What an amazing community of support we have, which makes life for all of us just a little bit easier. This past weekend my son and I drove out to Princeton to Dawn's Delights for a fundraising event for the center that Dawn put together. Dawn opened her cafe for a "Build a Scarecrow " event Sunday afternoon. In addition to providing the elements to create a scarecrow Dawn provided cups of cider to participants, and given her menu of allergen free foods we also bought a couple of muffins as a special treat. We are grateful to Dawn for her efforts, she like many, are pleased to give back to their Center. 

    In the past few months we've had several families advocate for our Center to be the recipient of various fundraising efforts . For example,  Shawn Fitzpatrick, whose son  went to Camp Havvago stopped here with a donation of $1656.00 last month.

Thank You Yvonne & Michael for your thoughtfulness! 

  In September, Peter Bohlin had a pig roast and donated the proceeds of a thousand dollars from his event to our Center.

Now, not all of us have the time or energy to create "EVENTS",  but we all can give something. OR we can give up something.  It's coming up soon,#GivingTuesday #Giveitup4autism.   

As someone pointed out we've all had to give up a lot when autism entered our lives. For me it was a career in nursing, and that created a long term financial impact for my family. My two daughters both worked through college to help defray the cost and will probably be paying off loans for years, had I worked all those years, it would have been different. So yes we've all given it up for autism, in innumerable ways, but we will do anything for our kids, so think about this, a way that you can help that isn't time consuming, and might be even be beneficial to you or your health. 

The third Thursday in November is the Great American Smokeout.  The idea for the Great American Smokeout grew from a 1970 event in Randolph, Massachusetts, at which Arthur P. Mullaney asked people to give up cigarettes for a day and donate the money they would have spent on cigarettes to a high school scholarship fund.  If you smoke, maybe giving it up for November and donating the money you saved to the Center would be a way of helping yourself and the Center. 

For me I will reprise my NO WINE NOVEMBER pledge, since I don't buy cigarettes anymore. Watch our Facebook page for various videos related to this from staff and Advisory Board members . It's easy to do. Decide what you will give up, you can follow my lead, or if you've a particular weakness, coffee, chocolate, snack food give that up. Make a video, and post it to Facebook, with the hashtag #GivingTuesday #Gveitup4autism. Challenge others and ask that they donate to YOUR Center to make a difference on Giving Tuesday.