It all started with one kid…
One day, we heard about a 10-year-old boy named Wilson. Wilson has autism and he decided to donate his birthday to raise money to build a sensory room in his school.
We didn’t know too much about autism, so we started learning by reading a book called My Brother Charlie. It is about a girl named Callie and her brother who brother has autism. He’s good at so many things – swimming, playing the piano, running fast. And he has a special way with animals, especially their dog Harriett. But sometimes Charlie’s words get locked inside him and he gets very quiet and seems far away. Then when he plays with Callie, he’s back to laughing and having fun. It was so interesting to learn about Charlie. He’s just like any other boy, except he has autism. It makes him unique, but it also means he has some special needs too.
In a Perfect World also teamed up with Wilson’s mom to teach us more about kids who are neurodiverse, and why the sensory room was so important to Wilson. We learned that a sensory room is a place where kids with autism and other special needs can go to reset, calm down, focus and come back ready to learn!
But then something even more amazing happened…
The Tyler Perry Foundation heard about what we were doing and made a big donation to add to all the money we raised! With that, we were able to help over 1100 kids in 17 different states!
From sensory support to an autism acceptance library, teachers were very grateful for our support of their students. Here’s a nice note that we received from a teacher in Jamestown, NY ~
We learned so much about the challenges that neurodiverse students face & we are so glad that we could help with their experience at school.
Thank you for helping us help other kids!
