KENT COUNTY, Mich. — A Kent County toddler with autism is growing so fast, she's already in size five clothes despite only being three years old. And recently when she fell out of her crib her parents found a special bed to keep her safe, but they couldn't afford it.
A parent should feel safe when they tuck their child into bed at night, but for the Leeuw family this has not been the case for their young daughter. "it all started last August, when Mylah flipped herself out of her crib, and landed directly on her head," said father John Leeuw.
Since that scare John and his wife, Ashely Leeuw, have tried to make modifications to Mylah's bed but, "she's been growing like a weed ever since then," said John.
After doing some research and getting doctor recommendations a solution was found, Mylah needed a 'Cubby Bed'.
"It also has a they call it a hub, which has a sound machine, a light, and a monitor that we can control from our phones," said Ashley.
Feeling hopeful quickly turned to feeling doubtful after the Leeuw family heard back from their insurance company, saying they would not cover the $9,000 bed.
"Basically, unless she got severely hurt already, they probably won't approve it. Or they might approve it if she has a terminal illness as what we were told with and, you know, got through our research on it," said John.
So John and Ashley decided to ask for help.
"We decided to start a GoFundMe and just, you know, put it out on our Facebooks asking friends and family for donations," said John.
But that post caught the eye of more than just family and friends, a member of the 'Free Beer and Hot Wings' radio show came across the post and passed it along to the radio hosts.
"We all talked about it and said, well, maybe there's a way that we can help through our charity idiots for underdogs," said radio show co-host Chris "Hot Wing" Michels.
The show plays daily trivia games choosing a random listener each day, Michels knew this was the perfect opportunity to tell John the news.
“So we reached out to John and said Oh, we just have randomly drew your name. Do you want to play Trivia tomorrow? And so we got him on he played trivia, I played it a legitimate game of trivia, he won. And then after that, we started delving into his story. And he was pretty surprised. And then we sprung the money on him," said Michels.
Money that the Leeuw family greatly appreciated.
“It's just, it's incredible what that whole community does for people. And it's, it's just so good. It's so good,” said John.
“We're unbelievably grateful from the bottom of our hearts that has given us the biggest sigh of relief I think I've ever experienced in my entire life,” said Ashley.
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