Team Winter Green Walk for Autism

As I sat down to write this note about the Hudson Valley Walk for Autism this year one thing came to mind. Thank You!! I have a dear old friend who asked me why he hadn’t gotten a note from Michael or a picture of the walk. This friend every year generously donates to this great cause. I have tried to post a great big thank you on Facebook and on the group email I send out but his comment has weighed on me and rightly so. He has inspired me to use this year as a Giant Thank You Note.

For those of you who are new friends or are seeing this annual appeal for the first time let me briefly fill you in. My wife and I have been blessed with a son on the Autism spectrum. Shortly after his diagnosis we attended the first walk at Casperkill Country Club. We cried the entire day but realized we weren’t alone and that more people needed to know what our son Michael, along with so many others and their families, were dealing with. That was 14 years ago. To date, with the generosity of our friends, colleagues and family, we have raised over $200,000 dollars for this great cause in that time. This brings me back to my Thank You note.

To those who have given so generously throughout the years my heartfelt thanks. Please know that you have made such a difference in the lives of so many families. Your dollars have been able to make available so many programs for so many. Big things like seeing the smiling faces of the kids on horses prancing around the paddock to small things like parents, who are stressed to their limits, being able to have a qualified specialist come to their house to watch their kids so they might be able to actually go to dinner and a movie or have a single night of respite.

I am always moved to tears when the checks start coming in. The big check from Broadway Cares always knocks me off my feet. The continuing support of PRG (Production Resource Group) led by my friend Darren DeVerna, who has been there from the first fundraising effort 13 years ago, continues to amaze me. The folks who send very substantial checks to us and help us get to these totals every year are godsends. I must say though that every year I receive checks from some who I know are struggling and yet they send a check for ten or fifteen dollars to help out. That is when I know two things that I am blessed to know such generous and giving human beings and two, that one day Autism will be figured out and that this alarming rate will be reversed and that will be because of everyone of you and your commitment to all of these children and their families.