Mom Asks for Votes to Make her Son a 'Local Hero'

Amy Christmas is not asking for monetary donations. She is simply asking interested people to go to a website and vote each day until May 10 so that her family can win a much-needed wheelchair accessible van for help in transporting her 6-year-old son Brayden Cole Christmas.

Brayden was born with severe hydrocephalus (water on the brain) and was diagnosed with L1 syndrome, a very rare genetic disorder. Brayden has abducted thumbs, club feet, nystagmus in both eyes and muscle spasticity.

He has undergone 13 surgeries in six years, six of the surgeries done during the first six months of his life. He wears braces on both feet and hand braces on each hand. He is primarily fed with a gastrostomy tube, or G- tube.

“Brayden is about 42 pounds right now and it is getting harder to lift him into our car and also bring the wheelchair along,” Christmas said. “He loves to go out when I go shopping or to Walmart, but it’s just too hard to do as he has muscle tone issues and needs a lot of physical support.”

Christmas said they looked into getting a special seat for his wheelchair that could swivel electronically, but the cost of $8,000 for the seat was too much for them.

So, they entered Brayden’s name and story into a “Local Hero” contest sponsored by the National Mobility Awareness Program. The contest allows people with disabilities, caregivers, or a person in need of a wheelchair accessible vehicle the opportunity to submit an online application to be selected as an entrant for a chance to win such a vehicle.

“It would make things a lot easier for us,” Christmas said. “While Brayden is non-verbal, he is very sociable and we could get out more.”

Christmas said Brayden attends the special education preschool held at Windham High School, and enjoys going to the International Family Church in North Reading, Mass., where his father is a youth pastor. Brayden also has a 3-year-old sister.

“This van would be such a huge blessing to our family and our backs,” Christmas said. “Trips to the store or out for a quick errand won’t have to take quite as long or be so physically demanding.”

Christmas said there are several hundred people competing on the site and that some of the stories are “just heartbreaking.”

Contestants in the top 5 percent will go before a board and three winners will be chosen.

Anyone can take less than a minute to vote on the National Mobility Awareness website at http://www.mobilityawarenessmonth.com/entrant/brayden-christmas-windham-nh/.

And, they can vote once every 24 hours per IP address beginning at 12 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, through May 10.