April is Autism Awareness Month. For a couple years I had an idea in my head to invite different bands that I knew to all come together and play music in the same place to each play a set and do it as a fundraiser. So for my birthday, I rented the local Italian American club, had food donated, and invited musician friends to come play music. In between sets I taught line dances. As I was reviewing country line dances on YouTube I found a couple new ones on line, like "The Wobble". My kids told me it's the hottest new line dance (Think "The Electric Slide" and "The Macarena") that they do at weddings and Sweet 16 parties. So of course I had to learn it and teach it. It was so much fun!
Are you ready to party?! Here's the video!
The theme was "Light It Up Blue" which is the big campaign by Autism Speaks. We used blue lights, blue candles and of course had blue drinks! We had a blue Hawaiian drink at the bar, blue cupcakes and blue cake pops. It was just an all around great day. Robbie came and ate and danced. If you follow my vlogs you'll know how much he loves music. When we played "Wagon Wheel" by Darius Rucker I guess he recognized the song and went out onto the dance floor all on his own and started to dance. It was so cute! I wish I had video but I don't. I only have a couple photos someone took with their phone.
In lieu of gifts I asked people to donate to the Hope Autism Foundation to help fund a new day program. We raised over $3,500. It was so much fun I think I'll do it every April. This first one was a trial run. But next time I'll get more elaborate and charge admission at the door, and do basket raffles etc. to raise more money.
.If you're wondering
"Who the heck is this person who does these vlogs?" LOL
Here's the video I showed at the party, the story of my life.
Any good Boy Scout has learned that motto well. "Be prepared"! In case they get lost in the woods they should know how put up a tent, find food and start a fire. Well when you have a kid with Autism, they like to "elope" and they have a fascination with water,and I have learned to be prepared! Robbie wore an ID bracelet and he learned how to swim at an early age. (I talked about eloping in episode 9, when I took Robbie for a walk.)
I was moved by a story in the news about Avonte Oquendo, a 14 year old boy in New York who had Autism, who ran out of his school and was missing for 4 months. They recently found his body 11 miles away in the river. If you're not familiar with the story, here it is.
This was probably our number one fear throughout Robbie's life. One of the first times he ever ran away was during the fireworks on July 4th when he was 3 years old. I talk about all of this in this video.
Episode 22 "Be Prepared"
Since shooting this video, I have read that they are trying to write an "Avonte's Law" and get funding for tracking devices to find "runners". Let me stress that I feel strongly this should be voluntary, and it should be a parent's choice to use a tracking device for their child. We don't need Big Brother to begin tracking everyone ;-) I know I would want one for Robbie, but it should not ever become a mandatory law.
Avonte's Law, from what I understand, would be that the government will fund the tracking device, rather than parents have to pay for it themselves. Here is an article that talks a little more about the device.
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