Siblings of Special Needs Children Find Support at SibShops!
What a great news story on Sibshops! This one is about the Sibshops in Colorado Springs run by Julie Hudak-Salvat for Special Kids Special Families. Along with some great young sibs, this video documents the first known visit to a Sibshop by Imperial Stormtroopers!
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- From treatments to appointments, to special trips, brothers and sisters of children with special needs can often feel left out. Because those kids don't get the same amount of attention, and often grow up quicker, Julie Hudak-Salvat decided to bring "SibShops" to Colorado Springs. "It was a passion of mine, I'm a clinical social worker, I have a practice and I've always seen that the siblings needed a lot of support," Hudak-Salvat said.
SibShops acknowledge that being the brother or sister of a person with special needs is for some a good thing, others a not-so-good thing, and for many, somewhere in-between. The kids acknowledge that, too. "My brother has autism," Molly Kelso, who is 9 explained. "He's sometimes tough to live with, but I still like having him around," she said.
Molly doesn't often have things that are just hers. At January's SibShop, she got her own lego set and to hang out with a Storm Trooper.