My Nonprofit Reviews

Two weeks ago, I attended the Autism Treatment Center of America's Son-Rise Start Up Program, designed to help children with autism. (Same campus and organization as the Option Institute in Sheffield, MA, U.S.A.)
This is the THANK YOU letter I just sent them:

Dear Son-Rise Team:

I’m welling up with tears and I haven’t even really begun writing yet! I just want to say thank you. I attended your Son-Rise Start Up training Oct 9-14, 2016. What you have given me is so precious; you have given me hope. You have given me permission to forgive myself for the times I felt I wasn’t a good enough parent. I now remind myself that I was doing the best I could with what I knew and that we all are doing this, all the time. Your lessons have sunk in deeply and they will stay with me.

What a beautiful campus you have. I like to think of it as my “happy place”. But what makes it beautiful really is the experience of being with all of you. The unconditional love and acceptance is palpable. In that classroom, you gave us a place where we could be ourselves; where we could cry over our past disappointments and fears and you didn’t turn away from our tears – which so impressed me. You stayed with us and talked it through so that those emotions and thoughts that had been buried for quite some time were coaxed to the surface and came up and out; they left us. We were released from those past hurts.

I love you all for the work you do, for what you teach, and for how you show up in the world.
I am so very grateful for scholarship I have received. I couldn’t have known it when I registered for the Son-Rise Start Up training but what you have given me is truly priceless.

You have lifted my spirit. Before this training I had been struggling with anxiety and depression. It’s pretty difficult to do all you want to do for your child when you’re battling to get through the day. I have a new outlook, new hope, new motivation; I’ve got the 3E’s, baby, and I ain’t afraid to use ‘em!

This new me is able to show up for my son, for myself, for my partner, for all whom I come into contact with.

Please know that you are doing amazing work and that we are so very grateful for all you do. We look forward to starting our Son-Rise Program (we’re putting up shelves in the playroom!). Today I was talking to our first “volunteer”, our son’s babysitter, and I was so enthusiastic telling her about what I’d learned. She welled up with tears when she looked at the photos in your book, Son-Rise The Miracle Continues, as I told her about how the first Son-Rise program came to be. It’s the love that moves people. These are the ripples in the water that you’ve set in motion. They grow and grow.

Thank you from the deepest place inside. God bless you all.