We had a wonderful time at the Walk Now for Autism 5K walk yesterday! The weather was good--sunny some of the time, windy ALL of the time, cold--(well, we've decided that Chicago will never warm up. We're just going to blow through spring and summer and head right back to freezing cold. Thank goodness for Mississippi and Florida!) But the weather was completely secondary to the event that we were privileged to participate in!
Will has raised $415 to date, well over his $250 goal! Thank you so much to those who helped him out. We really saw this as an opportunity for Will to get involved in a way that he could make an impact with a major community event. One of Will's friends, schoolmates and fellow Cub Scout has autism. If you asked Will what he's learned from being a part of this, I'm not sure he could put it into words just yet. What we wanted him to see was that even a 9 year old 3rd grader from Oswego, IL, could make an impact. We wanted him to develop some of his leadership "seeds" that he has rooted in him already. We wanted him to care about someone, about a group of people, other than himself--to put himself in another's shoes. We'll see if that all sinks in one day :)
Will put together a flier for his classmates so that they could donate to his walk, too. He had $65 donated from his class! Some went online to do it while others sent it in to the classroom. We put it all under "Mrs. Devine's 3rd Grade Class." We've already talked about getting the whole school involved next year! When we organized the "Change for Change" drive right after Katrina, our school donated over $1800 for the Key Chapter of Red Cross, which includes my home county of Lauderdale, MS. This school has a big heart and these kids are just amazing!
Oh--and you should know that we got to be ON the FIELD at SOLDIER FIELD!!! Will and I faked a little football, a little Rex Grossman pass, a little "juke" from Will. Check out the video as we were pretty awe-struck in such a Country Mouse way!! Go Bears!
Check out Will's Autism Now page at: http://www.walknowforautism.org/c.kpILKTOCJqG/b.3616691/siteapps/personalpage/ShowPage.aspx?c=kpILKTOCJqG&b=3616691&sid=cjIPL2OILdJRI9MTLwH
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