Benefit to be held Feb. 17 for Dennison 10-year-old

The Dover Moose Family Center 707 will hold a fundraiser on Feb. 17 at 5 p.m. for Kayden Ennis, 10, of Dennison to help with medical expenses. The event will raise funds to pay for a treatment to help Ennis deal with the ocular motor disfunction he was diagnosed with last fall.

“His cranial nerves don’t communicate with his eyes correctly all the time, and it’s nothing that you can actually fix, but you can train to compensate for it,” said Wesley Ennis, Kayden’s father.

Kayden Ennis will go through about 32 weeks of vision therapy for the condition. He will go twice a week for the first four weeks and then once a week for the remainder. There are few specialists in Ohio who offer the therapy and none that take the family’s insurance, so they will have to pay out of pocket. The cost of the treatment is expected to total more than $4,000, but in the end Kayden Ennis will be able to cope with the condition.

Wesley Ennis is not sure how long his son has suffered from the condition. They became concerned when they were notified by the school that Kayden had failed an eye exam. They then took him to an eye doctor, where he failed another exam. He was then referred to a specialist who discovered the cause of his problems.

“His eyes actually aren’t that bad. It’s just the nerves are not communicating,” Wesley Ennis said.

Kayden Ennis did have a few problems before the condition was discovered.

“We noticed that when he was reading, he would see the first letter of the word, and then he would just say something,” Wesley Ennis said.

He encouraged his son to try to sound out and read a word. “With ocular motor dysfunction, what happens is he’s reading and then his eyes actually stop moving. He just sees the first letter, and then he can’t get his eyes to move, so he guesses based on that letter,” Wesley Ennis said.

Even though the family feels fortunate to have found a doctor in Sugarcreek that offers the therapy, it will still take a toll in lost time from school and work.

“We had to schedule most of the appointments in the afternoon as late as they could,” Wesley Ennis said.

Kayden Ennis’ family consists of his father Wesley and his fiancée Kayla Bowersock; Izaeah Ennis, 6; Jaxon Ripley, 5; and 3-month-old Weston Ennis. His grandmother Andrea Ennis works at the Dover Moose and helped put the fundraiser together.

The family is grateful to the Dover Moose. In addition to hosting the benefit, the organization has donated the cost of the first four weeks of treatment.

At the benefit on Feb. 17, a shrimp boil dinner will be served. It includes shrimp, sausage, corn and potatoes with Cajun seasoning. Tickets are $15 per dinner, and they may be purchased in advance or at the door if still available.

A raffle and 50/50 drawing will be held along with goldfish races. The Dover Moose is still accepting donations of items for the raffle. The Dover Moose Family Center 707 is located at 407 Howe St. in Dover.

Dealing with ocular motor disfunction makes life a daily struggle for Kayden Ennis and affects so many areas of his life including his schoolwork, sports, balance and depth perception. All proceeds will help him with his medical expenses and change his life for the better.