There's Still Time - Sign Up Today
It’s not too late! You can still sign up today for the 1st
Annual Alan Frederick Schien Memorial Golf Tournament taking place on Sunday,
September 3rd. This event honors the life and spirit of Alan Frederick Schien and the
joy he brought to those who knew him.
Sign Up Today
Sign Up Today
If
you would like to sign up for this amazing event, follow the link we have
provided. Sign up by yourself or sign up a whole team. The more support, the
better!
If you can’t make it to the tournament but still want to get
involved, you can make a tax-deductible donation in the memory of Alan Frederick
Schien.
All of the proceeds from the event go to Easterseals
Midwest. The money benefits children and adults with developmental disabilities
and helps them gain access to services they need.
Get to know Alan
Alan Loved the Water
Alan, like most kids loved the water. From the time he
was small he loved his bath time, loved his wading pool on our back
patio. As his disease manifested itself, it seemed loved the water
more. He was always at peace in the water. Maybe he was free from
the bonds of gravity and his hurting body got relief from the daily strains of
gravity. He loved the water so much that we put a tall spa inside our
home so that he could float in the spa under our supervision. We would
put him in a life ring and he would bob on the water surface. Alan liked
balls and like most boys he had many. He had soccer balls, dodge balls
and basketballs. We would put these balls in the spa and he invented a
game of pushing these balls out of the spa, one at a time and always in the
same order. If a ball was missing he would stop his game and wait for us
to notice that one ball was not in the spa. This was not an easy task as
he would have about 12 or 13 balls in the spa with him at one time and it was
not always obvious which ball was missing.
Alan loved to swim at the pool. He would go to the
pool often with his personal care assistant and he would swim for hours without
a care in the world. This continued after we bought a place on the beach
by near St. Pete Beach in Florida. The condo complex had two pools and
was situated right on the beach.
Alan had a beach wheelchair, this was a stainless steel
frame device with big pneumatic tires that would easily float over the sand and
would allow him to float in the ocean. We would push him up and down the
beach and on hot days take frequent opportunities to push the beach wheelchair
into the waves and splash Alan with cooling ocean water. We would push
Alan sometimes for a couple miles up and down the beach. We always met
the nicest people during this time. People would come up to us and say
things like, he sure loves the beach or man is he happy. About once a day
someone would come up to us and tell us a story about a sister, brother,
mother, father, son or daughter with a disability and that they didn’t know
such a device existed to allow people with disabilities to have access to the
beach. We would always tell them where we have rented one before we
bought ours and told them how to buy one. Maybe one of Alan’s gifts on
this earth was to share access on the beach with others.
Swimming at the pool became something we all looked forward
to. Alan at complete peace with the world. Marley or Buffett on the boom
box and the family enjoying the Florida sun. Alan would swim for hours
and would not get out unless it was too cool for him or he was about to fall
asleep. We have many friends at this condo complex and we had many
opportunities to share Alan’s story and they were always amazed at the joy he
gave us.
We started to have a daily routine when on the beach.
We would get up, have breakfast and go out and walk the beach. Then as
the sun came up we would hide under an tent or pool umbrella and have
lunch. After lunch he would go swim in the pool with one “his girls” and
enjoy and hour or so of complete freedom. After the pool he was exhausted
and we would put him down for a nap and then go to dinner at night. Life
was pretty good for this young man and he knew it and appreciated everyday.
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