IMMOKALEE, Fla. — Five-year-old Ace meets with his speech therapist Ms. Cade once a week. She finds fun ways like using lollipops for him to practice a "t-h" sound.
Before he worked with Ms. Cade, his mom, Melissa Martinez, drove an hour both ways for his therapy.
"There's a lot of great services out there, but the thing is...there was nobody here in Immokalee, and it was such needed," Martinez said.
Watch Immokalee Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades report below:
Martinez foundMaleighna Cade's Immokalee based Sparkle Speech Pathology servicesonline and loves that the therapy session are in-home.
Maleighna Cade said, "So many students and children and families they deserve all the support in the world, and you know they don't have access to a lot of resources, so I feel like it was my duty to come back."
Cade grew up in Immokalee and went away for college. She always knew she'd come home and provide the resources her family wished they had access to.
As a child, her brother had a stutter but no therapy resources existed near their home, outside of school.
"I'm so honored. I think it's it's such a gift to be able to give therapy to children that need it, and I feel that the children here deserve 100% of my efforts," she said.
Students like Ace also give 100 percent.
"Here in Immokalee, we definitely need these services. We definitely need speech therapy, occupational therapy, any therapy that there is out there because there are a lot of people that are traveling out."
