TC House

Tyler Palko & Chris McGough House

HOME

Make A Donation

TC House Foundation

•   TC House was formed in 2005 to provide a group home for individuals with Down syndrome. The name was developed by using the first letter of the two main individuals that started the Foundation: Tyler Palko & Christopher McGough, a young man with Down syndrome. Our first fundraising effort was a golf outing, which has become an annual event .

•   We first came across the idea for the group home in a magazine article. The article touched us all in a way that got us motivated to start something ourselves. We have exhausted our resources to find out the truth behind the story and today we are still trying to find out if the story is true or not!

•   Regardless of the validity of the story, we decided to start the foundation.  The goal is to provide a group home for individuals with Down syndrome. Down syndrome is one of the most common birth defects. Usually, children born with this condition have some degree of mental retardation, as well as physical disabilities.

•   Most of these children also have other health problems.

•   Each year in the United States, approximately one in every 850  newborns are diagnosed with Down syndrome.

•   What causes Down syndrome?

•   Normally, each cell in the human body contains 23 pairs of chromosomes, which contain the genetic material that determines all our inherited characteristics. We receive half of each chromosome pair from our mother and the other half from our father. Individuals with the most common form of Down syndrome, Trisomy 21, have an extra 21st chromosome

Treatment

•   •There is no specific treatment for Down syndrome. Special education and training are offered in most communities for mentally and physically disabled children. •It is not uncommon for Down syndrome children to have specific heart defects that may require surgery. Visual problems, hearing loss, and increased susceptibility to infection are also very common.  This requires screenings and treatments frequently. Presently, there is no way to prevent Down syndrome. However, scientists continue to learn more about the genetic basis of Down syndrome and hope that in the future it will be possible to improve, correct, or prevent many of the problems associated with the condition.

•  Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, has set up a resource center for Down syndrome individuals. It gathers, shares and studies information to better understand and help fight this condition. People with Down syndrome are first and foremost human beings! They have recognizable physical characteristics and have atypical learning abilities due to the presence of an extra chromosome 21.

TC House Foundation

    By Emily Perl Kingsley

When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy.  You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans.  The Coliseum.  The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice.  You may learn some handy phrases in Italian.  It’s all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives.  You pack your bags and off you go.  Several hours later, the plane lands.  The stewardess comes in and says. “Welcome to Holland.”

“Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean Holland??  I signed up for Italy!  I’m supposed to be in Italy.  All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.”

But there’s been a change in the flight plan.  They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.

 The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease.  It’s just a different place.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy…and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there.  And for the rest of your life, you will say “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go.  That’s what I had planned.”

 And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away…because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.

 But…if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things…about Holland.

So you must go out and buy new guide books.  And you must learn a whole new language.  And you will meet a whole group of people you would never have met.

It’s just a different place.  It’s slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy.  But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around…and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills….and Holland has tulips, Holland even had Rembrandts.