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West End News |
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In Mackie's memory
By Marlene Eisner, The Suburban
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Mackie’s death sent reverberations throughout the community.
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Photo by Martin Chamberland, The Suburban
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Youngsters at the JPPS Children’s Centre prepare paintings for the November vernissage to raise money for the Mack Belson Foundation in honour of their classmate who drowned this summer.
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Gail Mendelman, centre, with husband David Belsen and daughter Ruby: I swore Mackie would not die in vain.
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Gail Mendelman remembers her son Mackenzie Belson as a boy who never stopped smiling.
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$"/>“He was born smiling and he never stopped.”
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$"/>Last July 16, Mackie, as he was affectionately called, died in a drowning accident in Ste Agathe. He was four years old. His death sent reverberations throughout the community. Now, four months later, his parents want to make sure something positive can come from such a tragic event.
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$"/>“I knew five minutes after he died, even in my extreme state of shock and grief, that I was adamant his death would not be in vain,” said Mendelman.
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$"/>“I knew I would set up a foundation.”
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$"/>The Mack Belson Foundation, established at The Jewish Community Foundation of Montreal (JCF), is dedicated to helping children with learning disabilities from families with limited resources. In conjunction with The Bronfman Jewish Education Centre (BJEC) and supplemented by donations from the community, the aim of the foundation is to help families shoulder the costs involved in dealing with a child's learning disability.
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$"/>Mendelman says her son was “a delicious boy who affected anyone who met him. There was a genuine sweetness to him.”
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$"/>At the age of three, he was diagnosed with an auditory processing disability, and that’s why the foundation is geared to help parents with the costs associated with children who have learning disabilities, costs such as paying for an assessment, a shadow, occupational therapy, speech therapy or a psychological evaluation.
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$"/>“We went through the whole process of assessing what was wrong [with Mack],” she explained.
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$"/>“I was very aggressive, I’ve got a big squawk. The process of waiting [is hard], each day your child is not getting helped.”
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$"/>But Mendelman finally found Mack a therapist and together they worked hard and began to see improvements.
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$"/>“He changed developmentally. It [his disability] changed and he was really starting to flourish, to come into his own.”
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$"/>Mendelman also credits the teachers at the Jewish Peoples and Peretz Children’s Centre in Côte St. Luc for looking out for her son.
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$"/>“They were wonderful there and Randy Zucker was wonderful. When I went to explain to her about Mack, she told me ‘You must be his advocate, you must speak for him. You need to stand up for him.’”
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$"/>It was also Zucker who suggested the foundation help other children with learning disabilities.
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$"/>“It was Randy that brought up the idea of helping learning disabled children,” said Mendelman.
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$"/>For the next few weeks, the kids at the JPPS Children’s Centre are working hard on paintings they will resell at a vernissage for their parents. Money collected with go to the Mack Belson Foundation. But the real fundraiser will be held next April 26.
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$"/>“I was very close mouthed about this, but April 26 would be his fifth birthday,” says Mendelman.
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$"/>“I couldn’t think of a better way to honour him. Every parent who loses a child is afraid that child will be forgotten. I swore he would not die in vain.
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$"/>“I set challenges up for myself to get through the grief. Especially the loss of a child, you may fall into a deep, dark abyss and never climb out of it. I needed to focus on something.”
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$"/>For more information, go to www.themackbelsonfoundation.org.
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2006-11-08 09:32:20
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