Teira Manfredda grasped grocery shoppers’ hands and sold cookies to a small crowd gathered around a table outside Ray’s Food Place in Valley West Shopping Center Saturday morning.
”By tonight, she’ll have her voice back,” said Tom Leydecker, Teira’s dad.
The 11-year-old Girl Scout–born with a chromosome deletion that mimics autism–had her prized iPad stolen out of the back of her family’s car at Grocery Outlet in Eureka this week. The iPad had an application called Scene&Heard, which helped grow Teira’s vocabulary and allowed her to communicate with others.
On Saturday Teira, her parents and one of her Girl Scout friends, Nichole Morris, stood outside Ray’s to raise funds for a new iPad for Teira. After just two hours, Teira’s parents Colleen and Tom Leydecker said they were overwhelmed with the support from passersby.
”It’s been incredibly busy,” Colleen Leydecker said. “I never imagined in my wildest dreams it would have this effect.”
Colleen Leydecker said she got a text message of support from a Wisconsin phone number. She noticed Saturday’s story in the Times-Standard about Teira had been picked up by macdailynews.com.
Simply Macintosh in Arcata is holding an iPad for Teira and her parents to purchase Saturday night, Tom Leydecker said, and offered to give them a big discount. Humboldt Bay Fire gave a hefty contribution, and a number of shoppers stopped to give donations or buy Girl Scout snacks and cookies.
Teira had received the iPad after selling more than 3,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, which made her the top seller in California.
Colleen Leydecker said she felt slightly guilty about one thing, however. Friday night, as Teira was selling cookies at Grocery Outlet, a man dropped off an iPad, but left quickly. Unfortunately, the iPad was a first-generation version without a camera, she said, which Teira’s application requires. Leydecker said she would like to get in touch with whoever was kind enough to drop it off, so she can return it.
”I appreciate it so much,” she said.
Luke Ramseth can be reached at 441-0509 or lramseth@times-standard.com.
