When her son suffered a traumatic brain injury 20 years ago, Dottie Ardell was by his side through years of therapy.

Ardell, 67, of Center Township said one problem she tackled after his automobile accident was a lack of local support groups and treatment centers. The closest place for support and many treatments for Ardell's son Keith, now 42, was Erie or Pittsburgh.

"I kept asking, 'What else can we do?'" she said.

In the past eight years, Ardell has started her own support group in Butler and hosts an annual Brain Injury Awareness Day in the Clearview Mall.

The process began when she joined an advisory board through the Department of Health in Harrisburg, which she learned about at the Harmarville Rehabilitation Center. She applied to become a member and joined in 2001.

At the first meeting, all the members went around the circle and introduced themselves, Ardell said.

"There were people from the Department of Health, the Department of Welfare, the Department of Education. ... And I thought, 'What am I doing here?'

"And I stood up and said 'I'm a mom, and I don't have a title and I'm from Butler,'" she said.

"I'd never done anything like this before."

The group had 24 members, seven of them family members of survivors.

Through that board, Ardell connected with Deborah Delgado, the traumatic brain injury project director for the Disability Rights Network, a statewide nonprofit group, and Delgado suggested an event at the mall.

Ardell began making calls to local community groups like Career Opportunities for the Disabled, a program of the Arc of Butler County; the Disability Options Network, a consumer-controlled nonprofit group in Western Pennsylvania; Cora Rehabilitation Clinics; and the Center for Community Resources in Butler.

In addition to helping people connect with resources, the resulting mall event also helped launch the support group, which now comprises about 30 people.

"As part of our set-up that first time, I had insisted that Dottie ... have a family table so that other family members could talk with someone who would clearly understand what they were going through," Delgado said. "Because of that table, Dottie found the core of the support group."

"I think the hardest part is finding people with brain injuries," Ardell said. "They don't know how to find help. Because of the privacy act you can't find people, they have to find us."

Ardell set up a sign-up sheet for anyone interested in being in the support group. Also at the table, she remembers a man coming up to the table the first year and thanking the families for being there and letting him know others shared his experience.

Ardell said during the six-hour event, similar conversations occurred.

"They would ask, 'Did you ever encounter this problem? Did you ever run into this?'

"They didn't know where to go, and 20 years ago, we didn't either. We were the pioneers," she said.

The "we" included Ardell's family and two others who helped her start the support group. Ed Leech, a member of the Department of Health advisory board, also played a role.

Leech, who has two sons with brain injuries, said the public is often not aware of what a brain injury is and the effects it has on a family.

"It's amazing the people that are looking for help, and don't know where to turn," Leech said. "The mall day is one place we can help them."

Delgado agrees that the mall day is very important to getting the word out.

Using DOH statistics, she suggests that about 1,000 people in Butler County have been affected with traumatic brain injuries in the past five years.

"Where are they?" she said. "What services are they getting? We knew the folks were out there and we just wanted to find a way to reach some of them and their families."

Leech's son and Keith Ardell, whose injuries occurred months apart, became friends when Leech and Ardell would carpool to the Harmarville Rehabilitation Center for therapy and treatments.

Ed and Keith also sing together in the Butler Notables, an a cappella group.

Leech credits Dottie for the success of the support group, the care of her son and the care of others who have been affected by brain injuries.

"Everyone who has a family member who's surviving a brain injury, you sort of put your whole life toward helping them with their lives — and Dottie has done that to the top degree," he said.

"She has made her life taking care of Keith and giving him the life that he deserves to have. Whatever he can get out of life he's getting," Leech said.

"She's been God's gift to brain injured people in the area and she's just a great person with a big heart," he said.

<B>WHAT: </B>Third annual Brain Injury Awareness Day<B>WHEN: </B>10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday<B>WHERE: </B>Clearview Mall Guest Services area, 101 Clearview Circle<B>INFORMATION: </B>Call Dottie Ardell at 724-285-3472.

<B>WHAT: </B>Mind Matters brain injury support group<B>WHEN: </B>7 to 9 p.m. third Thursday of every month<B>WHERE: </B>Butler Health Systems building, formerly the Morgan Management Building off of 422 at 127 Oneida Valley Road<B>INFORMATION: </B>Call Dottie Ardell at 724-285-3472 or Monica Perry 724-287-4646.