therapy center for children that would provide both the stabilization therapy and the horse therapy. We decided to set up a charity, Heavens Special Children, Inc. to work with special needs children in order to help those that could not afford the various therapies that we had been able to provide Mikey. In order to set up the Hippo Therapy Center we would build a barn on our 11-acre property in Newberry Florida, 10 miles west of the University of Florida. We would clear the underbrush in the wooded areas, build fences, run plumbing for water troughs, run electrical lines for lights, etc. As a first step I contacted an attorney that specialized in setting up 501(c)3 charities. After 6 months of back-and-forth communication he sent me the final package that we signed and sent off to the IRS for review. My attorney said that it would take 6 months to a year to get approved so you can imagine how shocked I was when I got a call just 3 weeks later for an interview. A wonderful lady asked me a few questions and concluded our conversation by saying "This is some very important work that you are doing, don't tell anyone but I have already approved your charity".
The approval letter arrived in the mail on Christmas Eve!
Disney's Give a Day, Get a Day
Shortly after that Marlene got a call from the horse therapy center that Mikey had been utilizing and they told us to go on Disney World's website and look up "Give a Day, Get a Day".
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