SEDGEWICKVILLE GIRL WILL BE ON TELETHON

Maria Grindstaff, the 5-year-old daughter of Don and Pam Grindstaff of the Sedgewickville area, will represent Southeast Missouri at the Lion's Club Telethon in Paducah, Ky., Saturday and today.

She is scheduled to appear at 10:37 a.m. today on WPSD-TV.

Grindstaff is a pre-kindergarten student at the Easter Seals Learning Center in Cape Girardeau, where she is preparing to attend kindergarten in the Meadow Heights School District next year.

Although the girl has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, she is vivacious and rambunctious and loves ball games, pizza and the color purple.

Grindstaff's challenges began at birth, when she was taken by helicopter to Missouri University Hospital in Columbia. When their daughter was three days old, the Grindstaffs were told they may have to face the decision of unplugging her life support if something miraculous didn't happen.

After three days of constant seizures, Grindstaff was given a strong medication and didn't experience another seizure for three years. Still, the trauma left her with brain damage and cerebral palsy, rendering her unable to drink from a bottle. All of her nasal and oral fluids had to be removed mechanically every two hours for the first year of her life.

Her parents worried she wouldn't ever roll over on her own, but Grindstaff did it on her first Christmas. She could sit alone at 16 months and took her first steps the day before her second birthday.

Grindstaff is the granddaughter of Charles H. and Jerry Long of Dexter and of Truman and Doris Grindstaff of Fredericktown. She is the great-granddaughter of Bertha Long of Bloomfield.