We have tried to do fundraising and raise money to donate to local organizations that contribute to autism. Unfortunately where I live there are not many local anythings. And we could not get much money raised at all, so we dropped it.
Now we are focusing on Autism Speaks and I have been reading a lot of things where people are against this organization. Everything I am reading just makes no sense. I mean why do people want to nit pick everything and cause drama over the smallest things. I even received a message from someone warning me against Autism Speaks on my facebook page, Natural Beautisms and Flappings in Life, but yet I was unable to respond.
So I will address some of the concerns people have against Autism Speaks
1) No one on the committee is autistic- Frankly this does not bother me one bit! Why would it bother anyone else? Are people who work in schools and the therapists that help our children autistic? Probably not. I am sure the people on the committee who are NOT autistic do have experience with autistic individuals, isn't that what matters?
2) Autism Speaks pulls money away from local communities- Well there are hardly any local anything where I live. We have a few things such as Community Connections, Arkansas Autism Resource and Outreach Center. When these local communities hold an event for fundraising we will do the same for them as we do Autism Speaks. Its not Autism Speaks fault that some people focus on raising funds for them than other organizations.
3) Only 4% of money raised goes to blah blah blah--Honestly how can we tell? And if this was the case wouldnt this be fraud of some sort? I have not done a lot of research on this but I will eventually. I know a lot of goes towards research and I am grateful for that!
There are other accusations that I do not agree with. Autism Speaks’ advertising depends on offensive and outdated rhetoric of fear and pity, presenting the lives of autistic people as tragic burdens on our families and society. In its advertising, Autism Speaks has compared being autistic to being kidnapped, dying of a natural disaster, having a fatal disease, and countless other inappropriate analogies.
I mean come on! I have never had these thoughts cross my mind when I watch any video on autism speaks. They show the reality of autism, how it effects lives. And no this is not held true to all autistic children. None of the people are the same. What is wrong with showing the ugly side of autism? Nothing, hence the purpose of fundraising to raise awareness and donate money for research. So far I have NOTHING against autism speaks. It has been full of information that has helped me and my family learn and cope with my sons diagnoses and help us learn ways to teach him.
So with this being said there is an event coming up October 18th that we have signed up for. Arkansas Walk Now for Autism Speaks. We have never done a walk before so this is the first and we have never tried to raise money for Autism Speaks so this is the first time for that. I am asking for donations to support us in our walk for Autism. Even Logan will be walking!! Please find it in your hearts to overlook all this controversy about Autism Speaks and donate. Our goal is to raise $500 by October 18th. If you get right down to it, every organization has controversy.
Here is the link to our donation team, Logans Sidekicks! Please share this and donate!! I am thinking to everyone who donates I will send them a complimentary autism awareness para-cord bracelet.
I WALK FOR LOGAN
You can donate and support whichever charity you want to and no ones opinion on the subject should matter but yours
ReplyDeleteThank you Cindy
DeleteI'm hopping over from the weekend blog hop. As an autistic person, #1 does frankly bother me, although I can see why as a parent it doesn't bother you. Suppose your son turned out to be gay. Would you then raise money for an organization who had only parents and families of gays on the committee? I can see that now that your son is only three, you are his representative and you want an organization for you, whereas people who are gay usually don't discover this until their teens. However, autistic adults have absolutely no major organization supporting them. When your son grows up, do you want to be his spokesperson for the rest of your life, or do you want him to be able to stand up for what he needs? (Re autism being a disability whereas homosexuality is not, I agree, but some people don't.) The thing is, now autistic adults are still a minority of autistic people since they didn't get diagnosed till the 1990s at the earliest, but in 20 years, autistic adults will be more prevalent than autistic children (as adutls are naturally more prevalent than children). Sorry for ranting. I agree with you on the other two, but I am serious troubled with the fact that the United States doesn't have any major organizations representing me or my type (I'm not in the U.S. but you get the idea).
ReplyDeleteI hope my son grows up being able to represent himself. It's ok..rant away :) I think there needs to be more resources available in my area. Unfortunately there's not. So I'll support the ones that are.
Deletei also think that #1 is also very worrying. and i really feel sorry you want to help keep autism from existing, melissa, cause when you support Autism Speaks, you're basically saying you don't want people like your son to exist.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's your opinion Mr. Sportyboy
DeleteAnd I wish autism did not exist just like I wish cancer did not exist! The struggles my son face and he's only 3 breaks my heart! To say I'm happy he is autistic is crazy! Yes I would love to take it all away from him to be able to hear him say one word would be great, him to be able to communicate with his peers his family and not get frustrated because he can't tell us. To be able to know when he's in pain, when something to bright, to loud would be wonderful. To know my son could function in the world around him without bullying, struggles, stares, for him to be able to eat whatever foods he wants would be great! I would take his autism away if I could. I can't therefore I will help him, advocate for him and others.
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ReplyDeleteMelissa, I am not as hard-line as I may seem. In fact, I agree the ugly side of autism needs to be known so that people can get supports and in fact hopefully treatments for these symptoms. What I do have a problem with is that all autistic people are seen as inherently defective. I do consider some of my autistic symptoms to be bad, but others enrich my personality. I have often talked about my harder-to-deal-with autistic symptoms on my blog only to be todl by Autism Speaks supporters that since I don't see myself as inherently defective because of my autism and isnce I can write this on my blog, I shouldn't talk about my problems. You probably aren't aware of this, but there is a huge dichotomy in autism advocacy whereas parets of severely autistic children say that those with Asperger's or those who in general can disagree with the parents in writing, are not really autistic and only those who need their parents to speak for them are. Then these children need to be cured. I want to move away from which autistic peopl ened a cure to which symptoms of autism (eg. aggression, inability to communicate, etc.) need a cure.
ReplyDeleteMy son is on the severe side. The symptoms need to be cured hence why we spend a lot of time on therapy which my son has came a long long ways since we started. I wish I could take his struggles away
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DeleteGorgeous shot of a dear boy and lots of healing hugs for all ~ xoxoxo
ReplyDeleteHappy Day to you.
artmusedog and carol (A Creative Harbor)
Glad that I discovered your blog. My sister is autistic too.
ReplyDeleteI also support Autism Speaks.
ReplyDeleteThat last photo is fantastic.
What a lovely post. I hope you raise the money you want to!
ReplyDeleteThank you for linking up with the #WeekendBlogHop
Laura x x x
Everybody always has an excuse for everything. Hopefully, your son will get what he needs regardless of the excuses.
ReplyDeletehttp://joycelansky.blogspot.com/