My Friend Sheila writes…

After only 9 days of fund raising for our almost 5 year old son, Joshua to go to camp, we are already at 52% of your goal with your dear readers making up for half the donors (currently, totaling $1085)! Joshua is signed up and we are prepared to make the payment the week before he goes to DIR/Floortime Summer Camp on July 18th. Here is a little blurb about the focus of the camp, which helps kids like Joshua with autism:

“The camp space is set up with a variety of toys such as a dollhouse, home center, cars, trains, dress up, and arts and crafts. During the three-hour camp, there will be opportunities for inside and outside time, and snack/lunch time (bring your own snack/lunch). The focus of the camp is for the campers to engage in “free play” with their peers. The camp is not structured in the sense of the therapists & aides teaching skills, rather by embracing the DIR/Floortime approach we support the children with appropriate affect, gesture, language & sensory support that is sensitive to each individual child to facilitate their ability to share attention with one another, to engage & be engaged, to read & respond to one another’s invitation to play & to sustain interactions during spontaneous play thus supporting their functional emotional developmental capacities.”

If anyone wants to check out more of Joshua’s story, and link to the ChipIn page, they can go to our blog: www.raisingautisticchildren.com. We will also take donations by check and people can send me a message and I’ll give them our mailing address.

Thanks, again. We are so grateful for your friendship and the willingness of our brothers and sisters in Christ to join us in this journey to help Joshua navigate this life with autism, and, Lord willing, we can see him succeed in defeating this condition.

If you can pitch in, that would be great. Josh is a sweet kid and his family are good people.