Keesler family living proof CFC works Published Dec. 3, 2007 By Steve Pivnick 81st Medical Group Public Affairs KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, MISS. -- -- The recent Combined Federal Campaign held special significance for Master Sgt. David Muns. In addition to being the assistant project officer for this year's fund drive, Sergeant Muns has a personal interest in a long-time CFC beneficiary. The DuBard School for Language Disorders on the University of Southern Mississippi campus in Hattiesburg provided specialized education to his 15-year-old son Andrew. Sergeant Muns, chief of the 81st Inpatient Operations Squadron inpatient surgery flight, said the Dubard School is the clinical division of the USM Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences. It serves children with severe language and speech disorders and hearing impairments and provides guidance and counseling for parents and families. The school is a practicum site for university students majoring in speech-language pathology, audiology or deaf education. Andrew began attending summer sessions at the school in 2000. "He started fulltime in 2002 and finished this past June," Sergeant Muns said. "The school provides the kids a lot of things not available in public schools which lack many resources for children with language problems. "When Andrew started there, he understood far more than he was able to articulate," Sergeant Muns explained. "This made life very difficult for him because he understood everything going on around him but could not verbalize back to you." The sergeant's wife, Wendy, drove Andrew back and forth to school daily for 11 months of the year. School lasted from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mrs. Muns made good use of the time spent while Andrew was in class. She volunteered there part- time and also attended USM classes to complete her degree in psychology. Sergeant Muns noted that Dubard has been a CFC organization for at least a decade, but had to drop from the list of recipients this year due to a minor administrative glitch. He's confident the school will return next year. As for Andrew, his dad said he's now being home-schooled and his "extra-curricular" time is spent as an equestrian and bowler in Special Olympics. "He's getting ready for the state equestrian competition," his father said. "He won first- and second-place ribbons in the district."