used respectively in computer systems and indexes of periodical literature.” It follows with these examples:

• Jan. (or Jan or Ja)
• Feb. (or Feb or F)
• Mar. (or Mar or Mr)
• Apr. (or Apr or Ap)
• May (or May or My)
• June (or Jun or Je)
• July (or Jul or Jl)
• Aug. (or Aug or Ag)
• Sept. (or Sep or S)
• Oct. (or Oct or O)
• Nov. (or Nov or N)
• Dec. (or Dec or D)

CMS says much the same about days of the week. Use where space restrictions exist as follows:

• Sun. or Su
• Mon. or M
• Tues. or Tu
• Wed. or W
• Thurs. or Th
• Fri. or F
• Sat. or Sa