As all of my family and close friends are aware, my younger son, Vincent, has autism. Over the years we’ve learned that he is most happy and productive when working with animals and doing other work related to farming and gardening. He has worked at a horse boarding stable for the past 12 years.
A little over a year ago we became involved with the Hiram Farm Living and Learning Community, a non-profit organization that is developing an employment program for adults with autism based on an organic farm in Hiram, Ohio, just 12 miles from where we live. We’ve been really excited about this project because the organization was founded by a very energetic group of families of people with autism who seem to have no end of creative ideas on how to build a concept into a living and working program that is already having an impact. After less than two years of fund-raising, the program opened on a 120-acre organic farm last June. At the time there were six people being served and in the first year, the program has grown to serving 13 participants. Vincent began working at the farm one day a week in February of this year. Our hope is that he will increase his participation in the coming years so that Carol and I will have some peace of mind that Vincent will have a source of steady employment as well as the therapy programs that he needs for years to come.
Recently I assisted Hiram Farm in producing a video and submitting a grant application to the Pepsi Refresh Project. Pepsico is awarding 1.3 million dollars a month to projects submitted to a special web site that allows the public to choose the proposals that they feel are most deserving of support. The site requires you to register in order to vote so you will need to submit your e-mail address, but it’s easy to opt out of any e-mail lists or other annoying promotional mailings, so it’s perfectly painless. Our proposal is for a grant to fund the construction of a building on the farm that will serve as program space and administrative offices.
If you’d like to support this effort, use the link below to go to the Hiram Farm proposal on the Pepsi Refresh site and vote for our proposal. Oh, and it’s free!
http://www.refresheverything.com/hiramfarm
The above page contains the video presentation that I produced as part of the grant application.