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Show March of Dimes Poster Child Shares Family Fun and Chores f f YVVsA ft ft t. X ; 0. X. w v 0 avm,- iSi By DAN GILLMOK ! "Scotty was a month old when we brought him home from the hospital." Monta Hafen retails, "and it was really hard not to over-protect him." That was five years ago. and Scott, who is Monta and Gary Hafen's fifth child, was just leaving to go down the block from their modest ranch house in North Las Vegas. New 1 hat may not sound unusual, unless you are aware that Scott was born with crippling birth defects, de-fects, hydrocephalus (water on the brain), and spina bifida (open spine). The first defect has been corrected cor-rected by surgery. The second is painfully evident. Scott is paralyzed from the waist down and has to use braces and crutches to get around. "It was hard at first," his mother says, "but we finally got hold of ourselves. Life had to go on. We made ourselves be less protective. "We don't treat him as an invalid in any way. We expect j things from him, and he does them. If he makes a mess with his toys, he has to pick them up and put them away in his toy box. "Of course, with four older brothers and sisters, he gets a bit spoiled, no matter what 1 Gary and I do. But we figure that's not so bad. After all, they only do what they want to do. We don't expect them to take EVEN IF YOU CAN'T run and play like other boys, books bring the world to you, as Monta Haten demonstrates to her son, Scott. The 5 year-old boy from Las Vegas is 1974 March ol Dimes Poster Child. care of Scotty to any greater extent than they would naturally natur-ally take care of the littlest one in the family." Scott's next older brother, Bret, has done a lot of that. He is only a year older than Scott, but Mrs. Hafen has encouraged the brotherly relationship without with-out interfering with it. "Bret puts him in his wagon and hauls him all over the neighborhood," she says, laughing laugh-ing fondly. "With just a little bit of watching along the way, that's how things have gone along." Travel Plans Bret won't be able to go along next month when, as 1974 National Poster Child for the March of Dimes, Scott will tour the country. He will represent rep-resent the 250,000 or so American Ameri-can children born every year with birth defects. Contributions to the March of Dimes are allocated to research, re-search, medical service pro grams, and educational efforts in the fight to prevent birth defects and to improve the quality of life at birth. Mrs. Hafen is looking forward for-ward to taking Scott on the trips, even though they will be quite strenuous. "I feel that my children are responsible enough to carry on just as always. We have everything well under control. "And Scott just loves to travel! I look forward to the feeling of success that he will get out of it. I've already seen a change in him since he started going around the state as Nevada Poster Child. He just seems to be more on top of the situation. He feels more like an equal of other children. "You know how it is: he has something to talk about now. Something that he did that they haven't done. His friends get to run and jump and play, and Scotty can't. But now he gets to fly all over and meet ! famous people." Even though there may be a bit of a "sitter" problem, Mrs. j Hafen is not worried. Scott's father, a Las Vegas school prin-! prin-! cipal, will be home, except for I one or two trips when he will j accompany his wife and son. Mrs. Hafen is confident that Diane, 9, Sondra, 10, and Brad, 13. can handle things. It's clear that blue-eyed Sondra Son-dra will cover the kitchen. She is a self-proclaimed tacos cook of distinction. "Just get hamburger and cheese and onions," she advises. "Then grate the cheese and cut the onions and then do the tortillas." tor-tillas." Presto! Tacos! It's simple, isn't it? Asked how to make tortillas, Sondra explained: "Oh, you don't make them. You just buy them frozen and then you fry them." You see. It really is very simple to make tacos. |