Two women have quite literally gone the extra mile to raise more than $7,000 for children in need of educational assessments and intervention.

D'Arcey Betschart and Judith Udden both ran the 26 mile New York Marathon to raise money for Bermuda charity the Sequoia Learning Foundation (SLF).

One of the primary missions of SLF is to support the Chatterbox Preschool and Child Study Centre, Bermuda's only preschool focused on language acquisition.

Mrs. Betschart's daughter Rachael, four, attends Chatterbox. "I went to the school initially because my husband's family is Swiss," said Mrs. Betschart. "She was being exposed to a lot of foreign language."

But a general assessment done at the school found that Rachael wasn't developing her gross motor skills.

"She was born with dislocated hips," said Mrs. Betschart. "She was in a canvas harness for several months. So she never went through the crawling stage like most babies. When she came out of the harness she started walking."

As it turns out the crawling stage can be quite important for developing motor co-ordination.

"After the assessment they started working on it, and we started doing things at home," said Mrs. Betschart. "Now she is doing things ahead of her developmental bracket. If she had been at another nursery school they might not have picked it up."

When she decided to run the New York marathon she looked around for a good cause.

"I talked to some other parents whose children had some issues," said Mrs. Betschart. "Chatterbox has been so helpful and Sequoia has helped them make the right connections overseas.

"I thought it was a great charity. I asked for a strategic plan, and I came to respect their vision. I thought this was a great opportunity to help them."

She started training for the New York marathon four months ago and in the process of training she handed out pledge sheets to friends and family.

"We asked the parents in the school to ask people to pledge money," she said. "We did an in-house competition to see which parent could raise the most money." The winner of that competition soon will be announced soon.

"We have raised in excess of almost $7,000," said Mrs. Betschart. "Our goal was $10,000 but we couldn't be happier." The money goes directly to the SLF.

Mrs. Betschart said running the marathon, which she ran with Judith Udden, turned out to be a great experience.

"I am so glad I shared it with someone," she said. "The crowd was amazing. We put our names on our shirts, and people were screaming our names.

"I ran a marathon once before in 2003. This experience was a lot better. Judith only started running in February. She had never run a mile."

According to Brian Fubler, whose wife Angela runs Chatterbox, the SLF was also founded in 2004 to help families fund neurological and educational assessments. It also helps with the recommended interventions that come out of those assessments.

Mr. Fubler said some assessments, which are not covered by insurance, can cost as much as $6,000. Families are often required to go overseas to see specialists, which can also be costly.

"The problems that would require these assessments range. It could be from problems with speech development to any other learning difficulty that may arise in screening and assessing the child," said Mr. Fubler.

"My wife is inundated with phone calls from families at their wits-end. They don't know where to turn.

"A lot of times when people are confronted with news about their child, it can be unsettling.

"Sometimes they just don't know what the next step is. This will help people take the next step in securing assessments, but also after that, when they need to get the recommended interventions."

Mr. Fubler gave a big thank you to Mrs. Udden and Mrs. Betschart for running the marathon for the SLF.

For more information about the Sequoia Foundation, telephone Mrs. Fubler at 236-7190.