TWS Hosts Unique Cerebral-Palsy Event

Mike Berkson is charming. Like most young men his age, he seems to have two priorities: women and his career goals, in Mike's case film-making, and is eager to quip and talk about both.

The 22-year-old Glenview resident was not at the Theatre of Western Springs on Thursday night to pick up girls, however, at least not outright. He and his former aide, Tim Wambach, were invited to perform their show "Handicap This" for the students and families of the Center for Independence (CFI).

"Handicap This" details Berkson and Wambach's history together; Berkson, who has cerebral palsy, met Wambach when Wambach became his aide in seventh grade, and since then, the two have become devoted friends.

The program includes a segment called "Taco Hell," in which Wambach and Berkson talk about their first time at Taco Bell together, when Wambach attempted to feed Berkson two hard shell tacos. In order to demonstrate how difficult the experience was, they invite two audience members up to the stage and have one feed the other a taco; the difficult part is that the person eating the taco has no use of her hands.

Their moving but also humorous production seeks to educate its audiences about cerebral palsy, a neurological condition caused by damage to the brain while a child grows in the womb, and encourage people to see beyond the wheelchair that many people with cerebral palsy are bound to. The other main theme is that anyone can achieve his or her own goals and dreams, which was exactly the message Patricia Herbst was hoping to send to the students of the CFI and their families.

Herbst is the director of the non-profit CFI, which she and her husband founded in 1998 in order to provide conductive education (CE), which works at teaching motor skills and independence for children with cerebral palsy. Their son Justin's positive experience with a Canadian CE program prompted them to create the first and only program in Illinois.

Herbst and her son, a 2011 graduate of Southern Illinois University, saw a performance of "Handicap This" in January at Oakton Community College, where Berkson is a student, and decided to bring it to families of CFI on a night reserved just for them and not fundraising.

"We've decided we're going to try to do a couple events a year now so that our families can get to know each other better, the children can get to know each other better and this is our first such event. We're planning on doing at least two a year," according to Herbst. "The objective tonight is to get children and families introduced to adults with disabilities...who are real role models."

Fundraising is a crucial part of the CFI's existence, however. While most families with children at the CFI have insurance, insurance often only funds a limited amount of the physical and occupational therapy children with cerebral palsy require.

"The Center does fundraising for families...because our kids need care all year round, otherwise [insurance may only cover] something like 15 sessions," explained Charlotte Maloney of Clarendon Hills, whose son Ty has been a student at CFI for three and a half years. Maloney explained that cuts in state funding have only created more of a financial challenge for families.

Children and teens with cerebral palsy often attend public schools which receive funding for special education but are limited in what they can provide; CFI seeks to supplement what the state is able to provide, starting from birth.

Stacie and Nick Chakiris of Chicago organized the hors d'oeuvres and drinks for the evening, which began under tents on the lawn of the Western Springs Theater. Their son, Finn, is two and has been attending the zero-to-three program at CFI since January.

They explained that the state's early intervention program ends at age three and from that point Finn is in the hands of the public school system, and because they live in Chicago they don't know yet at which school Finn will be placed. Their long term goal is to move to the suburbs in order to be closer to CFI, something Maloney and her family did themselves. 

At 7:30, p.m. the families of CFI began moving from the cool evening air into the theater, which donated space for the evening's performance.

The mood the entire evening was familial, as though one were at a backyard barbecue, and while the goal that evening was for families to get to know one another better, it also became clear that everyone in attendance had a larger goal: to educate people outside of their organization about cerebral palsy, and disabilities in general, in order to build up their own resources and to better understand the disorder themselves.