Four years ago, Unlocking Autism was formed for the primary purpose of raising awareness to the general public regarding autism spectrum disorders. In Febuary of 1999, we launched the Open Your Eyes picture project designed to collect photographs of children with autism to help put a face to the disorder and show the public that the EPIDEMIC we knew existed was indeed affecting real people. The picutres were arranged by state on three foot by six foot display boards. The boards have appeared at all three national awareness rallies in Washington, DC and around the country at many events. Unlocking Autism has collected over 9500 pictures of people with autism ranging in age from 2 years to 54 years old. We have over 225 boards, which when hooked together are longer than TWO football fields and still represent LESS THAN 1/2 OF ONE PERCENT of the estimated 1.5 million peopled diagnosed with an autism spectum disorder in the United States alone! So...since we have to reprint the boards, we are sending out a request for pictures with two diffrent options! 1) If you have participated in the Open Your Eyes Project before and would like to send us an updated picture of your child, this is the time to do it! 2) If you have not participated in the Open Your Eyes project but would like to, we would LOVE to have you join us. AND...we have learned our lesson. The boards were large and diffcult to travel with reducing the number of places that we could bring the display. They were not "wind-friendly" and while they were light and easy to carry, they blew down a lot. (Big thank you to Rick Rollens year after year in DC and his duck-tape mastery to keep those boards standing!) Finally, as we learned this year, even though they were laminated, they were defintely NOT weatherproof. For the new phase of this project, the picutres will be arranged and laid out in the same manner that they were before, but will be printed on easily transportable, vinyl banners so that we can send them around the country to even more events!!! To help the project grow, MICHIGAN needs your help. Please let every person you know that is affected by autism and feel free to post this message on internet list that will allow it and reprint it in newsletters. As a Michigan Unlocking Autism Rep. I am calling on ALL Autism groups, orginations, ASA or anyone involved with Autism Spectrum Disorders in Michgan to help me collect pictures. I would love to set up an information table at your Autism function or send you information on this project. Cecelia Hammond MI UA Rep. Please contact me at: Subject line: OYE Project We are still convinced that our goal of 58,000 pictures, stretching the length of SEVENTEEN FOOTBALL FIELDS would certainly get our commuity's point across! Send the picture of the person you love to: Unlocking Autism Open Your Eyes Project P.O. Box 1403 Taylor, MI 48180 Release form in WORD can be downloaded here or to print form go here Participation dose not cost you anything, but we do ask for a donation of $ 5.00,10.00 or 15.00 per picture to help defray the cost of printing these colorful banners. |
Have you Opened Your Eyes To The Autism Epidemic ??? |
Four years ago, Unlocking Autism was formed for the primary purpose of raising awareness to the general public regarding autism spectrum disorders. In Febuary of 1999, we launched the Open Your Eyes picture project designed to collect photographs of children with autism to help put a face to the disorder and show the public that the EPIDEMIC we knew existed was indeed affecting real people. The picutres were arranged by state on three foot by six foot display boards. The boards have appeared at all three national awareness rallies in Washington, DC and around the country at many events. Unlocking Autism has collected over 9500 pictures of people with autism ranging in age from 2 years to 54 years old. We have over 225 boards, which when hooked together are longer than TWO football fields and still represent LESS THAN 1/2 OF ONE PERCENT of the estimated 1.5 million peopled diagnosed with an autism spectum disorder in the United States alone! So...since we have to reprint the boards, we are sending out a request for pictures with two diffrent options! 1) If you have participated in the Open Your Eyes Project before and would like to send us an updated picture of your child, this is the time to do it! 2) If you have not participated in the Open Your Eyes project but would like to, we would LOVE to have you join us. AND...we have learned our lesson. The boards were large and diffcult to travel with reducing the number of places that we could bring the display. They were not "wind-friendly" and while they were light and easy to carry, they blew down a lot. (Big thank you to Rick Rollens year after year in DC and his duck-tape mastery to keep those boards standing!) Finally, as we learned this year, even though they were laminated, they were defintely NOT weatherproof. For the new phase of this project, the picutres will be arranged and laid out in the same manner that they were before, but will be printed on easily transportable, vinyl banners so that we can send them around the country to even more events!!! To help the project grow, MICHIGAN needs your help. Please let every person you know that is affected by autism and feel free to post this message on internet list that will allow it and reprint it in newsletters. As a Michigan Unlocking Autism Rep. I am calling on ALL Autism groups, orginations, ASA or anyone involved with Autism Spectrum Disorders in Michgan to help me collect pictures. I would love to set up an information table at your Autism function or send you information on this project. Cecelia Hammond MI UA Rep. Please contact me at: Subject line: OYE Project We are still convinced that our goal of 58,000 pictures, stretching the length of SEVENTEEN FOOTBALL FIELDS would certainly get our commuity's point across! Send the picture of the person you love to: Unlocking Autism Open Your Eyes Project P.O. Box 1403 Taylor, MI 48180 Release form in WORD can be downloaded here or to print form go here Participation dose not cost you anything, but we do ask for a donation of $ 5.00,10.00 or 15.00 per picture to help defray the cost of printing these colorful banners. |
Have you ever wondered what the Picture Boards look like?? |
This page was last updated on: March 5, 2004
