Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Walk Season

Around here, it seems spring and fall are "walk" season. This past weekend me and the boys walked because my cousin has Juvenile Diabetes. We walked to support him and to honor Aunt G. for her courage and strength.

Me and the boys not paying attention.



One of my cousins giving his Baba a donation to JDRF in honor of her hard work (Are we sure that check is good?).



In about two weeks me, Hubby, and the boys will be participating in the autism walk. This will be our third time walking I believe, but it's the first time walking after both boys were diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. In the past we walked to support our friends. This year I have really been struggling with us participating because I don't like the Autism Speaks organization. But after much contemplation I decided to walk this year because the reason why I walk has never been about the organization, but rather about supporting my friends and family.

Another team mom and her kids designed the team logo. Guess which boy is Bubba and which is Moosie.



To balance my participation, I've taken every opportunity to change perceptions about autism while helping my team fundraise. You'll find no shock/scare tactics in the flyers or letters I have written, but you will see cute pictures of the five boys honored on our team.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We're walking for Autism in 2 weeks too!!! Which walk are you doing? Ours is Long Island. I understand how you feel about the Autism Every Day movie and some of the things that come out of Autism Speaks, but I think that the organization does so much to increase funding and awareness that the good outweighs the bad. Just my opinion anyway. Love the logo, by the way!

Club 166 said...

I've come to the conclusion that on balance, Autism Speaks Sucks (maybe they should rename themselves-ASS). Characterizing our kids as trainwrecks and lost souls can only serve to isolate them and give others in the future excuses not to include or hire them, and that far outweighs any good they do.

That being said, I considered walking this year, only to get together and show support to other families. I won't be walking, but my wife will, if only to get together with other people in our neighborhood and community that she knows.

Joe

Ange said...

Pretty much everone I run into about the walk, I interfect that I don't like Autism Speaks. I state my many reasons why and usually it starts an interesting conversation. One of our team members gets a kick out of how riled up I get.