Little Valley Jamboree celebrates 20 years

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Published on Saturday, June 3, 2017

John Drinkwater
The Neepawa Banner

The Little Valley Jamboree is an annual music festival held to raise awareness, support and funds for special needs children in the area and throughout Manitoba. This year, the event celebrates an amazing 20 years, with organizers Rod and Evelyn Lewandoski still at the helm. The festival will take place on June 17 and 18 at the Fair Grounds in Erickson.

Recipients for 2017 are Dawson Richards and Alexis Andreychuk. Dawson from Minnedosa, will be turning four years at the end of June. He has been diagnosed with Autism spectrum disorder, which affects his ability to communicate; causes sensory issues like being sensitive to light and loud noises. He struggles with textures in his food, making his diet and nutrition a great concern.

Alexis Andreychuk, born in April 2012, lives with her parents in Erickson and had speech challenges at an early age. After 2 1/2 years of public and private speech therapy with no progress, Alexis was diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) also known as Verbal Dyspraxia. Apraxia is a motor planning disorder of speech where her brain and mouth work fine, but the connection between the two, when forming the simplest of speech patterns, are lost to her. Recently, she has been receiving treatment from a speech specialist trained in PROMPT therapy in Saskatchewan. The result is Alexis has progressed from four intelligible words to over 25.