For more than six years, Good Friend has been spreading its message about autism awareness, acceptance, and empathy to those who surround students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Along the way, and within co-founder Denise Schamens' own family, the unique challenges that the siblings of children with ASD face have become more visible to us […]
Last week, Denise and I attended and presented at the 6th annual WisABA Conference. At first, the disparity between the numbers of capital letters after our last names representing our degrees and certifications was intimidating to me. There we were, in the company of many highly-educated and -trained professionals in the fields of skilled service […]
Sometimes, Mondays ROCK! And yesterday was one of them. Good Friend kicked off an exhilarating, exhausting week Monday morning with a summary of the findings of the research study conducted by two professors at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. We're reserving the best bits of news for the guests of our annual Member Appreciation Night this Friday! […]
We have MOMENTOUS things to celebrate now and in the coming weeks! First, we successfully completed our $10,000 Kickstarter crowd-funding project for our new elementary school autism peer sensitivity film! Yahooooo!!! Special thanks to Rob Lindemann for his $500 donation. Because of Rob and other people who believe in our Awareness-Acceptance-Empathy mission, we are able […]
We are now in the hourly countdown of our KICKSTARTER crowd-funding campaign! With some additional donations made to our website and by check by Benny B., Pamme W., Les & Jeannette S., and others, I was able to post a large pledge for "We ALL Fit". We are now in a mad dash to find $6,400. Donations made […]
You are invited to make a difference. You are invited to be an inspiration. You are invited to celebrate friendship. You are invited to participate! So far, 21 of you have accepted our invitation to participate in backing our new autism peer sensitivity film, "We ALL Fit". Special thanks to $100 backers Kim Braatz, Jessica […]
Even though Denise Schamens and I have been providing Peer Sensitivity Workshops through Good Friend for nearly six years now, we are still often met with resistance about explaining a classmate with autism spectrum disorder's (ASD) differences. And we respect that. But admittedly, it makes us a little sad, because we've seen the benefit talking […]
We've been planning for this for a looooooooong time (just ask Good Friend co-founder Denise Schamens -- she'll tell you): the official start of our new elementary school film project! It's hard to believe it's been three years since we started work on Choosing To Be a GFF for middle school, and that How Can […]
Especially when families have school-aged children, summers are a time for travel. It takes extra bravery, flexibility, and planning if that family includes a child with autism, and there have been some key considerations I've taken as a mom that have reduced behavioral turbulence, so to speak. You know that picture you have in your […]