My daughter has come such a long way since first being diagnosed with a speech disorder at age two. She has spoken fluently and in complete sentences for so many years now that I sometimes forget that expressing herself through words can be hard for her. When she was little, this difficulty would manifest itself as tears of frustration when I wasn’t able to understand what she wanted. Now, she …
blog
The Orange Effect Foundation Flips the Script for Kids With Speech Disorders
CLEVELAND - June 21, 2021 - PRLog -- Fully aware that early intervention has the potential to create opportunity and launch futures that are otherwise unattainable, the board of The Orange Effect Foundation has awarded more than $30,000 in grants to needy children across the United States. Funding communication apps, speech devices, and weekly speech therapy for children …
100 Holes of Golf Marathon Raises Money for Children with Autism
Our very own Mike Balzano was interviewed recently by Spectrum News about The Orange Effect Foundation and our unique 100 Holes of Golf Marathon. Mike explains that our mission is "...very simple and direct. The children who get the speech therapy help when they're kids have better confidence, grow, and have a better chance of having a great adult life." Because of his tremendous efforts, the …
Speaking His Mind Without Using His Voice
National Public Radio (NPR) calls them 'driveway moments' and I can personally attest that they're real. Driveway moments stay with you and are often so good you want to talk about them and share them with others. If you're not familiar with the term, driveway moments are stories so compelling that you can't possibly turn off your car radio and get out of your car even though you've arrived home. …
The Story of The Orange Effect Foundation
This post originally published on The Orange Effect Foundation blog on January 26, 2016. Due to its popularity, we are reposting it here for you. The Orange Effect Foundation (OEF) officially launched last spring, but its story began more than a decade ago, when Joe and Pam’s first-born son, Joshua, was diagnosed with autism. In those days, Pam was a stay-at-home mom with a healthy baby …
Ensuring a Path To Success For Everyone
In 1975, two 20-somethings, Brian Daw and Anne McEvoy started Cornucopia, Inc., a non-profit in Cleveland, Ohio. Cornucopia was created to help people with disabilities develop skills and confidence leading to sustainable employment. Over their tenure opening and running The Bin in Lakewood’s Birdtown neighborhood, they helped hundreds and hundreds of young adults live, work and thrive in their …
A Letter To a Friend
Dear Kayla, Hello, my name is Mike. I'm so glad you are an Orange Effect Foundation grant recipient! I know someone who also received speech therapy. He was a young boy when he started going to sessions, probably about your age, and last year he graduated from high school with honors. He now goes to college! I’ll bet you will do big things too. My job is to help The Orange Effect raise money …
The Best Speech Therapy Example Is No Example At All
At The Orange Effect Foundation, the board does an amazing job of contributing to the newsletter and blog. It’s important to our business model and the community. This week, of course, is my turn. And as such, I was sitting at lunch with my oldest son asking him what he thought I should write. It went like this: Me – What should I write for OEF this week? Son – I don’t …
Who Inspires You? We Want To Know!
I’ve run across a lot of feel good articles this week. It amazes me what people can accomplish and to be honest, I often envy their constant upbeat mood and never ending drive. I realize too, that most of these folks just don’t get enough credit. So we would love to highlight some of them here at The Orange Effect Foundation. Here’s some I ran across this week! Dylan …
Normalizing Diversity and Winning the Internet
Make sure you have a few hours before you read this post. Have you heard of Chris Ulmer? He was featured in this blog post from The Tilt. He is extraordinary because although no publishers were interested in his book idea, he found a way to grow his content empire. Chris started as a special education teacher. In a video from 2015, he is seen giving compliments to his students and it went …
Speech Language Therapist Appreciation Day
The month of May brings so many things--signs of summer, graduations, weddings, and so much more. May is also Better Hearing and Speech Month. Part of that is Speech Language Therapist (SLP) Appreciation day on May 18. SLPs are VERY important to us here at the Orange Effect Foundation. One example of this is that every application is required to involve a therapist who is certified by the …
The Cure For Autism
(Okay, okay, there really isn't a medical one.) “I would have never guessed he had autism.” “How long has he had autism?” “Is he cured?” I have talked with other parents a lot about these questions. They are a compliment mostly. If someone meets my son for the first time and can’t ‘tell’ he’s autistic that’s good, right? The whole goal since he was two years old was to provide …
