We’re big supporters of the Friendship Circle of Michigan, an incredible international organization providing support for families of children with special needs. One of their most popular programs pairs children with teen volunteers, and it’s so successful that many of the volunteers maintain their friendships with their younger buddies after they go away to college. Their headquarters are right in our backyard and our relationship with them goes back to long before we had the idea to create Birdhouse.
This September 2nd, the Friendship Circle will be putting on their 6th annual Walk4Friendship, their largest fundraiser of the year. Dani, our stunning chief-of-marketing birdguru, has captained her own teams every year since the Walk’s inauguration and this year she’s leading all of us as the head of Team Birdhouse for Autism!
We always set our sights high and Walk4Friendship is no different. Dani set a goal of $20,000 and put a rockstar team together, and we just flew by that number this week! Currently we stand at $20,111. And when we hit $18,000 a few weeks ago, we became platinum level corporate sponsors! It feels so good to do something like this for an organization that does so much for special kids like ours.
How’d we do it? Well, the answer is YOU. You, our supporters, fans, and teammates. We have been surrounded by such incredibly supportive friends who have taken the pledge to walk with us, donated to the cause, and helped spread the word. We took to our personal facebook pages, sent out emails, and never lost an opportunity to tell people about this great event we’re participating in. It’s been so wonderful to see the list of walkers on Team Birdhouse grow and to feel the love and support all around us.
If you’re in the Detroit area and want to join our team (or if you’re out of town and want to fly in!) click here and sign up. We’d love to have you!
In a related fundraiser, the Friendship Circle’s Bike4Friendship is currently making its way across the country from Los Angeles to New York. 3,279 miles in just under 7 weeks! I had the pleasure of riding with them last week as they passed through our home town! I took the day off last Wednesday to ride from the Friendship Circle in West Bloomfield, MI down to Toledo, Ohio (about 80 miles). That’s me under the sign with my arms crossed. A great day!
With love,
-Ben