If you know me you know our cousin sweet Makena Grace has a piece of my heart. I worked with her as her one on one aide for 2 years at The Village Educational Center in Fresno. This month is Autism Awareness Month and her momma, Amber, is on a mission to spread AWARENESS and ACCEPTANCE! I had the privilege of doing a session with their family and asked Amber to be a co-writer on today’s blog. She is sharing a little bit about all of the AUSOME people getting on board to make this month the best yet! Be sure to “LIKE” Team Makena: Be AUsome on Facebook along with these other great companies taking the time to promote CHANGE!
“April is Autism Awareness Month. This year I wanted a way to spread awareness and acceptance. I designed a shirt and asked family and close friends to wear their shirt on April 2, World Autism Awareness Day. The word got around and there will be almost 200 shirts being worn! Amazing!
Lisa Gill, a friend of mine since High School, works at Yukon Jacks-Fresno, and she purchased Team Makena shirts for her employees to wear the evening of April 2nd. Long story short, the wonderful people at Yukon Jacks offered to donate 20% of their proceeds that evening from 4-10 pm to go to an autism charity of our choice. I picked The Village Educational Center, which is an inclusive preschool that my daughter attended from 3-5 1/2 years of age. Thank you Lisa and Yukon Jacks for joining us to spread awareness and acceptance!
A former cheerleader of mine was searching for a way to give back, when she saw my post about our autism shirts. Haley Maddox, owner of Gaboo Baby, has opened her heart to our world with compassion and a willingness to learn and joined us on this journey. We teamed up to create an Autism Benefit Collection line of awareness inspired t-shirts for infants-adults. She graciously has offered to donate $10 dollars from each purchase to The Heart of the horse Therapy Ranch!
I’ve said for years that anyone who has loved and worked with Makena, who has appreciated her gifts, has taken the time to get to know her and see her brilliance….is on “Team Makena”! This is how Team Makena: Be AUsome (Awesome and Autism together) was born. If you haven’t already, please join us on our journey! Not only do we want to spread awareness and acceptance but hope, kindness, compassion and celebrate other’s gifts that they have to share. It’s not about causes or cures, just appreciation that we are all different and AUsome at the same time!
Special Thank You’s to those who have kicked off Autism Awareness Month 2014 with a bang:
Yukon Jacks-Fresno: Lisa Gill
Gaboo Baby: Haley Maddox
Life with Greyson + Parker: Chrissy Kelly and her Beautiful Super Powers Event
Nana and Papa: Carole and Mike Wilson for helping with shirts and everything else you do!
Kimi-G Photography: Kimberly Wilson for the thank yous, flyer and our AUsome Team Makena photo shoot!
And…..All our Team Members new and original who are out there Changing the World not only for Makena but anyone who needs us!” -Amber Smith
