OUR
STORY

OUR STORY

Founded in 2016, The Shooting Star Foundation is a Christian non-profit organization that provides financial assistance to Minnesota families for the care and development of children with special needs.

OUR MISSION

We are dedicated to helping children with special needs receive
early-interventional therapy that can change their lives.

Shining Success

Throughout 2020, Covid caused delays to The Vollkommer family’s quest to meet Emery’s needs for therapies through their school district. With an unknown timeline, they sought help from SunnyDays Therapy, our partner provider in Albertville. The unplanned financial burden of private therapy, limited assistance from their insurance provider, and a 30 minute drive from their home in Becker all led to the consideration of limiting Emery’s sessions.

Thanks to our generous donors, The Shooting Star Foundation was able to provide a scholarship to enable Emery to not only continue his therapy sessions, but increase them appropriately for his needs during the summer to twice per week! Emery’s therapist has seen amazing strides and expects he will be prepared for school in the fall.

What We Do

We Finance

We provide financial assistance to local families who are unable to afford the consistent therapy needed to better ensure a productive adult life for their child with special needs.

We Partner

We partner with local providers who offer physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and special needs preschool. By awarding annual scholarships, grants or special gifts through these providers, we work to lessen the financial burden on families whose child may require a significant investment above what insurance can cover.

We Focus

We focus on children with special needs from birth to age 6. By enhancing their access to therapy at a critical period in their development, we offer children the best opportunity to enroll in school programs at age 6 and beyond.

We Give Hope

We provide hope to families. The financial and emotional challenges of caring for a child with special needs are significant. By working to ease that burden, we help families look forward to a brighter future for their Shooting Star and everyone in the family.

Why We Do It

The most recent study to tackle these costs found that people affected
by disabilities will spend around $10,000 annually in out of pocket costs for medical services alone.

%

of families say they are very concerned about being able to provide lifetime care for their dependents with special needs.

%

of parents spend more than 40 hours per week with their special needs child, or time equal to a second full-time job.

One is six

or about 15%, of children aged 3 through 17 years have one or more developmental disabilities.

Raising a child

to age 18 costs upwards of $250,000. Parents of children with disabilities and special needs incur costs as much as 10 times greater.

Who We’ve Helped