A Way To Give Back!

The Livingston County Head Start Program has done so much for Isabella and Nikolas with their autism, that I wanted to share this with you as a way to give back to the program. 

Little Niko is selling Yankee Candles to raise money for Head Start. The candles are being sold at a discounted price and there are tons to choose from. At least 70 items are under $15!!

If you wanted to stock up, or maybe grab something for yourself, or as a gift to give, now is the chance.

Follow this link to go to Nikolas' fundraising page. Browse their online catalog and snap up some great deals!

Niko's Yankee Candle Fundraising Page

Use this information to make sure Niko and his group get credit for the donations.

Group Number: 990047026
Seller Name: Nikolas Panipinto 
Seller ID: Nikolas48
Sale ends: March 1st, 2017

Head Start helps prepare children for Kindergarten, and helps children with disabilities, like mine. 

World Autism Awareness

If you wish to donate, or bring more awareness to organization that actually use funds to support families living with autism, please spread the word about organization like the ones mentioned below. 

Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN) 

provides support, community, and public policy 

advocacy, by and for people on the autism spectrum.

autisticadvocacy.org

Autism Network International (ANI) is an 

autistic-run self-help and advocacy organization. 

Every year ANI hosts Autreat, the autism conference 

designed to be accessible and welcoming to autistic 

people.

autreat.com

Autism Society of America works to increase 

public awareness about the day-to-day issues faced 

by people on the spectrum, advocates for appropriate services for individuals across their lifespan, and 

provides the latest information regarding treatment, 

education, research and advocacy.

autism-society.org

The Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism helps families who are living with autism. Throws events to raise money that goes back into the community to help families who struggle to afford services for their children.

http://dougflutiejrfoundation.org/

Click this link to read a previous blog entry I made regarding Autism Speaks. 

So, light it up blue-- by all means-- bring awareness to autism any way you can, but when it comes to donations and funding, please consider an organization where the money goes to supporting families, children and adults who are actually living with autism. 

A Buddy For Bella

We are currently on the tail of a few organizations that will help us get a therapy dog for our daughter. We are thrilled with the news, but also know that we’re not going to be able to afford a dog from any of these organizations without reaching out for help.

Around the house, we’ve been calling this whole thing “A Buddy for Bella” or “Bella’s Buddy Fund”. So, I guess that’s what we’ll call it. It fits and pretty much explains it all.

We are currently in the VERY early stages of planning a benefit that will help with the costs of acquiring the dog, the training of the dog and the travel expenses involved with actually bringing the dog home. Currently, we have two choices:

Find a suitable dog that fits the criteria and send him out to have him trained with basic and advanced therapy training. It’s cheaper than option two, but still quite pricey.

Option two is to get approved  through an organization that supplies the dog and the training. After getting approved, signing all the paperwork and making our “donation” (payment), the puppy will be picked out and trained by their people and we will be kept updated. This process could take up to a year to complete.

We are highly considering option one simply because it’s cheaper and it doesn’t take quite as long, however, the training will be more specific to Bella’s needs if we went with option two.

We’re currently in the process of playing email tag with a select group of therapy dog organizations.

Our idea right now is find people who would like to contribute something that can be raffled off, or sold. Just to get an idea of what we have to work with in the future.

Again, this entire thing is in the very early stages, but we are looking for ideas. So feel free to leave a comment here, email me at a_buddy_for_bella@yahoo.com or message me on Facebook.

Thank you all so much.