The Last Few Months @ TheAUTSPOT.com

Throughout the first half of 2010, many different organizations have been playing key roles in providing guidance and support to the families affected by autism, and TheAUTSPOT.com has been present at every step of the way to help these organizations fulfill their missions. This past March, TheAUTSPOTfoundation teamed up with the Los Angeles Clipppers and the Donald Sterling Foundation to host the 2^nd Autism Awareness Clipper Night. About 200 parents and children from the Talk About Curing Autism organization and TheAUTSPOT.com were able to enjoy a free night of professional Basketball at the Staples Center, as the Los Angeles Clippers battled the Golden State Warriors. The Donald Sterling Foundation does a lot for the city of Los Angeles and has been so generous over the years through their efforts to invite various support groups and community outreach programs to the Los Angeles Clippers games. Donald Sterling and company show great support for TheAUTSPOTfoundation and the foundation’s efforts to give aid to the families in the autism community.

The Autism Research Institute always seems to be the greatest provider for national autism related seminars by hosting their bi-annual autism conferences each year. This past April, they held their Defeat Autism Now Conference in Baltimore, Maryland and were glad to have TheAUTSPOT.com be a part of it. Hundreds of people were in attendance, and it really went to show just how many people were willing to share their support for autism awareness month. The conference hotel was located right by Johns Hopkins Medical Center, where autism was first diagnosed as a disorder 67 years ago. Many parents and specialists in attendance were delighted to learn what TheAUTSPOT.com was all about, and were even more excited to share the news of our line community with their autism support group members once they got back at home.

Autism Speaks is well known for their highly attended “Walk Now for Autism” events that take place annually across the U.S., and TheAUTSPOT.com made sure to make their appearance at their hometown Walk for Autism on April 24th in Los Angeles. TheAUTSPOT.com has established a respected reputation of handing out live goldfish to all the children at the walks, and this was a tradition that TheAUTSPOT.com continued at this walk for autism as well. The walk was another huge success with 20,000 people in attendance and over $1.25 million generated for autism research!

The Autism One Conference kicked off May 24^th, in Chicago, Illinois as usual, and the four day event brought together families from all over the world that either parented or worked with children with autism. Hundreds of specialists, professors, and service providers were amongst the crowd, and TheAUTSPOT.com got to share the stage in the mission to bring motivation and new research to people who have a heart for the autism spectrum disorders. On the last day of the conference, all the attendees got the opportunity to hear Jenny McCarthy make her keynote speech in the grand auditorium before the conference was wrapped up.

Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) held its 7^th Annual Family Picnic Sunday, June 13^th near their headquarters in Irvine. Throughout the past couple of years, TheAUTSPOT.com has worked in close collaboration with the non-profit to coordinate and provide community outings for families in the Southern California region. TheAUTSPOT.com warmly accepted TACA’s invite to attend the family picnic, and felt rewarded to cross paths with Talk About Curing Autism once again to educate the committed families involved in the organization about the online support at TheAUTSPOT.com. Together, TACA and TheAUTSPOT.com presence in the autism community has helped many families find answers and solutions for caring for their children.

TheAUTSPOT.com also started off the summer in great fashion by hosting its first ever annual summer picnic at Bixby Park in Long Beach, California this past Saturday. Local families that have already gotten involved in TheAUTSPOT.com or have heard about what TheAUTSPOT.com provides got the chance to actually meet one another and share the same kind of support that TheAUTSPOT.com promotes. Thanks to the efforts of our most active AUTSPOT advocate, Jane Tipton-King, we were able to get a moon bounce and bubble blower donated to us for the picnic and all the children couldn’t be happier. We provided aresource fair, which families took advantage of by gathering useful information to help their children, and the afternoon was finalized with a raffle which awarded families with educational books, therapy sessions, and access to recreational events.        

Since we launched in November, many more families and specialists have been getting involved with TheAUTSPOT.com which is currently approaching 6,000 members. We have thousands of resources Nationwide (therapists, doctors, day care programs, after schools programs, special education lawyers, dentists, summer camps, recreation, support groups, etc.) in our resources library, and in July we will begin the transition to incorporate resources from across the globe, as well as many more from the United States. The blogs and groups sections have also been a tremendous help to our users. TheAUTSPOT.com members have been asking for advice and opinions about countless different topics from potty training to college education, and have been receiving a ton of feedback from other site members and specialists who are willing to share their knowledge and experience. We have also realized how difficult it can be for families to find out about all of the helpful autism relatedsupport groups, seminars, and conferences that are taking place across the nation. The Calendar section at TheAUTSPOT.com is just beginning to fill in that void.  We encourage you to take the time to see what is going on in the autism community across the nations, and post the autism related events that you know of in your local area, so that other people in the community can benefit from them as well. TheAUTSPOT.com has really begun to build a reputation of being the largest and most helpful online support system for all individuals that have ties to the autism spectrum disorders. Our efforts have even been recognized by two local newspapers in the Los Angeles County area. Click the links to view the articles: www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_14751220, http://www.pvnews.com/articles/2010/04/01/local_news/news4.txt

We look forward to seeing you at TheAUTSPOT.com, and please help us spread the word about TheAUTSPOT.com! We know that with your help, we can raise the level of autismawareness and create a bridge to link more experienced individuals with parents of newly diagnosed children so that the disorder can be more vigorously addressed with collaborative strength.