Dozer wants to give y'all a big kiss!  WE DID IT!  Thanks and tail wags to everyone who helped us reach our goal.  You're the best.

Gratefully,
The Cowboy Aphasia Camp Team

November 29 is Giving Tuesday and we can boost Cowboy Aphasia Camp over the PhilanthroPete finish line with just a little help. Please share word of the project one final time.  Cowboy Aphasia Camp 2023 will be bright orange and there will be Neurons Firing! because of you! :)

Here's the link to the donation platform:
https://philanthropete.osugiving.com/CowboyAphasiaCamp 

Thank you so very much!

Just a word of thanks from the Cowboy Aphasia Camp Team.  Because of you, we are almost over the goal post for the fundraising project!  We are very grateful for your help!

Feeling so very proud of the Cowboy Aphasia Camp Posse!  We are pleased to announce that at the "halfway" mark our project won the incentive prize which put an extra $500.00 in the piggybank for Cowboy Aphasia Camp!  We are closing in on our goal.  Between now and November 29, every additional donation and word-of-mouth mention for the project will be a tremendous help and benefit OSU's SLP students and campers with aphasia who will attend next year's camp.  We are deeply grateful to everyone who is helping.  You are sponsoring lots of words, smiles, and recovery!

Hello, Friend of Cowboy Aphasia Camp!  We wanted to share a message from Diana, a family member of a lady who regularly attends Cowboy Aphasia Camp.  As a family member, she knows first-hand the challenges of aphasia, and the ways an aphasia camp makes a difference.

Diana writes:  Do you enjoy conversations with family members and close friends, free to express some of your deepest thoughts? Now imagine living for 23 years without that ease of expression, the comfort of interacting with friends, the necessity of communicating with strangers.  My sister Judy had a stroke 23 years ago and emerged from a weeks-long coma to her new reality - a language disorder called aphasia.   A retired teacher with a master’s degree in education, she could no longer speak, read or write easily.  Her friends dropped away, unsure how to communicate with her, and she struggled with the embarrassment of not being able to do what she used to do with ease. 

Fast forward to recent years:  Cowboy Aphasia Camp, a one-week day camp held at OSU-Tulsa, gave my sister a much-needed social outlet and language support opportunities.  At camp my sister spends the week with others who struggle with aphasia and a support team of graduate students in the OSU speech language graduate program.  The team implements a variety of therapies and activities to strengthen the campers’ communication skills in a supportive and non-threatening environment.  It’s a time to work, have fun, improve communication and relax mentally with a group of people who know what you’ve gone through and are still experiencing.   

This summer she got to do something I never would have guessed for her.  At Climb Tulsa, using a handlebar-style “ascender”, she ratcheted herself up about 30 feet.  Two of her grown children got to watch her do something very physical, and they were so proud of her.  In my mind, that sense of accomplishment is one of the best outcomes of Cowboy Aphasia Camp!

Thank you so much for supporting camp. Could you share Judy's story with others to help spread the word about Cowboy Aphasia Camp?  Your message could be just what it takes to push us over the top in our fundraising efforts so Judy and other campers can keep #RockingAphasia.

Thank you so much.
The Cowboy Aphasia Camp Team
p.s.  We are neck and neck with the OSU Cheerleaders for total number of donors so far.  Incentive prizes are awarded on November 11!

So excited to announce that at the end of Week 1, our project is on the Leader Board for having the most donors.  Thank you! to all who have donated and shared word of the project.  Can you help us keep up this pace so that we can win one of the incentive prizes on November 11?!  Every donation and word-of-mouth mention of our project counts in this race!