To Mr. Ollie Jones, I am writing you in regards to the chair you made for my 8-year-old son that has cerebral palsy. Jacob received his chair months again and I have absolutely seen a difference in his positioning and flexibility in his legs. Jacob will tolerate sitting in the chair for about 1-2 hours without any problems.
The “Ollie Chair”, as I call it has been such a positive asset to Jacob’s progress. His strength in his trunk has increased tremendously, the stretching he gets from the chair does not allow Jacob to scissor his legs as much, and he now takes more steps.
I feel that since Ollie has a child with special needs, he really understands what we as parents need for our children. I was one of the first to receive this chair and I would not hesitate to try any equipment Mr. Jones would make for children like my son Jacob. Jacob and my family are very grateful to you for your time, patience and consideration to needs of our special children.
On behalf of all the parents and children, you have helped with this chair….
Thank you,
Jasha Liberati (Parent of Arc Potentials Charter School Student)
My name is Tracy Jones. I am the mother of Janae and wife of Ollie. What parent doesn’t want their children to be happy, safe, and have every opportunity in the world? This is no different for a parent of a child with special needs. However, the ability to make this happen for them can be a difficult road.
As Janae’s parents, we can tell you firsthand that a child with special needs comes with special joy. Moreover, just like other children, her normal instinct is to play and interact with others and exert independence and curiosity in her environment. Janae Designs was created out of Ollie’s love and concern for our daughter and other children that struggle with physical disabilities. His desire is to help remove the obstacles that prevent all children from fully experiencing all the world has to offer.
All the products have been designed for and tested by our own daughter. Last year, Janae had her second hip surgery to remove the plates/screws from her first hip procedure. Knowing the challenges of Janae’s recovery from hip surgery and keeping her legs extended and immobilized, Ollie designed the Legster. This allowed us to use her regular child-sized wheelchair instead of the uncomfortable adult wheelchair stuffed with pillows we had used the first time. Janae enjoys watching her favorite shows while sitting in The Wedgster, which we use to maintain the stretch from the tendon lengthening procedures performed on her abductors and hamstrings. The Walkster has helped her regain and surpass the strength she lost from the surgeries and although treadmill time is very effective exercise, she loves to explore the kitchen and outdoors.
Sincerely,
Tracy Jones (Parent of Arc Potentials Charter School Student)
My name is Sharon Williams and I have a 10-year-old son name Chance who has Cerebral Palsy. Due to his extreme disabilities, he is unable to stand or fully extend his legs. Stretching is a very important part of his treatment. Through his school Potentials, I was introduced to an adaptive chair that was developed by Ollie Jones of Janae Designs LLC.
The chair was carefully adjusted to the needs of my son and we were able to choose the colors used.
The chair is designed to provide gentle but constant stretching of his legs and can be adjusted depending upon his tightness. The chair has been designed for room to grow and comes with a desk. This allows Chance to play with his toys whilst sitting in the chair and distracts him from the fact that he is receiving therapy.
I highly recommend this therapeutic chair. I believe that because the designer is himself a parent of a child with special needs that it allows him greater insight into the needs and concerns of parents when choosing equipment.
Sharon (Parent of Arc Potentials Charter School Student)
Hello, my name is Erikka Engram and I would like to take a moment to thank Mr. Jones and Janae Designs for their help and much appreciated support. I have a 4-year-old son named Bryce who has CP (cerebral palsy). It has been a struggle from the beginning whether it be medications not covered by insurance, doctors not in the area, and even finding affordable equipment for positioning Bryce at home. It may be hard and tough sometimes but we have never let it discourage us or stop us from loving him any different!
Just so happened I came across a brochure regarding Janae Designs and what the company is all about...eager to speak to Mr. Jones I called, He was as pleasant and helpful as could be. I wanted to set up a meeting to discuss possibly setting up a payment plan, but Mr. Jones was just as eager as I to allow Bryce to use the Wedgster, which helps with the strengthening of Bryce's legs. He offered to loan us the equipment until we were able to afford our own, not only was I in disbelief of his generosity but also to see its still caring, giving and overall awesome people out there in the world!!
My family and I are beyond blessed, grateful, and thankful to receive such a simple gesture that means so much to us. Thank you Mr. Jones and Janae Designs for your helping hand and continued support to our family.
God bless,
Erikka Engram (Parent of Arc Potentials Charter School Student)
We purchased two Wedgsters in May and they have been a blessing for Jaelen and family. Jaelen is epileptic and suffers from severe Grand Mal seizures doctor have yet to gain control of. When Jaelen has these seizures, we have difficulties finding a safe location in the house for him. Sometimes the seizures are so violent; it’s hard holding him to prevent him from hurting himself.
When we would place him in the bed, he would eventually fall off. We tried placing him on the floor and he would hit his head on the floor or anything else around. Last, we tried making a papoose out of blankets and he would eventually come out. The only thing that has worked thus far is the Wedgster. When he’s about to have a seizure, we place him in the Wedgster, strap him down with the various straps, and he can’t move therefore he can’t injure himself anymore. The Wedgster is such a blessing for us; we have two, one for home and one for Grandma and Grandpa’s house!
Shauna Fennell (Parent of Arc Potentials Charter School Student)
My 11-year son Domenick is profoundly developmentally delayed, seizure disorder and cortically blind. He is a very flexible little guy who loves to sit and sleep cross legged. I have to stretch him daily because his hamstrings have become very tight. He is not happy at all with that and becomes very fussy.
We were fortunate enough to be able to try out the Wedgster at Potentials School. Domenick seemed to enjoy it. So, he has had his own for about six weeks. I put Domenick in the Wedgster with his knee immobilizers daily. He plays with his toys on the tray that comes with the Wedgster and doesn't even realize he is being stretched.
Now I don't feel like I’m torturing him, even his Physical Therapist has noticed a difference in his tightness. We are all so happy with the Wedgster.
Sincerely,
Debby Veglia (Parent of Arc Potentials Charter School Student)
.jpg)
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing the Jones family for more than five years, and they are a wonderful, loving family. It was this same love that inspired Ollie to create various therapeutic pieces for Janae, and then for other children and their families. I was looking for a chair-tray combination for my daughter, Faith. I had thought of this more than a year ago but did not pursue it because I thought I could keep using her toddler booster seat and also because I thought the cost of a special chair would be prohibitive.
Well, Faith grew too big for the booster chair, and she also started rocking hard and once, actually tipped herself over. After that, we decided to let her go “free” to watch TV, but she would stand just an inch away from the screen, and that became her favorite position for TV.
We started looking at special needs chairs online, but did not find the “perfect” chair at the perfect price. This was when Ollie came into the picture. I contacted him with my ideas (for example, we needed straps and belts for the little Houdini, a comfortable back as well as a foot rest), he worked it all out in his engineer’s head and, together with his understanding and care of the special needs population, came up with the Chairster.
Faith has been using it since then, and I am very happy that she has her special chair. She is happy, comfortable and safe, and as a mom, I couldn’t ask for more.
Yours sincerely,
Jackie Wong
(Parent of Arc Potentials Charter School Student)
Dear Ollie,
We love your Wedgster! Thank you so much for choosing Jory as one of the children to receive a Wedgster as a result of your Janae Classic Golf Fundraiser. We are so blessed to have an amazing piece of equipment that otherwise we would be unable to afford.
Our Jory is such a happy little boy who loves to be social and interact with everyone, but his body just doesn’t cooperate. His hamstrings and adductors were so tight that his feet often simply didn’t even touch the ground in his gait trainer and his legs scissor. This made it completely impossible for him to independently move himself. Additionally, his left hip subluxes often and this tendency is only lessened through stretching. I would have to lay him on the floor and spend time each night struggling to keep him content through an unpleasant stretch.
Now, we have the Wedgster! He gets home from school and gets a “break” to sit in his Wedgster and watch one of his favorite shows on TV. The great thing is that he now sees stretching as a reward! What a change!
Thanks again for helping Jory improve his quality of life and hopefully even avoid future hip surgery.
Sincerely,
Janell Coble (Parent of Arc Potentials Charter School Student)
Dear Ollie,
On behalf of the parents whose children attend Potentials School, I want to tell you how grateful we are to you for your very generous donation of the Wedgster. We truly recognize both the value and the quality of such a remarkable product. I know how much your equipment helps our kids.
Potentials Charter School is one of the few outstanding schools in the United States offering a superior intensive therapy program for children with special needs. Our therapists are among the best in the country, and they require the equipment to be first rate. We are so very fortunate to have your extraordinary products to use as tools to help ensure that our kids substantially increase their range of motion and achieve their therapy goals. What you have created is absolutely fantastic for their growing bodies.
Attached is a picture of our new Wedgster with two of our very happy and grateful therapists. We can't wait for the children to try the new one out! Thank you again for your significant contribution. It is an incredible gesture.
With many thanks,
Suzy Sullivan (Arc Potentials Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) President)
I’m a pediatric physical therapist. I work in a school setting where we have access to positioning equipment along with teachers and paraprofessionals who are able to position students daily. In spite of this supportive setting, hamstring elongation was always a challenge. Over the years we have experimented with different positioning options. Usually we would end up modifying what we had by using multiple wedges, positioning straps, bolsters, etc. It was difficult to create a strategy that could be easily and consistently reproduced on a day to day basis for effective stretching.
Then a therapist from The Potentials ARC in Palm Beach connected us with Ollie Jones and a grant project for providing Wedgsters to children. We entered one of our students in the grant competition and were delighted when he was chosen to receive a free Wedgster. We started by using the Wedgster at school. Our student tolerated the positioning well. The paraprofessionals found it more easily reproducible and functional with school activities than our previous strategies. The Wedgster worked so well for our student that we ordered two for the classroom, one for this student and one for another student. I recently moved our grant winner’s Wedgster to his home. His family is happy to see that he now has a comfortable and appropriate seating device that not only gives him functional seating at home, but also addresses hamstring elongation.
We are happy to have our Wedgsters and are grateful to Ollie Jones for having the vision and dedication to make it possible for our students.
Sincerely,
Jean Blank, PT (Martin County, FL Schools)
My Testimonial:
I started working in a classroom with a child I will call Miggy. He cried daily and it was tears of pain. Tylenol helped a little but not enough to stop the pain. I would have to hold him and rock him frequently. One day a gentleman named Ollie came into our special daycare and showed us the "Wedgster" which he invented and built and went as far as loaning us one. I immediately thought of Miggy and how it would benefit him. His legs were always curled up in the fetal like position and I knew it caused him a lot of pain and discomfort not only in his legs but up in his stomach also.
After three days of using the Wedgster, Miggy started showing signs of improvement and after a full 2 weeks of use the crying stopped completely. We decided to purchase the Wedgster as it was well worth the happiness it has created not for just one child but many. Miggy has not cried out in over a month now and I continue to use it with him a couple of hours in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. It stretches his legs out to where he is comfortable and when I take him out of it he kicks his legs around like I have never seen him do before. His bowel movements have improved because he is no longer all balled up. I did go as far as not using the Wedgster for 3 days and Miggy started becoming tight again and not quite crying but you could tell he was uncomfortable. I immediately started using it again and have not missed a day since.
Today Miggy is happy everyday and it brings tears of joy to my eyes and my heart to see a child that has been through so much have a little piece of happiness in his life. Ollie I cannot thank you enough for bringing this piece of equipment, as others would call it, into Miggy's life. I like to call the Wedgster the chair of happiness and hope.
Thank You,
Kelly Pollino, LPN KP (PSAhealthcare.com / PPEC Pediatrics Physician Extended Care)
Hi Ollie,
I was asked by Alex to give you height and weight on Miggy (Miguens Blanchard) he is 35.8” tall and weighs 30#. I did watch the Spirit of Hope, and it was beautiful piece. My heart swelled with pride, knowing I know the “Jones” and their compelling story.
We have been using the Wedgster 5x/week with Miggy (Miguens Blanchard), and have noticed he is at his best. He actually can fall asleep in it. We now have obtained knee immobilizers for him and the Wedgster works even better. I noticed Miggy tolerates handling better, he vocalizing more and when we place him on the mat he likes extending his hips/knees purposefully. God works in mysterious ways, it’s a beautiful domino effect of blessings, and this Wedgster seems to be passing on blessings of all times for involved special needs children and their caregivers and therapists.
I certainly feel blessed…I’m definitely a domino knocked down by a blessing that keeps on giving.
Thank You,
Julissa Abreu, PT (PSAhealthcare.com / PPEC Pediatrics Physician Extended Care)
Testimonial
Hello, My name is Courtney Kroll and my daughter, Kelcie, was blessed with a donated Wedgster in December 2011. Broward Children's Center won the Wedgster and they thought Kelcie was the best fit for the chair. They were right. She absolutely loves the Wedgster. She is able to complete her homework, play games, read, and engage in many other activities while sitting in it.
Furthermore, the Wedgster is a great stretch for her hamstrings as they tend to be tight due to her Spastic Quadraparesis. After sitting in her wheelchair for a while with her knees bent, the Wedgster is great for keeping her legs straight. Her legs also tend to scissor when she walks so the Wedgster provides a nice stretch to help prevent the scissoring. Overall, we couldn't be happier with the Wedgster and we are so glad we were chosen to own one of our own.
Thanks again, Ollie!
Sincerely,
Courtney Kroll
