cREaTing awareness =

Last night I finally calculated all the proceeds. The grand total that is going to F.I.R.E. in honor of Brett & Autism Awareness Month is $611.  

Even more than the money raised, is the proven ways in which awareness for Autism was raised.  My other goal in this was for people to learn what it was like to be Brett & live with Autism in the way it affects him.  There is so much that is still not understood about Autism, even by the experts.  I'm not an expert by any means, but I could consider myself an expert on my son.  I've become an expert at attempting to read every facial expression, every action, correcting articulation and thwarting possible meltdowns to name a few areas of my expertise.  I am thrilled to know that people got an inside look at what it's like to have Autism from our point of view.  Slowly we can try to bring understanding to this extremely complex puzzle.

The Foundation for Inclusive Religious Education is such an amazing organization for which we are so grateful.  We are surrounded by the most amazing families who have embraced our own family & have accepted Brett for who he is.  We have witnessed F.I.R.E. reaching beyond just assisting Brett, but also enlightening his classmates and their families. 

I also wanted to report that for the F.I.R.E. Golf Tournament [a couple weeks ago], another F.I.R.E. parent of one of Brett's classmates came to me with an idea for collecting money for a Golf Tournament contribution.  We wrote a letter that was sent home with our two sons' 1st grade peers, explaining this was just to be a small amount, just a small way to show that as a 1st grade class we supported F.I.R.E. [not just our 2 families] - if they felt inclined to do so.  We had no idea what to expect, but we were hoping we could contribute maybe $50.  You can imagine our surprise when our boys' classmates brought in almost $500 that we were able to contribute under the title "Friends of Pete & Brett - the 1st Grade Class at ----- School".  Although it is stunning to see this generous show of support in a dollar form, we know there is NO dollar amount we can put on the friends we have and the amount of support we have felt from the families that we are lucky enough to know.  Every day we are thankful & feel so blessed.

To read more about F.I.R.E. here is a wonderful article that was written last spring, explaining how the organization began 11 years ago & how far it's reached [definitely worth the read!].  Later this week I will be attending a F.I.R.E. meeting and handing over a check for $611 from cREaTing awareness.  Thank you to every single person who took the time to look, read, learn & buy.