When the Franco family first heard about Team IMPACT in 2017, they had little idea what to expect from the program. Little did they know, seven years later, Team IMPACT and the Framingham State softball team would be a consistent and permanent feature in the lives of their daughter\u2014and their entire family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lindsey was born in June of 2004. In the first months of her life, Lindsey’s parents, Sue and Dave, noticed Lindsey was hitting developmental milestones later than other infants her age. Not by much, just a few weeks or months, but still later than doctors would expect. This led to a diagnosis of Williams Syndrome at eight months old. Williams Syndrome is a genetic condition cause by a microdeletion on chromosome 7, which causes multisystem disorders. Lindsey was also diagnosed with a heart condition called supravalvular aortic stenosis. \u201cShe was a typical kid, but everything was just a bit harder for her, from reading to learning to walk to speaking,\u201d Sue said. Many people with Williams Syndrome thrive verbally and socially, but the additional diagnoses and conditions that often come with Williams Syndrome cause many people with Williams Syndrome to tire easily and experience global developmental delays. \u201cOne of the deletions of Williams Syndrome includes elastin, so she\u2019s missing the elastin gene essentially,\u201d Sue said, \u201cwhich is what makes our arteries and veins stretchy, and that is what leads to her heart problems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After receiving her diagnosis, Lindsey was immediately set up with special education services, early intervention, and occupational, physical, and speech therapies, which Sue said \u201ccontinued throughout all of her years at school and gave her that extra support to do all the things she needed to learn to do to be happy and productive.\u201d The Francos have always been a sports family, which meant Lindsey \u201cgot dragged to all her brother James’ sporting events,\u201d Sue said. \u201cShe\u2019s just like any other kid, she just has some extra stuff to deal with,\u201d Sue recalled of Lindsey\u2019s childhood. Lindsey wasn\u2019t always able to participate in team sports the way her brother and her peers could, but she was still a very active and very social child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Lindsey entered her teenage years, Sue saw a post about Team IMPACT in a Williams Syndrome Facebook group and connected with another mom whose child had just been matched in the program. \u201cWhat I liked about Team IMPACT is that Lindsey was getting to the age where things were just harder,\u201d Sue said. \u201cWhen she was younger, she could stay more on track with typical kids, but the gaps in her abilities\u2014physical, social, academic\u2014kind of widened as she aged. We looked at this as you get the chance to be a part of a sports team, a whole group of friends when that wasn\u2019t as possible for her as she got into middle school and was getting older. Those opportunities often start to drop off as kids age, so that\u2019s what drew me to Team IMPACT. These people are going to get to know her and try to understand her and what she’s going through and what she deals with and be there to support her.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A few months later, Lindsey was matched with the Framingham State softball team. \u201cThat\u2019s why Team IMPACT is important,\u201d <\/strong>Sue said. \u201cIt provides that extra level of social interaction she so needs and really seeks out like we all do. Everyone needs social connection. Team IMPACT was just an extra piece in the puzzle to help her get that.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Though Lindsey was a typically outgoing child, it often took her a bit of time to warm up to new friends. But that was not the case with the FSU softball team. \u201cWhen I told her about this, she was beyond excited. She loved the concept of Team IMPACT and the idea of having all these new friends and getting to be part of the team,\u201d Sue said, remembering her family\u2019s first visit with the team: a pre-season meeting on campus that concluded with a team dinner at the dining hall. \u201cShe was a little nervous about meeting the team, then once she did, that was it. She was hooked<\/strong>.\u201d Soon enough, it was time for Lindsey\u2019s Signing Day, a day that was attended by local media and made Lindsey feel like a real VIP. \u201cIt was all so exciting,\u201d Sue said. \u201cLindsey was just so happy to be there and to be a part of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n