And so this is Christmas, a day I cherish as once all the wrapping paper is torn apart you remember that its the intangibles this day that matter the most, except perhaps that picture you will take will have the power to turn a future moment into a loop back to remember where you are right now with your precious children. I wanted to share a bit about our future plans at North Star this day, and invite any and all North Star supporters to become a part of it, as it is very much a collective concept in the making...North Star has always been more than my own concept, more than even my inner circle of family and friends of North Stars idea (a raucous and congenial group, just the way I like them!) North Star is more than all of us, even more than North Stars core group of supporters who have helped us survive the recession we had little right to survive, and wouldnt have without the holiday support that kept us afloat through some really tough years. It belongs to everyone who cares for children who face social and emotional challenges because together we have the power to help children through animal assisted therapy, for it isnt easy being a child on the autism spectrum. Every supporter of North Stars work understands this, first and foremost. That knowledge, along with a commitment to help improve this for the children we value, is what binds us. Its infinitely easier when you have resources such as funding for early intervention/diagnosis/treatment, which North Star has always understood. We have always provided free education and DVDs at no charge to families and have created all our North Star placements to date at less than half of true cost. Early identification of children on the autism spectrum is key to their best development, yet across our country, and the world beyond, many children are not being diagnosed, or given the chance to have early intervention available to them during their window of opportunity. Early identification of a child on the autism spectrum as well as the early intervention this affords is crucial to any enlightened society. Money should not enter the discussion when we are talking about finding our children on the spectrum, and developing appropriate therapeutic and educational treatments, appropriate environments, and enriched lesson plans for them. North Stars vision is to open a therapeutic facility to help to diagnose and treat children who suffer from social or emotional challenges; a place where children can also receive cutting edge early intervention and animal assisted therapy, where North Star dogs can be bred, raised, visited and ultimately matched with children they will serve. Ive dreamed of this vision for the entirety of our fifteen years of North Stars incorporation (and actually have blue prints for the viewing!), but a week ago this post was quite different to write in its rough draft form, for last Monday Ron lost his job (two days before he was to receive his end of year bonus ). The day after this happened, two out of our three ancient cars died, one of them quite dramatically on the highway although no one nonmetallic was injured. Life happens, even for good people, and it grows increasingly difficult to know what is ultimately good verses bad, progressive or a definite huge set back. For me, this bad week and this great day inspire me. As most who know me understand, I see my life in stories, movies and metaphors, and this morning I am feeling like Matthew McConaughley in Interstellar, with Ron as Ann Hathaway because his brown eyes get all wide and doe like when I first let him in on one of my more unusual plans, and thats how he looked when I told him I felt we were about to thread a needle, so buckle up ~ 2015 will be the year we finally find our own home for North Stars work to be able to finally expand it, just in time, as were about to have a bit of a population explosion (three North Star golden litters due this year, with four the year after!). We have certainly outgrown our roots of whelping boxes in the corner of my personal kitchen, as my baby turned 21 last year and no grandchildren are in sight for Ron and I as yet; most who understand this work know our puppies need kids to be socialized correctly, and so the time is now to create this North Star Therapy Facility. Anyone interested in learning more of these unfolding plans, please write me at pattydobbsgross@gmail; I have a research paper I can also share with you about children on the autism spectrum who also suffer from anxiety and how an assistance dog can help, please request this paper if you like...I graduate in the fall from UConn with an MA in Educational Psychology, which is helping to inform our work at North Star with an increasing amount of children. Please consider supporting our work into 2015 and beyond. Checks can be made out to North Star Foundation and sent to me, Patty Dobbs Gross, at 20 Deerfield Lane, Storrs, CT 06268. Your donation is both greatly needed as well as deeply appreciated; it is also considered tax deductible. In our fifteen years of incorporation as a nonprofit at North Star, we have never spared expense in terms of the quality of our work, nor lost sight of our ultimate mission to help vulnerable children in a way that is both safe as well as effective. And fun. You should never forget to add the fun when you are talking about children, but there isnt too much danger of that with a North Star pup around... Happy Holidays, friends, family and supporters of North Stars work. Together, we help children find their way to their brightest future with some very good company.... (Heres a clip from eight years ago, as Im feeling a bit nostalgic, to serve as my present to you ~ Happy Holidays!) https://youtube/watch?v=a5sPpue5FQo
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 17:43:08 +0000
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