Fund Raising For Travis

Hello! We are Travis’ parents, Laura and Jeff, and have set up this web page in response to family and friends who have been so loving and generous in wanting to help us on this journey. We appreciate all the love and support you give us, and your well wishes are a most valuable resource for all of us!



Travis is a beautiful, sweet boy with an adorable laugh and twinkle in his eye. After developing normally for the first year of his life, Travis stopped babbling around 12 months and became delayed in other areas of development. At 18 months, he was diagnosed with autism. Autism is a developmental disability resulting in challenges in language, communication, cognition, and social interaction. While there are many things that are still challenging and frustrating for Travis, he also gets a lot of joy out of life. He loves to climb and play outside, run around with his big sister Julia (5 yrs old), and play in his "Son-Rise" playroom with family, volunteers, and therapists. At 4 yrs old, he has progressed over the last 2 years from communicating with signs and sounds to speaking in multiple word sentences, and developing much more interaction with others.



Travis’ parents are helping Travis overcome his autism with a home-based, child-centered Son-Rise Program® in combination with biomedical interventions and other therapeutic options. The Son-Rise Program® has helped thousands of children move towards recovery, using an optimistic, loving approach that is based on the belief that all children have a limitless potential for extraordinary healing and growth. Funds raised initially were used to help Travis’ parents attend the Son-Rise Program® Start Up, a five-day group training course at the Autism Treatment Center of America™ in Sheffield, Massachusetts, in September of 2008. Additional funds were used for Laura to attend the advanced Son-Rise training programs Maximum Impact (in March 2009) and New Frontiers (November 2009), as well as to support his enrollment in other therapeutic settings such as the Bridges Program at Texas Children’s Hospital, where he received Floortime, speech, and occupational therapy for a year and a half. Current donations are being used towards continuing private therapy with his former Bridges therapists following the closing of the Bridges program in September 2010 due to budget cuts . To find out more about The Son-Rise Program® visit the website: www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/.



To send a donation for Travis, you can send a check to our address below, or click the "Donate" button on the right to donate with a credit card using PayPal. Please note that this donation will not be tax deductible since we are not a non-profit organization, as the funds raised will help one particular individual. Any amount is most appreciated and helpful, but nothing is as valuable as all your positive thoughts and prayers! We are amazed at the generous outflow of kindness that has already come our way in response to starting this journey. Everyone seems to know someone who is willing to share their story, experience, advice, or information about a new therapy, dietary intervention, educational program, etc. This support has been so very helpful by both providing us information and also letting us know that we’re not doing this alone. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!!!



- Laura Licato and Jeff Meier



Travis Meier

4607 Rainbow Valley Ct, Missouri City, TX 77459



For more information, email: travismeier@sbcglobal.net

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Sept update

Hope everyone is having a great start to the school year!

Ours was short-lived as we were all home with the flu this week. Julia hasn't actually had a full week of school yet! But hopefully all will be back to normal next week. Travis has a new doctor (autism specialist) to help with the biomedical/dietary interventions and it was nice to hear that she felt we were on the right track, given that it's been a year now that we've been working on his diet and supplementation. He also started some listening therapy which he does at his therapy program/school and also at home, twice a day for 20 minutes. Now that he's used to wearing the headphones (they are very bulky and cumbersome) he's getting much better at listening.

We also had an amazing offer from some friends who have a horse ranch in Arkansas. Travis is currently on a waiting list for horse therapy (maybe you've seen or read "The Horse Boy"?) and they are starting a hippotherapy (horse therapy) program for autistic kids on their ranch and offered to sponsor us to come stay there for free! It is just incredible. We are going to take them up on it at the end of May/first week of June next year during one of Travis' breaks from TX Children's. Since we didn't travel at all this summer (partly due to Travis but also since I'm still out of work) it will be really nice to look forward to a nice family vacation next summer!

Hope all of yours was great and you're happy that we're moving into fall...