CFHS student seeking prom assistance

CFHS student seeking prom assistance

Candice Carter is a sweet, polite 18-year-old student at Carolina Forest High School. She's quick with a smile, works part time in the school's front office and enjoys doing puzzles. She's excited about going to her senior prom April 3.

Candice has verbal apraxia, a speech disorder in which a person has trouble saying what she wants to say correctly and consistently. Candice's is severe, which renders her essentially unable to speak. She also has a learning disability. In an effort to give Candice a means of communication -- sign language -- she was placed in the school's hearing-impaired classroom. She created close bonds with her teacher, Betsy Rogers, and three classmates. She learned to sign. Things were going well.

Then one of her classmates died, another moved away, and Candice was placed in a new classroom -- without the teacher and friends she had grown to love.

But Candice is strong and determined. She is learning a new system of communication to help her interact with her new classmates who don't know sign language. She has a handheld device, a bit smaller than a brick, into which she types words and out of which comes a voice that speaks the words. Now that she's able to communicate at school again, she is making friends, coming out of her shell, exceeding the expectations of many.

Now Candice wants to go to the prom April 3 at Barefoot Resort -- a treat toward the end of a tough school year. But her family is struggling to survive financially, and prom expenses add up quickly.

Candice's school speech therapist, Amber Tullos, has been scrambling to help make Candice's wish come true. Amber has been calling department stores and business owners, asking for donations.

And the community is responding.

JCPenney has offered to donate free hair and makeup services. Dillard's is donating a dress and shoes.

Amber can't find an available limousine, but she's hoping to find a small bus or large vehicle in which to transport Candice and her school friends to the prom. And perhaps someone might donate a corsage, a manicure, jewelry. Or help Candice's special-needs classmates, some of whom also cannot afford prom luxuries.

What part of the prom experience is Candice most excited about?

"The shoes."

To help | To donate a service, funds or something else to help make Candice's -- or her classmates' -- prom experience special, contact Horry County Schools speech therapist Amber Tullos at 903-8400 or atullos@horrycountyschools.net

--As told to Sarah P. Kennedy by Horry County Schools speech therapist Amber Tullos.