Building the Village

Five years ago, FitKids Sports and the KennedyStrong Foundation teamed up with one goal: to make summer camp a place where every child belongs. In this episode, Coach D (Doug Deffenbaugh) sits down with five amazing coaches — Andrew Brissie, Cooper Bookhart, David Boone, Sidney Deffenbaugh, and Jordan White— from the FitKids Sports Inclusive Camp to talk about what happens when inclusion moves fro...

Parenting through the middle school years is a wild ride—and even more so when you’re raising a child with special needs. In this open and deeply honest episode, Vickie Vila shares her family’s journey as her son Nino navigated middle school during COVID, while managing speech delays, behavior challenges, and the impact of puberty. From general ed classrooms to behavior intervention plans, Vickie...

In this heartwarming episode, Betsy sits down with her 10-year-old twins, Jacob and Kennedy, the original inspiration behind Independence Village. Together, they reflect on their experiences at Fit Kids Sports’ Wide World of Sports Camp, a summer program created through a partnership between KennedyStrong Foundation (KSF) and Fit Kids Sports (FKS). Four years ago, Betsy and the team set out to cre...

Starting Kennedy in Elementary school means preparing Kennedy, the family, her teachers, and her classmates.

Today’s episode is personal and powerful. I’m opening up about my very first experience with case workers and developmental evaluations — a moment that became the starting point of our early intervention journey.  What is Early Intervention? Early intervention provides vital support and services for infants and toddlers (birth to age 3) with developmental delays or disabilities. These programs foc...

Experience the awakening a diagnosis can have on your mind and your life.  What if you were given a diagnosis that would change the trajectory of your life and it involved your family as well? In this episode Betsy shares the memory and the emotions that come up when she hears the words Nuchal Fold and how that led to receiving confirmation of Down syndrome. You'll be reminded of the strange words...

Betsy is a happily married, working mother of four kids including a set of twins in which one of them, Kennedy, was born with the gift of an extra chromosome commonly referred to as Down syndrome. Her mission is to educate and empower others to raise awareness about the unique challenges parents face in finding inclusive communities that support their loved ones with special needs. She discusses t...