AUTISM: Walk For A Difference

A word from our sponsor:

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Hi Everyone! I posted about helping us, and helping NinjaBaby via the POAC - Autism: Walk For A Difference already once, but with the walk only a few days away I thought I would post again.

And for those of you that are reading this after saturday (should you show up late to the party) It's NEVER too late to donate, even if the walk is over contact me and I will give you information for how to donate to POAC directly (not via our walk page). Every little bit helps (just like at BigCloset).


Hey Everyone, I know we ask for a lot of money around here, but I'm going to blatantly ask for more.

You may remember that over 3 years ago, Amy and I were blessed with a wonderful baby boy whom we have many times referred to as NinjaBaby.

Our NinjaBaby was diagnosed as on the Autism Spectrum several months back. At the time he didn't exhibit any single "sign" strongly, but showed mild signs of many signs/symptoms.

Now as time is progressing we are seing more and more signs and it's starting to hit that "this is real".

Throughout this time we've needed a lot of support. Most that support has come from the NJAW (New Jersey Autism Warriors) facebook group, and the agency they are attached to, Parents of Autistic Children (POAC).

POAC is a great agency, that goes out into the community and offers many services anywhere from training for first responders to help with parents that are new to the IEP process in special education.

We are in fact going to be attending their IEP meeting tonight in Ocean County, NJ because the school our NinjaBaby attends is fighting us when it comes to certain services.

So lets get down to the brass tax.


It is fundraising time for POAC and I'm not kidding when I say that EVERY $$$ counts. We are participating in the POAC - Autism Walk For A Difference - Lakewood and as of this posting we have managed to raise a grand total of $125 for our NinjaWarriors team.

So if you can open your hearts, and just as importantly your wallets, please do so to help not just our fundraising team, but all of POAC as most of their budget comes from fundraising such as this.


Comments

Who is POAC and what do they do?

I'd like to know who POAC is and what this Autism Walk is actually funding.

The most widely known Autism organization is "Autism Speaks," and it's widely condemned by people who actually have ASD. It shuts out any input from actual autistic people and treats them as if their autism had robbed them of their humanity. An ad campaign they ran a while ago depicting autism as some kind of child-stealing criminal didn't help, either.

I have a child (now 26) with autism and know a number of autistic children and adults, and we had to fight off supposed professionals who wanted to treat our child in ways that would be seen as unconscienceable if he were neurotypical. Somehow, not being like everyone else means you're defective or something, rather than a human who sees the world differently and whose different way of dealing with the world you have to adjust to.

Reminds me of being trans.

POAC:Parents of Autistic Children

Piper's picture

POAC is Parents of Autistic Children

Their Website is: https://www.poac.net/ and stated simply, they are AWESOME!

I will include snippets from their website below, but so far this year, in addition to monthly parent support meetings, and events for the kids, we have also had the opportunity to speak with Lawyers about NinjaBaby's IEP and done an IEP review with help from POAC. POAC has also put us in touch with FREE advocates to help in our IEP battles with the school.

Beyond all this, POAC also offers training for First Responders, Teachers, and even does events at other schools to raise awareness about autism in the community. And they do it solely on the funds raised by doing walks and such.

From Their Website:

Training
Whether you are a parent, teacher, administrator, or first responder, our training opportunities will help you educate individuals with autism, keep them safe, and help them reach their maximum potential.

Events
POAC provides year-long recreational events for the entire family, where children with autism feel welcome and accepted and where they can build life-long friendships.

POAC Fights not for a "cure" but to find acceptance for individuals in the community. They teach the community how to accept and treat others with differences and disabilities as well as helping parents find a healthy balance between treatment and acceptance in their own lives. I've witnessed this myself time and time again in the short period (8 months) that we have been involved with POAC.

-Piper


"She was like a butterfly, full of color and vibrancy when she chose to open her wings, yet hardly visible when she closed them."
— Geraldine Brooks


POAC: Small Oganization that does BIG Good.

Piper's picture

As far as I know, The regular every-day office staff @ POAC consists of Gary, Janine and Simone. One is a formal special ed teacher and the others have special needs children. I've never seen any of them driving lavish cars, or anything. They are at nearly every event hanging out with everyone once the work is done, and that's hard, as work like theirs is never really done.

I understand your skepticism with many big organizations, especially the likes of Autism Speaks and the controversy surrounding them, but POAC is a small organization that does a whole lot, with fairly limited resources. If you can't trust them, then please try and trust my judgement on this one. They have been great to us and so many, and their budget is funded entirely on memberships and donations.

-Piper


"She was like a butterfly, full of color and vibrancy when she chose to open her wings, yet hardly visible when she closed them."
— Geraldine Brooks