Before the dust settles I wanted to thank all the generous donors who helped me reach $1000 raised for Autism Queensland. At times it was really just my family paying me to go away and stop bothering them, but at other times it was strangers who really wanted to encourage me and give to a cause.
In the four months since I begain writing about autism and Asperger’s and also since I started training for the big race, I’ve been amazed at the number of people who are touched by this epidemic. Barely a day goes by where I don’t learn something new about autism and it’s usually through someone telling me they’ve been recently introduced to autism.
Anecdotally, I hear tales from my mother and sister and sister-in-law who are all teachers, about the growing incidences of children being diagnosed with autism and how schools are failing those children’s needs. As a community we need to demand better care from government and from educators and also lead the way in how that care should be delivered. Organisations such as AEIOU and Autism Queensland (and its associated state-by-state branches) are filling a need left by the schools to cater for children who have additional learning needs. But this model can’t continue, largely because community fundraising efforts like mine, can only do so much. We need large scale funding and a new model to cope with the changing needs of our children.
And now I’ll step down off my soap box and just offer a big thank-you to everyone who donated to my cause. My single largest donor was media agent Max Markson, who I’ve met a couple of times when he’s been in town. The first time was when Mick Gatto was in Brisbane to promote his new book I, Mick Gatto. We lunched at Gambaro’s in Caxton Street. Max was, as I’d expected, a larger than life character, big on charm and personality. The second time we met was over lunch at Il Centro, Eagle St Pier, when Max was in town with Rhonda Burchmore. Another Courier-Mail journalist, Jasmine Lill, lunched with Max, Rhonda and me. Just the four of us and it was a nice lunch, excellent food and wine.
As my training continued the editor of my Quest community newspaper, The Northside Chronicle, Andrew Dawson, gave space in his newspaper to run my story (see below).
Donations continued to trickle in slowly and as the big day loomed it looked as though I wouldn’t quite reach $1000, which really disappointed me. So I contacted Max and begged him to make up the shortfall. “Leave it with me. I will support you!” came his enthusiastic reply.
And he did.
So, here’s the roll call of my supporters:
- Max Markson
- Trina McLellan
- Maureen and Cliff Starling
- Murray Moore
- Eliza and Joseph Ryan
- Motiata
- Gabrielle Moore
- Richard and Jacqui Shea
- Carley
- Jenny
- Suzanne and Felicity Mittleheuser
- Happily Ever After
- Trude Blizzard
- Julie Thomson
- Barry Rutherford
- Deb H
- Miss S
- Jason Davis
- Felicity Hearn
- Dan and Lana Logovik
- Phoebe McDonald
- Brooke Jacobson
- DJ Moore
- Matilda Moore
- Finley Moore
- Brian Andrews
- Paul Starling
- Natasha Koroloff
- Richard de Waal
- Carrie Cox
- Plus two anonymous donors – thank you!!
I’m so very grateful to everyone for their kindness and generosity. Thank-you.
