CANNONSBURG — Alex Peterman was just 4 weeks old when he was placed in casts from “his hips to his toes” on both legs.

It was the first step taken by the medical experts at the Shriners Orthopedic Hospital in Lexington to correct the bilateral club feet with which Alex, the son of Ronald and Jeanine Peterman of Ashland, was born.

At nine weeks, Alex had surgery on his legs at the Shriners Hospital followed by several years in which he was required to where braces, constantly at first and then gradually just at night.

Today at age 5, Alex freely walks and runs. In fact, his mother says tests show her son is “just a little delayed” when it comes to walking and running.

But Jeanine and Ronald Peterman both will quickly say their son would not be walking today without the Shriners.

“I can’t say enough about them,” Jeanine Peterman says of the El Hasa Shriners. She said when she first brought her infant son to the Shriners Hospital, she was given the option of waiting until he was a little older to have corrective surgery.

“There was no way I was going to wait,” Jeanine Peterman said. “He needed help if he was ever going to be able to walk, and he needed it now.”

The Petermans believe the early intervention made possible by the Shriners is why Alex is able to walk — and run — with his young friends today.

Brianna Leggett, 8, of Russell says she can’t remember the first time she went to Shriners Hospital in Lexington because she was too young. But the first visit she remembers is when she was preparing to have surgery — again — on both her legs.

Brianna, a bright, talkative and outgoing third-grader at Russell Primary School, was born with arthrogryposis, or the lack muscular control. She has undergone eight surgeries at Shriners Hospital in her young life. In addition, she regularly receives both occupational and physical therapy coordinated through the Shriners. Barring a miracle, she will never be able to walk and she still cannot completely raise her hands.

However, instead of concentrating on what she cannot do, Brianna and her grandmother, Kathy Hogsten, celebrate how far she has come in her young life. Although Brianna was born with severely twisted limbs, her grandmother said when she first saw her new grandchild her first thought was, “She is so beautiful.”

“She’s been though a lot but she has done it with such a positive spirit,” Kathy Hogsten says of Brianna. “She’s such an inspiration to everyone who knows her,” adding that the doctors, therapists and nurses at Shriners Hospital all know and love her, and she actually enjoys going to the hospital.

Alex and Brianna and their families were just two of about 400 who attended the ninth annual El Hasa Uniform Units Children’s Christmas Party for all area children younger than 15 who have received treatment at a Shriners Hospital. The party was Tuesday night at the El Hasa Shrine Temple in Cannonsburg.

Residents of this region are so fortunate to have two outstanding Shriners Hospitals — the orthopedic hospital in Lexington and the burns hospital in Cincinnati — within an easy drive, said Jack McClelland, potentate of the El Hasa Shrine. Teams of drivers are always standing by to transport area children to the hospitals.

Shriner Joe Charles, who coordinated Tuesday’s party, said about 450 area children are treated at a Shriners Hospital each year. Regardless of their condition or how many surgeries or other treatments they require, the bill for each of those patients is the same: Zero. Since their beginning back in the 1920s, none of the Shriners Hospitals or the doctors associated with them have charged any patients for their services.

Charles thinks the free treatment given at the Shriners Hospitals is “one of the best kept secrets around. We’ve been doing it for years, but a lot of people still don’t know about it.”

Planning for the Christmas party began near the first of November when invitations were sent to all the children who had received treatment at the Shriners Hospital. The children were asked to make three wishes for gifts from Santa, and individual Shriners were given the task of secretly purchasing one or more of those gifts. Gifts also were bought for other children in their families, Charles said.

Santa showed up Tuesday night to distribute the gifts to the delighted children, who also dined on hamburgers, hot dogs and chips and were entertained with stories.

But the real stars of this party were the children themselves, many of whom have had to overcome tremendous obstacles in their young lives, and all of whom had parents or grandparents who praised what the Shriners had done to help the children.

Jeanie Marsden, an Ashland native who now lives in Pedro, Ohio, said her daughter Sarah Roach, 12, has undergone surgeries on her hips and feet at the Shriners Hospital in Lexington. She still goes to the hospital four or five times a year.

“Sarah loves to go there,” her mother said. “She enjoys the games and other recreation they have. I get no complaints from her about going to Lexington.”

Sarah is deaf but carries on a lively conversation with her mother and others through sign language. “She has a large vocabulary,” her mother says of Sarah. “She has little trouble telling you what she wants you to know.”

McClelland said the Shriners Hospitals originally were founded to help the victims of polio. With polio being eradicated in this country, the hospitals have constantly changed their focus over the years. The Shriners have recently begun to treat infants born with cleft palates. “If we see a need, we try to meet it.”

Charles said the Christmas party is one of the most enjoyable and satisfying events of the year because it gives the Shriners a chance to see and talk to the children they have helped. “It’s a good feeling,” he said.