From Kay McGuire, MOVE International Trainer and physical therapist, Sedalia, Colorado:

When I first heard about MOVE from a workshop Linda Bidabe conducted in Colorado (1995), I could think of nothing else but the obstacles that seemed insurmountable for my situation as an itinerant, functional consultant for a district covering 800 square miles, and (at that time) about 30 schools. (Grown to over 50 schools now!) After working with the school system for over 10 years, and being frustrated with what I KNEW we wanted to do for students with significant involvements, but up to that time, had no guidelines, book, recording method, etc, etc. I was driven to make MOVE work! I honestly think that is the first key: passion!

As functional, itinerant consultants in the school system, we preach teaching students, not treating kids. This gets expanded by the fact that our environments are fully integrated to the best extent possible so we become "teachers" to everyone. MOVE gave us a CURRICULUM with which to TEACH!!! Perfecto, huh? I believe that is the second key: teach, teach, teach without stopping.

I began "teaching" from the top (where the money begins!!!) by going to administration with a proposal of how they could SAVE money with a small initial investment of time and money. Initially, I asked for $23,000 but said I could be happy with $7,000 and they were thrilled! My team and I had already agreed upon a small number of targeted students, schools and their teams. Naturally, we picked the cream of the crop with regard to our teams at the various schools. Our first success was a 17 year old who had never walked or talked. About 20 months later, his mother was filming him through a flood of tears as he was walking with assist back to his wheelchair as he was saying, "I don't want chair, I don't like chair!!!"

We thought our passion and enthusiasm couldn't get much higher, but now I can see that it was only sparked to continue over the years with many such repeated successes. Those successes perpetuate the program year after year, obstacle after obstacle.

We underemphasized the equipment at first and prioritized getting teams to "own" a curriculum and taught them how to use it. We used what we called "quilt belts" that Linda has demonstrated at the CO workshop to prompt our students in regular classroom chairs. It was the single most beneficial "piece of equipment" and our PTA made them for pennies for all our students who needed support in a chair.

I also wrote grants, solicited donations and volunteered my time to teach within our biggest district so we could continue our dream of every team being trained and every student who needed equipment, having it (both at home and at school).

From Gerald (Jerry) Goebel, MOVE International Trainer and physical therapist in Indianapolis, Indiana:

I am a PT in Indianapolis at RISE Learning Center which is a MOVE model site.

The cost of getting the program started is one of the questions that surfaces almost everywhere I go. At RISE, we started MOVE about 5 years ago with a single Rifton gait trainer and a MOVE Curriculum text. Three things became immediately obvious: 1) our therapists and staff were excited about the MOVE approach for educating our students as it focused on functional outcomes and gave us a system for collaborative teaching of motor skills, 2) we needed training, which we received as basic providers in 1998 and 3) the school corporation was not going to fund us adequately for the long term. We did get about $10,000 worth of Rifton equipment when our administration was convinced MOVE was the way to go. Behond that, we started writing grant proposals. At this time, we have successfully procured almost $100,000 worth of equipment for the program through grants. I have found that MOVE is something very straight forward to present and think I have been able to write grant proposals that make foundations sympathetic to our cause.

A benefit that I have found in getting equipment through grants is that the school really does not "own" the equipment, so we are free to send it home on weekends, extended holidays and summer break where our students can continue practicing their skills.