We Were Blue...Were You?

Each April 2, Autism Speaks celebrates Light It Up Blue along with the international autism community, in commemoration of the United Nations-sanctioned World Autism Awareness Day. Light It Up Blue is a unique global initiative that kicks-off Autism Awareness Month and helps raise awareness about autism. In honor of this historic day, many iconic landmarks, hotels, sporting venues, concert halls, museums, bridges and retail stores are among the hundreds of thousands of homes and communities that take part to Light It Up Blue.

My personal favorite is seeing some of our beautiful Canadian landmarks lit up in this way.
 

While this blog post is not part of our featured Community Charity Champions we do still feel that much more awareness needs to be raised on this topic.
 

Chances are you know someone who has autism or someone with a child who has autism as approximately 1 in 95 children are born with some form of this neurological disorder.
 

Personally I have had the privilege to meet 3 amazing kids with autism ~  both through personal acquaintances and co-workers. Lighting it up Blue isn't doesn't only support people with autism, but also the families and workers who support and care for them.

 

Sock Monkey Mamas lent it's own support by creating a special sock monkey just for the occasion. Just as other causes have a special ribbon that represent them the autism ribbon is very unique. It features brightly coloured puzzle pieces ~ which is just what our sock monkey looks like :)

 

We names our monkey "Blue" to honour this special day (which coincidentally is also the birthday of our Monkey Mama Linda!!!). Blue went to live with a very special little guy who has autism. We are really looking forward to pictures of them together!

 

For anyone interested in getting a glimpse of what it is like for a person with autism you should watch the movie Temple Grandin starring Claire Danes (one of my favorite actresses). This movie was recommended to me by the head of the local autism chapter and is truly inspiring. Here is one of my favorite Temple quotes:

 

 

“The worst thing you can do is nothing.

 

(re: teaching children with autism)”  

― Temple Grandin

Community Charity Champions - Katie Bears

We here at Sock Monkey Mamas believe in giving back ~ especially in our community. With this in mind we are going to start a feature we call: Community Charity Champions! Every month we will be auctioning off one of our custom, hand made sock critters to benefit our charity of choice. You will be able to bid online at our Facebook page using a special event invitation. We would really appreciate it if you could help us out  - bid on the item, share our event with others or donate directly to the charity itself!

This month we are featuring Katie Bears! We first came across this amazing charity  last year at the wedding of our close friend Kelsey. In August of 2009 Kelsey's close friend Katie passed away at a very young age. Lynda & Ian Fraser started this charity to honor their daughter Katie's generous spirit. You can find out more about their story HERE on their website.

Katie Bears donates stuffed animals to sick children or anyone else who needs one. The charity is so popular that they received donations of stuffed animals to the point where they ran out of kids to donate them to in Renfrew County. So what did they do? They took their show on the road - donating toys and money to build schools in Jamaica!!! Truly amazing...this April the Katie Bears crew is participating in the 19th Annual Max Keeping Foundation Rock n' Bowl April 6, 2013 AND THEY ARE IN NEED OF SPONSORS!!! Check out how to donate HERE  or check out their Facebook page HERE.

To help out with such valiant efforts Sock Monkey Mamas has created our first ever sock BEAR! We will be auctioning off this bear named Katja (she is a Russian circus bear) to aid in Katie Bear's fundraising for the bowling event. Check out the details of how you can bid on our Events Page.  As always any kind of support is appreciated. Bid &/or share the event on Facebook in support of this fabulous charity!

WE LOVE YOU KATIE BEARS!!!