Gabe says, “Get me home!”

Hey. The Madd Fajita is jonesing for some East Coast vibes. Time to get the fella home soon. The wicked ill MAIETTA Bike Raffle ends December 15, so you have 11 days to send a check made out to the GABE ALLEN FUND (mail to: Summer Allen, c/o Winterport Boot Shop, ATTN MAIETTA RAFFLE, 264 State Street, Brewer, MAINE 04412) OR pick up a ticket from one of the bike shop closest to you:

• Continuum Cycles – New York, NY
• Bike Works – New York, NY
• Rose Bicycle – Orono, Maine
• Pat’s Bike Shop – Brewer, Maine
• Winterport Boot Shop – Brewer, Maine
• Paradigm Cycles – San Anselmo, CA
• Sunshine Bicycle – Fairfax, CA
• West Marin Pharmacy – Point Reyes, CA
• Box Dog Bikes – San Francisco, CA
• Mike’s Bikes – San Francisco, CA
• Community Bike – Boston, MA
• Back Bay Bicycles – Boston, MA

So the question is, where exactly is Gabe going and when is he going? After extensive research and trips to several of acute rehab hospitals, we whittled it down from 12 to 6 to 4 to 3 to 2 to 1. Nothing in stone yet, but our first choice is in Boston. It’s almost a sure thing Gabe’ll get there, but wise is the saying, Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. And that’s all you get until we’re safely there and settled in. But here’s a fun fact! Did you know Gabe’s favorite animal is a chicken? Yes, it’s true.

And as to when we leave, that’s a gooooood question. Gabe is making fan-tabulous progress, but he’s not ready for aggressive, accelerated therapy sessions just yet. He’s maxxing out at 2-3 planned therapy hours a day, and needs to be enduring 3-6 before he moves on to acute rehab. To be honest, there’s no doubt he gets 6 hours a day because Donna and I work a lot with him. We’re reading, holding pencils and crayons to practice writing (he’s good at Xs), shooting hoops with beanbags, playing dominos, fitting pegs into a pegboard, boppin’ a balloon back and forth, doing oral motor and sentence completion exercises to gear up the tongue and mouth muscles for speech, helping with grooming and getting dressed…whatever he needs we’re there and asking him to play an active role by participating. He obliges willingly. Every activity contributes to greater dexterity and strength, and lengthens his attention span. Because he’s constantly changing, so is the forecast on how much longer we’re here. G’s evaluated by his medical and rehab team and they recalculate the number of weeks remaining on his length of stay before he’s ready for acute rehab.

Hope this throws a lil light on why we’re still in California. And hey! Go get your MAIETTA ticket! 100% funds go to his +$20K med flight back East!

-Kierie