Community rallies to raise funds for Angelman Syndrome
Richard Newton sits with son, Garrett, at a benefit lunch.
March 7, 2014
Tracy High students are rallying to support math teacher Richard Newton and his family, who are facing a medical crisis.
Newton’s 20-month-old son, Garrett, has been diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome, a neurological disorder that limits most motor functions.
Richard Newton recalls how the family knew something was wrong with Garrett because he was missing major milestones such as sitting up. When Garrett started crawling he would only crawl with half his body. These symptoms are common with cerebral palsy, so they went to a pediatrician and from there the family was directed to a geneticist, where they found out Garrett had Angelman Syndrome.
Garrett will never be able to take care of himself or have true independence.
“One of the hardest parts was having all these hopes and dreams for Garrett’s life and know knowing most of them might never be reached,” Richard Newton said.
Tracy High students have made an Angelman Syndrome Awareness Club (ASA) which helps organize events to raise awareness and funding to find a cure for Angelman Syndrome. Senior Heather Jaeger is the president of the club. So far, the club has helped organize events including selling cupcakes, t-shirts, buttons, and a three-day event a Chili’s.
“Setting up the fund-raising is actually much easier than most think,” Jaeger said. “It is stressful, but because of the respect people have for Mr. Newton everyone works together to help run the events.”
Jaeger respects Richard Newton because of how he has handled the ordeal and he has turned a difficult situation into one that can benefit not only Garrett, but others as well.
“Mr. Newton has shown me when life gets you down, you get back up and do something about it,” Jaeger said.
The Tracy High Food Education and Service Training (FEAST) class has also helped raise money. FEAST put on a benefit lunch which was $8 for students and $10 for adults. They sold 80 to-go lunches and had over 100 people come in to eat. FEAST raised $2,084; all food was made and served by students.
“We put on the lunch because Richard Newton is a part of our community,” Doyle Dixon, FEAST instructor, said.
ASA is planning on doing more fundraisers. They have teamed up with Mary Kay to sell beauty products and all proceeds go to finding a cure when a flyer is presented. The flyer can be found at curegarrett.com.
Kimball High School recently raised $1594.54 for Cure Garrett. The money was raised by holding a change drive. A box for collections was placed in each classroom, change was also collected at both lunches and other campus events.
Kimball Activities Director Matthew Soeth and his Leadership class helped organize this event and said that Nate Perry, Kimball shop teacher, and student Trevor Trew were major supporters of the campaign.
Soeth and his leadership students, Myan Dinh, Terese Le, and Anna Xu, involved presented a check to Newton for the money they raised on March 18.
“I was actually so surprised that I probably teared up a little bit,” Newton said. “We are hoping to take Garrett over to Kimball so everybody can meet him in person.”
When the Newton family realized that something was wrong with Garrett, they had tests done to try and find an answer.
“The first test for Angelman Syndrome came back negative, so an advanced test was taken,” Richard Newton said. “That tests came back positive.”
It was hard for the family to accept that Garrett had Angelman Syndrome after believing that he did not.
According to information on curegarrett.com, Angelman Syndrome is a rare neurogenetic disorder that affects 1 in 15,000 live births. Symptoms include intellectual disability, inability or extremely limited ability to speak, balance, gait, and motor control difficulties which impair walking and most other skills, along with very short attention span.
Angelman Syndrome is caused by either the deletion of, or mutation on, the UBE3A gene on chromosome 15. Every person has a copy of chromosome 15 from each of their parents. That means everyone has a pair of UBE3A genes – a paternal copy from the father and a maternal copy from the mother. With Angelman Syndrome the maternal copy is not present, yet the silent paternal copy is present. The believed cure for Angelman Syndrome lies in activating the silent paternal copy.
“If scientists can activate this gene then it will theoretically completely reverse Angelman Syndrome,” Richard Newton said. “Already scientists have done this with lab mice and have been successful.”
Another fundraiser coming up is the Angelman Syndrome Foundation Walk. It takes place in Sacramento, on May 17. More details will soon be available at curegarrett.com
