[Music]

Children do better with children. Little Johnny sees little Mary crawling up a bookshelf. Even though he's told he's never going to be able to crawl, he's going to try to get up that bookshelf. They become stronger in themselves because they see others like them and they know they're not alone.

Normally, these children would be home with a private duty nurse. We need to get them out of the world of adults and into the world of children.

My daughter Frankie had to travel with a private duty nurse. Daycares didn't want a private duty nurse. That's somebody intruding on their classroom. Frankie would say to me, "Friends, Frankie," and there was no place to go. So, we thought there's a better way.

Frankie's World is a medical daycare center. We provide child care for all special needs children. We provide transportation. All of our children get breakfast, lunch, and a snack every day. And there's no charge for any of this for the families. Our children are very well taken care of. We have one nurse for every six children. We have one caregiver for every three.

We feel very strongly about education. Education gave our Frankie the world. Our teacher, Mr. Steve — you haven't lived until you've seen this very tall man and this little tiny instrument.

Frankie's World is meant for preschool children who have daily medical needs. It might be children with diabetes. It might be children who are connected to feeding tubes. Without Frankie's World, these kids wouldn't be able to attend preschool every day.

We keep a pretty tight schedule, making sure that it's repetitive and predictable. Mondays and Tuesdays we do arts and crafts. Wednesdays we do math games. Thursdays we do scissor practice. And then every Friday we do sensory and science.

A lot of our children cannot take the heat. We have children that are allergic to sunlight. And so we have an indoor gym. We have kitchen sets. We have trucks. We have dolls. They come here. They can be kids and they can have friends.

These kids would not be getting the socialization that they're getting. They would not be getting the education that they're getting. Some of these kids are on a tablet when they're at home. It's a huge impact to really be flourishing and to demonstrate that they comprehend all the things — whether it's language or math — that will let them get the right start when they enter K through 12.

I've seen so many kids excel at things nobody thought they would do.

My son has been here for almost a year and he's doing a lot better. We kind of started together. I'm a mom, but I'm also a CNA. Having a child with special needs is not something you would ever anticipate or imagine, but coming to Frankie's World helped a lot because I feel like I can get a lot more done on a daily basis.

When my daughter was at home with a private duty nurse, the nurse wasn't there to educate her. The nurse wasn't there to play with her. The nurse was there to see that her physical needs were met.

Places like Frankie's World are significant and needed because this place lets them have a normal childhood — to have the experiences of falling and climbing and laughing that shape a person. When children see what other children do and see how other children are reacting and behaving, it's their key to see, “I can do that.”

When I think of the future, I think of these kids. All of these kids have the potential to succeed and be assimilated into the middle class. Places like Frankie's World need to be supported on a state level. It really makes a massive difference in these kids' lives. We really do love these kids ’cause once you meet them, how can you not?