1/5/2012 The Daily Herald Bensenville-based Kids Equipment Network works with special needs children by providing them with adaptive equipment. The group will host a clinic Jan. 14 to donate some equipment, and the organizers hope it will thin inventory as the group looks for a new home base.
9/16/2011 the Daily Herald Volunteers provide equipment for special needs children The Kids Equipment Network works with special needs children by providing them with adaptive equipment they need to conduct their daily lives. The nonprofit group will host a clinic from 8:30 a.m. to noon Saturday for a handfull of children at Mainfrieght U.S.A., 123 Sievert, Bensenville. For details, visit tken.org. Read the complete article at http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110916/news/709169853/ Kelsey Rozema and TKEN have a great history. See our success stories for more about that. She is in college now and truly excelling as we all knew she would. The tribune did an article about kids with special needs attending college and of course Kelsey was featured. U. of I. students pay the standard $11,000 for room and board, and then about $18,000 for the support services. Costs may be covered through the state's vocational rehabilitation program. Kelsey Rozema said she will rotate between about a half-dozen personal assistants who she scheduled to help with bathroom breaks, showering and getting in and out of bed. The goal is for students to learn independent living skills and transition to more mainstream housing, whether on a higher floor, in a different dorm or to an apartment. For the full story, check out this link. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-08-18/news/ct-met-u-of-i-disability-dorm-20100818_1_dorm-disabilities-students-shower/2  Group Focuses on Kid's Equipment Needs(reprint by permission from Chicago Special Parent Magazine, 7/10/09)How to help The Kids Equipment Network needs gently used equipment, money and volunteers to help fill more families’ needs. Families who need equipment can complete an application at www.tken.org. Getting into a bathtub shouldn’t be a luxury for kids. Neither should getting from point A to point B. But for some families with children with special needs, insurance companies draw a hard line that leaves no room for things that make life easier. Such arbitrary coverage decisions that affect the kids he encounters frustrate Tim Caruso, a physical therapist at Shriners Hospital for Children in Chicago and president of a local charity, The Kids Equipment Network. "There’s a lot of people out there who go without things that we take for granted because they don’t have insurance or funding to pay for specialty items for their child," Caruso says. So he and others put their frustrations to work by creating The Kids Equipment Network. It refurbishes gently used equipment. So far, the group has helped more than 100 kids like 17-year-old Kelsey Rozema, who received a light-weight manual wheelchair. The chair, declined by insurance twice as "duplicate medical equipment," is giving her more freedom to be a normal teenager and also is helping make her stronger and more independent, her mom says. "It was a wonderful, wonderful thing," says Rozema. Caruso, who also works in private practice, says he sees so many unmet needs. "We as a group are in a position to significantly change someone’s life for the better," Caruso says. "It’s about the greater good; it’s about giving someone the ability to be independent in the world that they live."
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