Frank & Michelle - $ for South East

The South East Consortium is a wonderful non-profit organization that has recreation programs for children and adults with various disabilities and special needs in lower Westchester County.  

Our 12 year old son with autism and epilepsy has been attending their "Saturday Swim" and their Thursday afternoon "Kids In Motion" classes for over 5 years now.

And this past summer he attended their day camp 3 days a week.

As many of you know, when our son was first diagnosed we raised a great deal of money for Autism Speaks.  However, as the years have gone on, we realized that it's more important to us to put our fundraising muscle behind small, local organizations that are desperate for money and that directly enrich our son's and his friend’s lives.

And the South East Consortium is exactly that type of organization for us.

As I mentioned, our guy currently enjoys two of their programs each week.

However, what really makes South East special & unique is that their programs are not just for young kids.

We are looking forward to when he turns 14, because then he will be eligible for their teen/ adult programs.  

And there are a ton of them.  Yoga, dancing, swim, cooking, bowling, rock climbing, sports, etc, etc.

There's also the social outings.  Dances, Dinner & a Movie, Broadway Plays, parties connected to every holiday, etc, etc, etc.

They also have quite a few family gatherings throughout the year which is always a great chance to mingle with other special needs parents.

(check out all their programs HERE  )

And notice earlier I mentioned that these programs also serve adults.

That's right South East's programs are open to all ages.  And they serve the special needs adult community still living at home w/ their folks as well as those adults who are living in group homes.  

They are all welcome in the South East Consortium family!

In fact, for many special needs adults, South East’s programs are their only opportunity to socialize with their peers.  

Did I mention that all the people that work there are amazing?!  They always hire the best, most enthusiatstic young people (including our niece & nephew).   :-)

Their staff is so well trained and they are very sensitive to our children's needs.  We trust them.  So much so, that we feel comfortbale leaving our multi-disabled son in their care.

So as I said earlier, we are really looking forward to many of their programs as our son gets older, but as with most small non-profits these days, they are hitting hard times financially, and have had to cut programs, reduce their staff, and combine some programs this past year.

But, selfishly, we really need them to be there for us...  Our son is an only child.  He needs to be around other kids.  Playdates are difficult for us to set-up for a variety of reasons.  If it wasn’t for the programs at South East he wouldn’t be around kids his own age after school & on the weekends.

So that's where you come in.  

Please consider donating whatever you can to South East Consortium!

Essentially there is no end date for this fundraiser.  We are not raising money for a "walk" or raising money connected to some marathon that I'm running.   

That said, we’d love to reach our goal by June 30th in order to help with staffing for their summer camp.

So, we are just going to politely post this every once in awhile to ask you to please donate to this amazing organization so that it will always be there for us & our community as our kids get older.

Thanks!

Frank & Michelle