Mother, son teach students about Guilds’ School mission

Jenna Alfrey describes cells in the body as Legos when she talks to preschool students. She tells them her 22-month-old son Kingston’s Legos may be different colors or size than theirs and, as a result, it is more difficult for him to perform tasks like walking, talking or eating.

Kingston has Down syndrome. He attends the Spokane Guilds’ School and Neuromuscular Center and is one of its 2016-2017 poster children. The Guilds’ School provides speech, physical and occupational therapy and special education to children from newborns to 3-year-olds with developmental disabilities and delays, regardless of the family’s ability to pay.

The Guilds’ School will hold its 21st annual Kids for Kids Community Day Penny Drive on April 22 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at locations across Spokane County. Schools decide when they want to hold their penny drive each year, which typically occurs in the spring. Last year, 12 Guilds’ School families visited 75 local schools to share their children’s stories with over 35,000 schoolchildren, according to a Guilds’ School news release.

When Alfrey educates students about Down syndrome and other disabilities, she focuses on language and personal connection.

“The way I talk to a preschooler or elementary school student is different than a high school student,” she said. “The biggest points that I want to drive home are: while Kingston has Down Syndrome, it doesn’t change the fact that he’s a kid just like they are, and letting them know that what they’re doing for the penny drive means so much and is helping kids just like Kingston.”

Students also learn words like friend and play and a song in sign language at Alfrey’s presentations so they can communicate with a nonverbal child.

“They love learning the song that we do in sign language,” she said. “At Wilson Elementary, one of the classes practiced the song and stayed behind in the gym to ask if they could sing the song to Kingston one more time in sign language.”

The two will participate in the April 22 drive at the intersection of Sprague Avenue and Sullivan Road in Spokane Valley. Previously, they met with high school students on the advisory board to “boost their excitement,” Alfrey said.

Lace and Ernesto Tinajero’s son, Ernesto “Tito” Jr., was the Guilds’ School’s poster child before he aged out in 2012. Tito has the genetic disorder neurofibromatosis type 1, which is often marked by learning disabilities and other delays. A tumor has caused a facial deformity resulting in the loss of Tito’s left eye.

When Lace Tinajero visited school assemblies with Tito, she shared information about his condition and engaged students through question and answer sessions, much like Alfrey.

“I always tried to tie the presentation to something tangible the kids could relate to,” Tinajero said. “I tried to bridge the gap and say, ‘He’s just like you,’ and, ‘We all have something about ourselves that we maybe would want to change.’ ”

When Tito began attending the Guilds’ School at around 17 months old, he struggled to walk and dealt with “severe delays,” Tinajero said.

“The Guilds’ School did one-on-one physical therapy, and we had one-on-one occupational therapy,” she said. “Within a few months of being there, he was walking on his own and starting to feed himself, and then they just kept working with him so he learned the ability to coordinate his body to go up and down stairs.”

Tinajero said she and her husband have struggled to find adequate services that matched the Guilds’ School’s quality and Tito fell behind after kindergarten. She is grateful for the ways that the Guilds’ School benefited her son before he entered the public school system.

“I know Tito would be more behind than he is today if he hadn’t gone to the Guilds’ School,” she said.

Alfrey said she hopes that students and community members alike will be able to relate to the stories and struggles of children attending the Guilds’ School.

“Everyone has something they’re dealing with, whether it’s something more physical like cerebral palsy or Down syndrome, or something more emotional like a parent’s divorce,” she said.

For more information on April 22 Penny Drive locations or volunteer opportunities, visit www.guildschool.org.