October 10 2006

Asperger’s (HFA) Mom 

After fighting with the school board for years and home schooling my son for grade 3, I have now decided to open a small home based school for High Functioning Autistic/Asperger’s Children.

These children are extremely bright and eager to learn; however, as much as the school board claims there is a place for everyone, there is not always a place for them!
Many HFA/Asperger children suffer academically because there disorder is either not recognized, misunderstood or simply mistreated. Unfortunately HFA/Asperger’s is an invisible disability to the untrained eye. Where these boys and girls "look like" they should be capable of socializing and learning under the same circumstances as all other boys and girls this is not always the case.
The social aspect alone is a never ending battle field, not understanding social norms, cues and etiquette can make life confusing and unbearable for both children and adults alike.
I have witnessed HFA/Asperger's children excel, to not limits, when they are educated in smaller controlled environments.

On Friday the school threatened to call the police on my son (he is 10 years old) thinking this might make him behave, funny NO!!

The school board would like me to think that my son I some sort of enigma, but I know better. There are other Aspie kids out there, suffering at the hands of a school board who has not real place for them. Autism classrooms are available as are PDD and sensitivity classrooms, however Asperger’s children are too high functioning, too unpredictable, too violent THEY JUST DON’T FIT THE CRITERION.  These are the excuses I have heard for years ‘so lets make them conform’ this is the boards great idea, Inclusion inclusion inclusion. IT DOESN’T WORK!!!

There are other parent fighting this fight, others, who have to leave work 2 or three days per week to pick up there child at the schools request (DEMAND) in the middle of the day. Others who are struggling to home school because the other options are too expensive or the waiting lists are too long.

Specialty private schools where Autistic children are welcome, cost anywhere from $4000.00 to $5500.00 per MONTH.

$55000.00 (that’s right, fifty five thousand dollars) per year for a ten month program! That does not include before and after school care, lunch, technologies fees, uniform, extra curricular activities etc.

Oh and there are no guarantees that the program will benefit your child   academically, emotionally or socially.

OUR PLAN

I would like to open a small private home school for Asperger’s children in primary grades.

APSERGER SOLUTIONS Inc.

• Our school would consist of 8 to 10 children
• One full time educator and two classroom support workers (with Asperger’s experience)
• An Occupational therapist and Speech and Language Pathologist to help implement continuous programming (not just bi weekly visits)
• Self defense and social skill development
• Sensory integration, music therapy etc.
•  Over all, a safe place for our children to learn, excel and grow into productive members of society.

WHAT WE NEED TO MAKE OUR PLAN A REALITY

Funding to;

• Convert our brand new unfinished basement into a welcoming learning environment (approximately 1100 Square feet)
• To buy textbooks, notebooks, paper, pencils, chalk boards, chalk etc.
• Purchase O.T. supplies

Donations of

·        School textbooks grades 1-8  all subjects

·        Trampoline, hanging bag

·        Book shelves, desks

·        Desk top or Lap top computers

·        Sports equipment

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

For further information please email me at   aspergersolutionsinc@yahoo.ca

Thank you Michelle Mack (Joshua’s Mom)

     Hello,   I thank you for reading about my situation. Thank you.

Hi, never thought it would get this bad or I'd try something like this, but I need help.   I have three children, the oldest, age 12 is autistic.  He was diagnosed at age 2.5 and fairly severe - non verbal, self injurious, food allergies, bowel problems, incontinent, tantrumming etc etc.  Through lots of research I found out about the various biomedical options available for treating autism and began to obtain them for my son.

These treatments are all done by "alternative/complementary" medicine doctors, none of whom take medical insurance.  I submit my bills to my medical insurance company and they're mostly either not accepted due to it not being an approved treatment method by the AMA - ie: Chelation to remove toxic metals, or after reducing cost to what the insurance considers "reasonable" they then apply the deductible and the 80/20 split.  Usually this comes up to just about nothing.  These bills have totalled $30,000 - $40,000 per year for the last 6 years. It only adds up to a few thousand in medical deductibles as a refund on taxes

These medical treatments - chelation, diet, supplements, GI/neurological treatments etc along with behavior therapy, have all helped my son immensely - he is now verbal to the point of beginning conversational, has ever evolving imaginative play and social skills and tantrums, although still there, are decreasing.

It's all very stressful on my family both emotionally and financially.  Thank God for credit cards and being able to refinance our home (we're on our third time).  Although my husband has a decent job, I have not been able to work (I did accounting in my former life) due to the demands of having a disabled child. Just this year he was home for two months while I searched for a better placement after he was booted from district school due to behaviors.  What job would let you take two months off, not to mention the times I need to attend meetings, or pick him up.  There is also noone that can watch him due to his behaviors, my husband and I haven't had a night/day alone in 8 years.

I would be more than willing to help out anyone with the medical knowledge I've gained as well as any bookkeeping help or whatever else I could do as a trade off.  Our credit cards are almost at their limit, we still have two to three years of treatments left and I'm running out of ideas on what to do for financing.  I want to give my son the best chance he can at having as normal a life as possible. 

Thanks for any consideration

I am twenty one years old and affected by many problems. Although I have great internal stregth, I have come to realize many employeers do not care about how well you preform on a job if you cannot guarentee them constant employment. I have over come so much, but now I have reached a mountain I need help climbing. Any help, whether it be help financial or direction on how to pay this off even though I do not qualify for debt cancelation.  Please, whatever you can do to help would be appreciated. I don't want to thrive, I just want to survive and I am barely doing that know. I have listed them here, in hopes that others can understand why I have come to this point. I want to thank my friend who helped me to type this and edit it.

Autism

            It affects my ability to communicate well or clearly with others because I have few social skills. I am not able to understand or interpret nonverbal communication, tone of voice or much of which is not stated bluntly. I need to have a constant routine to limit number of meltdowns that occur. My other disorders also affect the symptoms of autism and how severe they are. The worse the other disorders are affecting me, the worse the autism seems to be.

            Sometimes I ‘zone out’, meaning that I do not hear what is going on around me; does not happen as much as it did. I have a hard time expressing myself verbally because I seem to think differently, and so therefore, I do not know how to express what I am thinking clearly and in a way others will understand. I also have a hard time understanding what others are saying all the time, this depends on how much is said at once, the complexity of what they are saying and how well I know them.

            I do much better typing and writing things out for some reason. It seems to be the best way to clearly explain myself and what I am thinking. It also does not help when there are a lot of noises or activity going around because of the fact I have problems filtering out those things and concentrating on what someone is saying or what I have to do. I have problems controlling the tone of my voice and the volume of it since I cannot judge how loud I talk. Also, at certain volumes or pitches, noises can hurt my ears. Sometimes I can deal with this problem, but not always.

            When under a lot of stress I have a tendency to rock or tap my foot up and down rapidly, causing me to leave or  take a break from what I am doing to calm down; if I cannot do this, I have to leave because it is a sign of anxiety, being overwhelmed, stressed out, etc. and could mean a meltdown is possible if I do not get out of whatever situation I am in.

Sensory integration dysfunction

            I am extremely sensitive to smells, sounds, textures. This means that I cannot always deal with the outside world because too much is going on. I have a hard time concentrating if there is background noise when someone is speaking.

Body Awareness

            I am not good with balancing, coordination, am very clumsy, run into things a lot, run into people. I have a hard time judging distances and figuring out where things are in relative to myself.

Depression

            Mostly occurs during winter months or bad weather. It causes me to want to withdraw and makes the autism and anxiety problems worse. Makes me very tired and may cause some of my sleep problems.

            Sometimes am unable to deal with the world and have to stay in my own space or suffer from panic attacks where I feel like I cannot breathe, am very dizzy, headaches and feel like everyone is watching me and things are about to happen. An unusual fear of failure and messing up occurs often. Often feel the need to be a  perfectionist so as not to be noticed by others which results in a lot of stress, as well as frustrations and exhaustion.

            This is in my legs because my bones did not form right or align correctly. It is easy for my joints in my legs to give out or do something that causes me to fall or almost fall. Causes pain.

Fibromyalgia

            I have wide spread pain through out my body, making me some days unable to move or move well. Cold and bad weather makes this worse. Sometimes I cannot walk because my legs are like jell-o (don’t think this is part of Fibromyalgia). Some days are better than others. I have days where I feel as though I am moving through a fog because I have trouble thinking and such. During a flare up last school semester (last two or three weeks) I did attempt to go to school, but once there, I could not remember where my classes were.

ADD/ADHD

            I have a hard time concentrating and staying on task. I also believe this is why I have major problems with organization and need to been doing something at all times.

Organic Mood Disorder

This is actually bipolar, the only difference is that it means the bipolar disorder was caused by something else in the brain (in this case, autism)       

This causes my moods to go up and down, sometimes very quickly. Medication does help, but some days am very easily frustrated which make it impossible to deal with normal things. At this time, I either have to stay inside my apartment or risk blowing up or not being able to function outside in the world. I do not believe I have the rapid-cycling anymore (my mood could change in minutes), but my moods can still shift from hour to hour. I have to be very attentive to what is stressing me out, overwhelming me, and try to control things that bother me to stop this from happening. This stops me from always being able to lead a normal life because I cannot deal with as much as others can. It also affects how much the sensory integration dysfunction affects me, as well as how bad my sleep problems are. This is separate from the depression diagnoses because of the fact that I experience depression on a seasonal bases, although I do take an anti-depression year round so that the depression episodes are not as severe. On top of this, I do experience the normal times of feeling depressed and than switching to feeling very hyper.  If it is during winter months, that is when the depression is at its worst.

Sleep Problems

To anyone who can help,

Recently the Center for Disease Control released that the prevalence of autism is 1 out of every 150 children. Families all over the United States are in desperate need to find ways to fund their intervention programs. If anyone has any information about how we can find ways to help families find funding, please let us know.

Thankyou for your time

Serve as a child advocate.

Help others even when I'm down to my last dollar.

I know how hard it is to deal with the task of a special needs child.

Will help out in return.

Im just a single mom needing a little help this month due to missing work. Im not trying to sell anyone a long drawn out sob story ..  I only need abt 200.00 or so to get me through until my payday at the end of October . Yes I do  have a ons with a disabilit, but I am not trying to have a pity party. It is very difficult because he has Asperger's Autism Syndrome .. and to most people looking at him they would never know he is autistic .. i work hard everyday and receive no support form his father I just filed for child support not too long ago but it take froever because his dad is out of state .. now I am in hsi predicament and any help anyone can provide will be greatly appreciated. Im just trying to cover my basics for this month .. gas  to get to work etc ..

Thanks for your consideration.

Monica

I am 29 years old I have a 9 year old son, and an 11 year old step son. I live with my husband, children, and dog. I work fuul time with autistic children, I am malso going to school for a masters in clinical psychology, I plan to help the families of criminals who have been deemed criminally insane. My husband is the director of kitchen operations for a local family restuarant chain. We are a happy, good natured, and giving family who are very much in need of help.

My son who is 15 and has Severe Autism (he doesn't speak) needs a computer very badly.

I am a single mother and not making ends meet as it his.......can anyone help?

Thank you so much

Debbie Floyd

I have a seven year old little girl who has autism. I work full time but the expense of all the doctors visits and therpy's she needs that insurance does not pay for is hard to live.I also have to pay sitters out of pocket, i want my little girl to get everything availiable but money prevents that when you don't have it.

any help will be greatly appreciated.

please email me at daze65@iwon.com

or i can take donations thru http://www.paypal.com

address thru paypal daze@repairman.com

thank you and god bless

I AM THE "SINGLE" PARENT OF 2 AUTISTIC SON. WE ARE IN NEED OF FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE. I AM INTERESTED IN FINDING RESOURCES FOR YOUNG ADULTS WITH AUTISM. PEOPLE OVER 21 YEARS OF AGE. ALSO HOME BASED JOBS WITH NO START UP FEES

I am the mother of a wonderful boy with autism.  As a woman separated from her husband, debt has been unavoidable.  I moved away from my husband because he could not give us the support we needed.  Eight months after moving to New Orleans, my son and I lost almost everything we had just acquired, and had to start over again, due to Hurricane Katrina. During this time, I had accumulated much debt on my credit cards.  The fact is that I don't have bad credit.  If I was able to pay all of my bills off right now, I would have a very decent credit score.  The credit card that carries the highest balance, is charging 29.99% interest.rate--due to my high balance.  Yes, I am thankful that I can pay on that and a loan I have every month.  Then, what am I asking for?  I am asking for a way to pay off this debt so my son and I can move on.  I drive a ten year old car hoping I don't have to buy a new one because I can't afford it.  Are there any grants that I can apply for or any programs that are out there that can help me obtain a clean slate?  Please contact me. Thank you.

My name is Cole,

I have an autistic spectrum disorder and I have lost my job after being hospitalized for issues relating to my disability. I was unable to return to work because of the work environment. There were too many people talking and too much noise and flourescent lights and intimidating social situtations every minute of the workday.

I have applied to vocational rehabilitation in my area and have applied for SSI and food stamps and state financial assistance. All of these things are taking so long and my wife and I have sold what valuables we had and have loans on our cars that are due. I know they are "just" things but I feel that my decades of struggle to become a productive person with a life worth living is slipping away.

I can no longer afford to see my counselor, prescriber or physicians and rent was due days ago. I am struggling with memory issues and problems with sequencing activities, this is what lead to my job stress and hospitalization.

I worked as hard as I was able at that job and I let my team down by not coming back to work. Before I left work for the hospital, my performance deteriorated until I was unable to do my job and pretended to my team that I wasn't having a problem.

I have been told that I am smart, and that is why I was able to get that job in tech support for Juniper Networks in the first place. I was proud that I helped my team bring in new products to the Juniper brand by supporting customers in their transition into being Juniper customers.

I might be smart and capable of technical work but functionally I cannot work in most environments where I am expected to be socially adept or even resonably socially capable for any length of time.

I am still greiving my mother's death in 2006 and learning how to be a married person. I am mostly unable to manage money or conceptualize value of work or materials. My wife is having her own issues and I do what I can to comfort her and I made a promise to care for her as best as I can.

I am struggle to keep believing that I might be able to be educated in another technical field besides I.T. where I can work alone or with minimal social interactions at a job where my attention to detail can be an asset.

I don't know what another person can tell me that will help. I have done what I know how to do and am trying to follow through with the actions I have described above but I often just forget what time it is or what day it is and I know it will take me weeks to finish the paperwork and make more appointments.

Mostly I just want to be a good person and a good husband to my wife but I think that because I am not living up to the "rules" of her family and my family that I really am a bad person. Sometimes I just want a new yo-yo.

I am afraid most of every day and I just want to feel good like I did when I was doing better at my job and making enough to take my wife to dinner and a movie. Those days I felt like I was doing the "right" things because everyone was happy.

Thanks for reading this.

-Cole

Hi I am a 29 year old mother of 4 children and 2 step children. My husband was recently layed off. We were given a 2 bedroom trailer for 4 of us to live in. My 2 step children live with there mother and My older 2 are staying with my mother for school purposes. I have tried about everything that I can think of to get some help to pay bills and lot rent and have come up empty handed. My daughter is 7 months old and growing out of all her cloths as is my 4 almost 5 year old son (whome may be autistic). We were able to get a small dorm sized fridge when we moved in this trailer and it is working but the going to the store every other day is killing me. I dont know what to do anymore. I have gotten help from both of our families and dont really want to ask them anymore. Its been 2 months now and our bills are racking up. My son will be 5 on the 31st and i am somehow hoping to pull off a small birthday for him. I forgot to add..... We also are borrowing a car and the owner needs it back asap. Hard to do when we have no job, no money and no way to find any of those things.

Hi,

I am 21 years old and am gradutation soon from college. I went to college because I really had no choice. I am autistic, bipolar, and have fibromaligia (I have a few more, these are the main ones), so I needed health insurance. With no job experience and no knoweldge of any programs to help me, I took the college route.  Over the course of school, the Fibromyalgia

SymTrend is a web and handheld computer based system for symptom tracking, progress monitoring, trigger detection, treatment evaluation, care coordination, and behvaioral guidance/coaching. It is used in both special education and medicine.  It can be used for a wide variety of conditions. We have had a focus in the areas of Autism/Asperger Syndrome and neurology/neuropsychiatry.

Watch the video on our home page to learn more about it.

We are a non profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of disabilities and helping families find the resources they need. We are currently working on a website to provide info to families. We also do a lot to help local families in BUtler County. We help with resources, school supplies, info, and Christmas help. We are currently seeking donations to fund our projects. We are 501. So all donations are tax deductible. You can donate through paypal. Send donations to fightnautismnow. You can make a difference in a family's life.

Hello,

I am Lisa.  Please go to my Web Site.  I really need your help. Click here to read about my stressed life.

My 5 year old son has an autism spectrum disorder and requires occupational therapy, vision therapy and counseling totalling 1,080 per month out of pocket after insurance pays.  I am a single mom and after paying for his school (955 per month), rent (850 per month), utilities, gas and food, there is already pretty much nothing left. I am driving a 1989 cadillac that is falling apart since we can't afford a car payment.  I am blessed to have insurance through my employer, but the $1,080 per month is AFTER they pay.  

I need 600 dollars immediately to help me get up to date on outstanding balance for his occupational therapy.

We live in Washington State.

I can be reached at melissa_ann_1@netzero.net

Well, we got into a really deep hole money wise.   Its a struggle with 4 children, Im trying to pay everything, but not enough coming in.  Im 6 months or so from hopefully, producing goats milk, if I can get enough money together that I can get the equipment to legally sell the milk.   And to help pay for some property so that my animals can be happy and my children,  Two of our children have minor disabilities, so I have to be around to take them to OT and physio, we get no financial help from anyone.  If I end up being successful in my endeavour I intend to use it to employ people with disabilities like Autism, Downs, and Depression.  Trouble is - we are so deep in debt - and I find that people dont take you seriously and wont help.   Enterprise boards will only help you when you are up and running not when youare trying to get up.   Nobody is helping us, and we are struggling.  We are on metered electric, and are really really struggling.    We need money basically to succeed, then we can help others.  Bridget Sullivan, Graffoge, Ballinalee, Co. Longford, Ireland. 

Wasn't sure how to respond to the fact I visited links someone recommanded. I have gotten in touch with most of the people from those links, but so far, I am told that I should qualify for SSI and to look towards the DVR for help. It looks as though I am doing all I can I am told. Perhaps this is because they really don't have anything for those pursuing higher education? I know that I was diagonsed just at the time autism was getting into the medical dictonary and that there have been a lot of research and help being opened up--unfortently, they are focusing their efforts on children. I seem to be stuck in the spot where if I had been born even five years ealier, I would not have had the resources I did had, but than again, if I had been five years later, a lot more could have been done for me and to help me out.
It makes me very disappointed that those who seem to be decicated to autism are focusing just on children. What about us adults who had parents who made sure doctors did whatever they could, despite not knowing much at all about autism and those of us who were able to benifit from those treatments despite the doctors saying it would never help?
It is as if people are saying, hey you have beaten the odds and are now higher functioning than you were but sorry, we don't know how to deal with you and well, children are more important. Its not fair and I feel bad ranting about it here, but it is frustrating to see the little help that is avaliable or known even from Autism Societies for adults. Who knows, maybe if I didn't have all the other problems, I could be better off, but I don't want to think of that.
I am who I am and my best is turning out to not be good enough. This is terrifing for me since I have a little over a year, less if my disabilities affect me as badly as they did last semester. Last semester, I was stuck in bed for three weeks because of the fibro and I cannot find any help. That is why I came here because all I want is a way where I can afford my medication, doctor bills and some other necissities. Please, if anyone has any more ideas, please share.

Im a mom - with 4 kids.  My dream is to get a goat farm going,and employ people with disabilities to look after the animals, and to help others who maybe can't go out to work full time but maybe work an hour or two.   We got some of the goats,and i would love to be able to get a proper farm, and dairy facilities and legally produce and sell the milk, and make ice cream and other dairy products.   But unfortunately, goats are still considered 2nd class citizens and its hard to get anything when your broke.  Nobody takes you seriously.   When you have no money, no banks, or anyone will give grants to get things started.  We need, land, machinery, etc.  But nothing to do it with. We were behind on our mortgage, electric, and other areas.   Our youngest daughter needs special shoes which will cost  300 but we can't afford it.     I don't want to be a millionaire, but I would like to be free of mortgages, or if we got a farm, and the money to pay for it and the equipment necessary to get started, would be fantastic.  

My husband and I were separated from 2004 to 2006 and brought our marriage back to God and were reconciled in July, 2006. In August, to make a good start and because methamphetamine dealers were taking over our neighborhood, we moved with our three children and dog to a smaller town. I had a place all set up to rent. As we were pulling the moving truck out of the driveway, the landlord called to say the new place...not so much. So we were essentially homeless but chose to proceed to the new town anyway.

We stayed on a family farmhouse for 3 months but that was not to be permanent as it had no furnace. In November, 2006 we found a great house to rent in the new town, my husband had been working construction and I had some money coming in from my writing.

He lost his job in December.

He found a better one in January.

I worked part time retail from January to May but at that point summer came and what I would make would all be going to daycare for our four year old and we did not qualify for day care assistance because I was not working 28 hours a week.

Over the summer I was promised $10,000 from a single writing contract (signed and notartized) and another $2-5,000 from various writing activities, some of which were potential clients who, for whatever reason never signed their contracts.

I received none of this money. The $10k was promised in May and I still don't have it. The rest, well, I guess it is their perogative if they sign up or not but they said they were going to in July and August. This money was going to go to the landlady to buy the house on contract. Now her own child has moved back to town and being on a month to month lease she can oust us to get her own child in the house.

We did make the mistake of paying groceries and lights and school expenses before rent.

That will NEVER happen again. We will pay for the roof over our heads first because we have more options for procuring food, etc. I take ownership for the mistake and it will not repeat.

I am now working a call center job with part time evening hours and will get my first paycheck on October 3. I also have an interview for a part time admin assistant job and I have the exact experience of this job -- admin for a national nonprofit -- I worked as a temp for the exact same nonprofit at a different location doing the exact same thing and now I know a lot more about nonprofit management so I would be great at this job. Unfortunately we have to be out by the 28th. Yeah 4 days from now. And we don't have a place yet. "It's rented." "It's been rented."  "No pets." "No children." "It's been rented." "Do you have good credit?"

Husband has been working steady all year at the same job never missed a day and has had two raises. However it only brought him up to $9.75 an hour which is not enough for five people to live on.

Our mistake in paying other expenses and bills before rent did catch up to us but we will never do it again.

We need $1500 for moving expenses but will take whatever we can get to not leave the landlady who has been generally good to us up til now in the lurch. I tried to have a yard sale but as it was a cool windy day it only made $50.

We have strong faith that God will find us the perfect house (this one turned out not to be ideal as the ceiling fell in on my daughter's head one day as she was sitting on the computer minding her own business.

I have bipolar disorder and my teen son has autism and my husband has Marfan's so we have our struggles and medical bills too but right now we just need a new place to live immediately.

I also have faith that one day my $10k will come in. After all they signed a legal contract so they can't just say, "not so much" at this point. I could go after them if they continue to delay or make excuses but for now I want to work with them. Should that ship come in, I vow to help the next person or more than one person or family with at least as much $$$$ as I receive on here.

I think that is what will make this community thrive.

Thank you so much for your consideration and God bless you and your loved ones.

A (wife) B (4 year old son) C (11 year old daughter) D (teen son) E (dad) F(cat - may she rest in peace) G (black Labrador dog).

Greetings!

I'm new to this process, but so in need of help that I am willing to shoot for the moon in hopes of discovering that special star who will assist in making my dream come true. So heres my story.  A few years back I was on the road to success, recently married, educated and working on my dream as a newsreporter.  When my husband and I discovered that I was due to have our first child we also discovered that i needed to undergo chemo.  So for the next few years following my child's birth I was in a heavy weight fight for my life ( literally).  I am happy to report that I beat the beast and I WON!  Ok...but heres the strange and ONLY funny part about finding out you may die...It makes you REALLY wanna live! LOL ...For over 2 years I laid in the bed suffering in pain and all I could think of was the things I thought I had PLENTY of time to accomplish. I made a list and that led to making a deal with God..I said" Lord, if you will bless me with getting me up on my feet again, I will do all these things that I put off."  So here I am, and I am going for each and every one.

One of my highest dreams has been to have my own talk show. I worked on this project for over a year and I now have the opportunity of a lifetime.  My show which has been developed has been approved for airing on PBS ( KVCR) here in Palm Springs California.  The show will spotlight community events and happenings which are ALWAYS taking place here in the desert community. I am going after a demographic which has never been targeted.  Women, Minorities of all races and Young Urban Professionals, our fastest growing community.  I have completed my first show, its fabulous and I am ready to take on the world..or at least all of southern California, since thats how far my show will broadcast. ( 0ver 109 cities/5 million homes)

My only holdup and problem-  With such a great opportunity I don't want to see this dream slip through my fingers. PBS is known for quality televisions and not advertising commercials. In order to handle ongoing production of my show, I need the support of a Corporate or Private Sponsor.  I am also told that a foundation supporting the show would work as well. Palm Springs is known for people of wealth, but unlucky for me, I just don't run in these circles, so when they come together for social events, I am never on the guest list. How then I keep asking myself, do I seek their support?  Look, I'm not asking for a hand out, I can provide through my show entry into 5 million homes in Southern California, including Los Angeles County. ( That makes for great name recognition for my supporter and sponsor)

Now you wonder, Why am I am fighting so hard for this opportunity?  Well, for a few reasons, First because it is my passion, second, because I promised myself and God ( a deals a deal afterall) and last because my child has Autism. I am a full time care-giver for him and I know that I would be a better person for him, if I had something else on the side which stimulates me. I know that with my passion for addressing issues and topics, I can bring a greater awareness within this region to Autism and the resources which are available to parents.

So there it is, I have a opportunity and all I need right now is a wonderful person, called YOU. Won't you come forward and partner with me in this venture?  No, the money would not go to me, any assistance would go the production company and station to cover production costs.  It may be a while before I even make anything, but thats when you know your in love with what your doing...its when your willing to do it for FREE!!!!

If you are a philanthropist ( and I'm praying your reading this Mr. Gates) and you just want to see someone makes a fresh start and support themselves long term in their dream, then please contact me. Or look at it this way, How great would it be to know that you were the person who gave OPRAH her first start? 

I'll be watching for you.

NewsAngel