I recently got an email from Playhouse Square, our local theatre here in Cleveland, announcing that they are doing a sensory friendly production of the play Frozen. If you aren’t familiar with sensory friendly productions, they are a dream come true for parents of kids with special needs. Sensory friendly movies, plays, areas of amusement parks etc., exist for kids who are easily overstimulated …
100 Holes of Golf for the Third Year in a Row
For those of you who don’t know, the idea of doing 100 holes of golf in ONE DAY stemmed from Covid-19. We were trying to find a way to continue fundraising during the pandemic so we could continue to fund kids who need speech therapy. Mike Balzano came up with this brilliant idea. Personally, I am not passionate enough about anything to do it for 12 consecutive hours. Okay, maybe lay by a …
Autistic Kids Amaze Me
I often get on a rant about the negative effects of the internet, but it’s days like today where for some great reason my news is filled with things that just make me so happy. Take Anthony here, he loves cars. I mean not just loves cars but LOVES cars. I don’t want to spoil the video - but you will be shocked when you realize one of the cars is not a car… well, anyway, Anthony has some …
Never Take “I Love You” for Granted Again
One of our missions here at the Orange Effect Foundation is to make sure every child can communicate. We often take it for granted. I have had so many emails from grateful parents--writing about how their child can participate in every day activities like saying, "Trick Or Treat!" or "I’m hungry," or they want to go outside. Such simple things. But no example has warmed my heart the way …
Why I Am an Orange Effect Foundation Board Member
Throughout the upcoming year we will feature a little bit about each OEF board member starting with one of our co-founders, Pam Pulizzi. What do you do for your day job? Starting with the toughest question for me! Currently, I work part time helping my husband with his new business called, The Tilt. The goal of the company is to help content creators become content entrepreneurs. If you …
History Made at the Super Bowl for Speech and Hearing. Was it a Success?
All the major news outlets covered it. Newsweek, HuffPost, you name it. Dr. Dre made headlines by announcing that there would be deaf rappers at the halftime show of the LVI (56th) Super Bowl. It is a big deal. A really big deal. This is the FIRST time in NFL history that ASL interpreters have been part of the actual show. From HuffPost: Sean Forbes and Warren “WaWa” Snipe will become the …
So Many Wonderful Things in the World
I don’t know about you, but I find it really easy to succumb to negative news, to go down the “rabbit hole” of fear, sadness, or anger at things going on in society. You can read all kinds of posts about the negative effects of social media on mental health. It’s not a mystery. To top that off I live in an area that has had below freezing temperatures for a few weeks straight, so finding things to …
Finding the Balance (Parents During a Pandemic)
Back in the day, in a previous life almost, I was a counselor for domestic violence offenders. They came to a group session two times a week, essentially as an alternative to going to jail. I could write dozens of blog posts about it that would be interesting but not necessarily helpful for you. What I have been thinking about that is definitely helpful is something we taught in those classes …
Applying For a Grant With The Orange Effect Foundation
We receive many questions each year about how our application process works. This article appeared a few years ago but the information is always timely. If you have additional questions after reading, please reach out to us at info@theorangeeffect.org. Grant applications are reviewed quarterly. You can mail them to us at any time but the deadline to be included in the review means having your …
Women Are Autistic Too
Here at The Orange Effect Foundation (OEF) our focus is on kids and early intervention. In keeping up with all the latest research on speech therapy we come across a lot of interesting information. Recently, two articles were written on the same day by The Guardian. They focused on women who always knew there was something different about themselves but didn’t know what it was. Unfortunately, they …
Kids Teach Us So Much
I really enjoy spending time with kids because they are so smart and so aware of the world around them. They generally are not judgmental (yet) and often so willing to try new things. The 5th Grade Class at Lakewood Catholic Academy (LCA) in Lakewood, Ohio is one such group. As a service project, they participated in our second annual Silence for Speech campaign to help recognize the …
Being Grateful For the Little Things
We at The Orange Effect Foundation find it easy to be grateful. To be specific, we have 276 reasons to be thankful. Since December 2015, we have reached 276 kids in 34 states by purchasing 69 speech devices and 5,600 hours of speech therapy. We are making a difference. We are grateful to all our sponsors who help make this happen. To show how far the gratitude goes, here is what some of our …
