Ryver Richards,an adorable almost 3-year-old from Dublin and his family are partnering with the Stephenville Area Elks Lodge in August for a fundraiser to assist with medical bills, physical therapy and a seizure alert dog.
His mom and dad Casie and Dale Richards will have a helping hand in life with Circe, a mobility and medical alert canine being trained with PQK9 Balanced Training in Stephenville.
Ryver has hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) as the result of a complicated delivery at birth. As a result of HIE, Ryver has cerebral palsy, epilepsy and dystonia.
Ryver and his family have many doctor appointments including physical and occupational therapy appointments.
The upcoming fundraiser will help with ongoing medical expenses including a trip to North Carolina to participate in an intense physical therapy camp that will help with Ryver’s core strength in order to help him sit up more in the future.
Finances will also help with the continuing training of Circe since the dog undergoes training for about two and a half years.
After Ryver had a 15 minute seizure around Easter this year while he was laying in bed, the Richards knew they needed extra help in regard to the epilepsy, so that in part is why Circe is in their life. The dog is also a mobility animal, and she is being trained to assist with daily tasks such as turning on a light switch or picking things up that Ryver drops.
“He so young, we don’t know what more is to come,” she said.
With a seizure alert animal, they utilize a pheromone to know when someone is about to go into a seizure.
As Ryver gets older, if he continues to have epileptic seizures, Circe will be able to alert him to get to a safe space before undergoing a seizure.
Ryver, like most youngsters, is enjoying his summer in the water, since he is the “biggest water baby ever,” his mom said.
He loves riding in the golf cart, playing with the dogs out back and spends lots of time stacking building blocks.
As far as Circe and Ryver are concerned, Casie sees a budding friendship in the future between the duo.
“He loved her and was petting all over her the whole time,” she said about their first meeting.
The barbecue dinner fundraiser will be $20 a plate and includes brisket accompanied by potato salad, beans, salad, bread, dessert and tea.
The dinner will be held at 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 5 at First Methodist Church in Dublin, located at 630 Highland.
For those not wanting to wait until August to help out the family, Casie asked for prayers.
“Prayers are the biggest thing, with regards to the epilepsy especially,” she said. Professionally, Casie operates an ice machine company in Granbury and Stephenville and Dale works for Erath County, and was a volunteer firefighter for Erath County for 12 years and just recently retired from Harbin Volunteer Fire Department.