BILLINGS, Mont. — ?Blond, blue-eyed Addison Benson bounces across the living room floor of her Laurel home, pigtails flying as the smiling 3-year-old finds a wall to hide behind for a game of hide and peek.
There's nothing shy about the bubbly little girl in a blue tutu who chatters away and proudly responds when asked — "I'm 3." Josie, her older sister, she explains, is 5. She wants to play T-ball like her sister and she can hardly wait to begin preschool in the fall.
Nearly a year after she lost her legs below the knee in a lawnmower accident, not much sets Addison apart from other children on the verge of entering the wider world outside the immediate circle of family and friends — not even her two prosthetic legs.
In her light-up tennis shoes, she races at little-girl speed — not quite a run, which her mother, Andrea Benson, believes she'll be learning soon. She squats, sits and is up and down as well as any kid her age.
"I hope she'll do everything she wants to do," said Andrea.
A lot of the credit goes to hometown Shriners who, after the July 27, 2010, accident, hooked the family up with the Shriners Hospital for Children in Spokane, Wash., where Addison is getting the specialized care that keeps her on her feet.
"They heard about our accident and within two days they figured out who we were and asked if it was OK to contact us," Andrea said. "No fewer than four gentlemen stepped up and said that if we needed a sponsor, he would do it.
"It was an immediate sense of relief when they stepped forward and said 'We will help you,'" she said.
Andrea talked to The Gazette in advance of Saturday's East/West Shrine All-Stars Game at Laurel High School Stadium. The annual event is a longstanding fundraiser for Shrine Children's hospitals.
"I want more of the community to know about it and what it means to the families they help," she said.
Addison was the poster child for the game, the first ever played in this part of the state. She sat in a convertible with her Shrine sponsor Ken Fitchner during the pregame parade in downtown Laurel and will tossed the coin at the start of the game.
During Addison's first visit to the Shrine Hospital in Spokane, a team of specialists analyzed her injuries and came up with a plan. The hospital contracted with Jim Middleton at Rimrock Prosthetics in Billings to make her first set of lower legs. She was wearing them three months after the accident.
Addison will visit the Spokane hospital periodically and have many more prosthetic legs during the next 15 years.
Andrea said she loves the way the hospital deals with each patient.
"They bring everyone into the room at the same time and talk to each other right there," she said of the members of her daughter's team of specialists. "We were in and out in 45 minutes the last time we were there."
But it's more than just the medical expertise.
"I just get the feeling they are in the right place and that they really care for the children," she said.
Because of economic realities, Shriners Hospitals for Children now accept insurance from those who have it, Andrea said. The Bensons have good insurance, but the Shriners take care of anything their insurance doesn't cover.
"They have not asked us for anything," she said. "Frankly, without the Shriners I don't know where it would put us. I probably wouldn't be able to be a stay-at-home mom. I haven't sat down and calculated it. It hasn't been something I've had to worry about."
During the first stages of her recovery, Addison had physical therapy five days a week. She's down to one day each week now. At each adjustment of her prosthetic legs, Addison has proved resilient.
"She adjusts like none other," Andrea said. "She just takes every adjustment Jim does and just goes with it."
Addison is aware that her legs are a little different.
"She'll see someone with a prosthesis or some limb difference and say, 'Look Mom, she has legs like me,'" Andrea said.
Most of the children in her preschool already know Addison because Josie went to the same school. They think her legs are pretty cool, her mother said.
Andrea said she and Addison will probably demonstrate for the kids in preschool how she gets the legs off and on in an effort to deal with any lingering questions.
Addison's sponsor in the Shrine keeps an eye on her, making sure she has everything she needs and then some. At Halloween, Fitchner and fellow Shriner Wally Hall brought the Benson girls a 100-pound pumpkin. The family was invited to the Shriners' Christmas party and got tickets to the Shrine Circus.
"I can't say enough about these amazing people," Andrea said.
Fitchner, who has been a Shriner all his adult life, said he made contact with the Bensons through a prayer chain in Laurel.
"We heard about the accident and knew one of the things we are absolute experts in is the kind of problem this little girl has," he said. "This is what the Shrine does."
Fitchner said that in his role as sponsor, he helps schedule appointments and make sure the Bensons have transportation to get there. The Shriners also involve the family in Shriner activities so they understand why the organization does what it does.
"When you adopt one of these children, so to speak, you treat them as you would one of your own," he said.
Addison will be under his wing until she turns 18, which Andrea finds both a relief and a comfort.
It's been a long year for the Bensons. Andrea was mowing the lawn on a riding mower when she backed up not knowing Addison was behind her.
"We're coming up on the first anniversary," she said. "I don't feel any anxiety about it. I'm not going to let it haunt me for the rest of my life. We're just being as normal as possible now."
The whole situation was hard at first.
"A lot of people ask how we do it," she said. "You just do it. You get up every day and do it. But now I'm not just thinking day to day. Now it's when she starts school and when she starts sports."
And Andrea has learned there will be few barriers for her smart, busy and happy little girl.
Information from: Billings Gazette, http://www.billingsgazette.com