A year for autism

As most of you know, Dovely Quilts annually picks a not-for-profit cause to highlight. This year, the focus will on autism. Throughout the year I will be working to help spread awareness and raise funds for both a local and regional receipiant. Autism currently affects roughly every one in every 200 children and our society is still learning how this impacts us.

Locally we will be supporting Help Autism which directs funds towards local children who have outgrown their birth-to-three coverage and fall into a gap where medical expenses and therapy often falls directly on parents instead of insurance. Regionally we will be supporting the Autism Society of Southeastern Wisconsin.

Again this year there will be ways you can help out raising funds for these two groups. First, we will have pillow case kits available in the store for $12.00. The kit will make one pillowcase that incorporates the Autism Awareness puzzle fabric you can find in the webshop. With the kit you may donate back your pillowcase to be given to a child affected by autism, or you can donate the pillowcase back to the shop to be sold to raise additional funds. If you do not trust your sewing abilities, but would like to a pillow made, you can buy the kit and give it back to have the pillow made for a child with autism. And if you're really desparate, and hate sewing, you can buy a finished pillowcase from the shop and either keep it for yourself and donate it back to be given to a child. The pillowcase project will last the entire year and we have included a printable PDF, simple set of instructions for your use. Thanks to Helen for giving me a quick lesson on how to make these fast pillowcases.


Throughout the year, I will try to give you updates on other opportunities to learn more about autism. Just last week ABC's "The View" had an hour-long special presentation that focused on autism. Watch for it on reruns. We will also have informational brochures at the shop. Nationally there are a number of organizations that work on awareness and networking on autism including CAN (Cure Autism Now). Currently the Autism Society of Southeastern Wisconsin is organizing their annual fundraising ball and Help Autism is working at organizing a fall golf outing. What the website for updates.