The quest to build Leg Up Farm, a proposed comprehensive child therapy center in East Manchester Township, has gained the support of a nationally recognized psychiatrist and several lawmakers.
Dr. Stanley Greenspan of Bethesda, Md., said he will integrate his child development system with Leg Up Farm’s traditional and nontraditional therapies once the facility is built.
The system, called DIR – developmental, individualized and relationship-based – is a series of techniques taught to all who come in contact with a child who has learning difficulties, with the goal of improving all aspects of the child’s life.
“Every opportunity in life is a learning experience,” said Ruby Salazar, a social worker and associate of Greenspan’s who will train Leg Up Farm staff in the techniques.
Greenspan is a Harvard- and Yale-educated child psychiatrist who has written 15 books and is a professor of psychiatry at George Washington University Medical School.
“You have these goals in helping children become engaged, attentive, interactive,” Greenspan said. “The goal is to simultaneously strengthen their problem areas . . . and at the same time master . . . problem-solving interaction.”
Proposed facility: Leg Up Farm would be a 77,000 square-foot facility offering such traditional physical, speech and occupational therapies, as well as nontraditional therapies, including hippotherapy (horseback riding), aquatherapy, massage and sensory play.
Lou Castriota, Jr., Leg Up Farm’s board chairman, is enthusiastic about the projected union with Greenspan.
“It’s tremendous that somebody of his caliber sees so much potential in Leg Up Farm,” Castriota said. “From a medical standpoint, I think it’ll really help people feel confident with the credibility of the facility and what benefits it will have to the children.”
In addition, Castriota has convinced numerous state senators and representatives of Leg Up Farm’s importance. They have in turn sent letters to Gov. Ed Rendell, who Castriota hopes will release $4.56 million in capital redevelopment assistance funds for the project.
Lawmakers on board: Castriota said Greenspan became aware of Leg Up Farm through Salazar, who knows board member Margaret Gryczko-Bogovic.
Although Leg Up Farm has not been build yet, Greenspan, Salazar and associate Serena Wieder, a psychologist, have started their work.
In an Aug. 18 letter to Rendell, the three explained the DIR model, stating that marrying it with Leg Up Farm “will not only enhance its children, but offer a replication model and research center for Pennsylvania’s children and families.”
Several months before that letter, local legislators wrote to Rendell.
“We wholeheartedly support funding of the Leg Up Farm and urge you to give it every possible consideration,” reads a May 8 letter signed by Reps. Stan Saylor, Keith Gillespie, Stephen Stetler, Bruce Smith, Ronald Miller, Bev Mackereth and Steven Nickol.
State Sens. Gibson Armstrong, Harold Mowery, Jeffrey Piccola, Terry Punt and Mike Waugh sent an equally supportive letter.
U.S. Rep. Todd Platts, R-York County, asked in an April 11 letter to Rep. Ralph Regula, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, that the committee set aside $1 million for Leg Up Farm.
“Leg Up Farm will improve the quality of life, provide an opportunity for community involvement and integration, and create a new ‘best practices’ model for children’s therapy,” wrote Platts.
Through fundraising, Leg Up Farm plans to match the amount released by Rendell, to reach the start-up goal of slightly more than $9 million, Castriota said.
Minimizing stress: Castriota began work on the project more than five years ago, inspired by his 7 year-old daughter, Brooke, who has been diagnosed with mitochondrial disease, a disease similar to cerebral palsy.
Castriota developed the idea for Leg Up Farm after he began seeking various therapies for Brooke and realized it would be less stressful on patients and their families if multiple therapies were consolidated in one location.
In 2001, Barbara Warren offered a portion of her 200-acre property on North Sherman Street Extended as a home for Leg Up Farm.
In March, the East Manchester Township Zoning Hearing Board approved a special exception to the township zoning ordinance, allowing Leg Up Farm to be built on 15 acres at 4248 N. Sherman St. Ext.
Castriota is hoping the land development plan will be ready for East Manchester Township and York County Planning Commission officials to examine by the end of the month.
By TED CZECH,
The York Dispatch/Sunday News