**UPDATE** After a tremendous, wonderful day we are just $146 shy of our goal.
Can you help?
For those of you who know me in real life and also thru Facebook (and not leaving out my Flickr & Google+ friends!) you may already know that October 14th is my birthday. And to mark the special occasion I am asking for one thing: $14.
I'm planning a big party, you see.
I founded the Nashville Special Needs Kids Playgroup back in March 2010, and we are made up of 40+ amazing families. We are an inclusive group, but the vast majority of us have children with autism. We play together, we struggle together, and we understand each other in ways that others, even our extended family, cannot sometimes. And since before the Playgroup even existed I've wanted to throw a big Christmas party where families with children with disabilities can celebrate the holidays. I mean, I want to throw a BIG party. So the planning began back in the Spring of this year -- we have a fantastic venue donated to us, we are getting a smokin' deal on food, there will also be snacks our kids love like cotton candy and popcorn, a craft table, an inflatable bouncy house, and of course, Santa.
Well, you know these things cost money. And our special needs families are stretched to the limit with expensive therapies and doctors' appointments and co-pays, I just couldn't ask them to open their wallets to help pay for this -- besides, they're the guests of honor.
So I have asked my typical friends and family to open their hearts and help us find a way to come up with the funding we need, and our goal is $2,500. We are inviting 150 guests and we want to give them the best holiday party they've ever been to. Some of them have not been invited to a big party before, and some of them have attended big parties.... and maybe weren't asked back. We're definitely a different kind of people, don't necessarily fit in very easily. But at this party, everyone will definitely fit in, because we'll all be different together!
We are more than half-way to our goal, with $1,705 raised. Maybe today is payday for you, or maybe you were planning on ordering a pizza for dinner. Here is an opportunity for you to do much more with your $14 than order take-out tonight -- today, October 14th if you are able to make a donation of $14 to our Special Amazing Christmas Party Fund I can promise you it would mean the world to me and to all of my Playgroup families. I am so lucky to know them. And your $14 gift to these sweet friends would really be the icing on my birthday cake.
Merry Christmas. And thanks for your support.
To make a welcome donation, find out more about our story and to see pictures of some of our beautiful families, please visit: www.giveforward.com/SpecialAmazingChristmasParty
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From a dear playgroup friend:
"We have a 4 year old boy that was diagnosed with Autism in 2010. He had and still has some severe behavior issues which basically left us aside from the “typical” world. A year ago we felt lost, desperate and sad. We felt we had failed as a parent. We felt lack of acceptance by most parents of typical kids and felt like we were alone. I searched and found this wonderful group, met the most amazing parents and kids. We have literally a play date every weekend, which both my kids love. We've learned so many important things for our son while having fun at the same time. It's just been a true blessing in so many ways."
-- Carolina, mom to Josh and Gabrielle
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