follower funding! for autism education

The narrator of my novel The Kitchen Daughter, Ginny Selvaggio, has Asperger's syndrome. On one hand, that's not a big deal. Every person is a collection of behaviors and traits and preferences and aversions. Ginny's particular combination of traits just happens to have a name.

But on the other hand, it can be a big deal. And while Ginny is fictional, there are a lot of real kids out there on the autism spectrum who are having trouble in the classroom. Maybe sensory issues make it hard for them to concentrate. Maybe they're excluded or even bullied because of their social awkwardness. Maybe their teachers don't have the resources they need to help them reach their potential (which is a problem in the schools that extends to kids of every stripe, these days.)

I want to do something for these kids, and I want you to help me.

On April 1 (which is when Autism Awareness Month begins, incidentally) I'm going to make a donation to autism- and Asperger's-related classroom projects on Donors Choose.

How big will the donation be? That's up to you, and specifically, it's up to those of you on Twitter.

As of right now, I have 885 followers on Twitter. For every new follower I have by April 1, my donation goes up by $1.

So in the next two weeks, if I get 50 new followers? $50. 110 new followers? $110. I'm willing to go north of $1000 on this, too, if 1000 of you want to join in. I have no idea what's going to happen. But whatever it is, I'm pretty excited about it. 

(To be clear, you don't have to give any money. I'll give the money. You just have to follow @jaelmchenry on Twitter, and you've done your part.)

(Though of course if you decide to throw a few extra bucks at any of the autism- or Asperger's-related classroom projects on Donors Choose, they're not going to turn you down!)

(And I've got to put it in writing for the record. My donation will max out at $1500. This is just my personal initiative with my own money, not something my publisher is funding, and I don't know how big it's going to get. But huge numbers of people supporting this is a problem I fervently hope to have.)  

Comments

[Alan]

Bravo!

I followed you on Twitter, and will be sure to keep an eye on your feed and check back here on your blog to see how it turns out. Thank you so much for supporting this very worthy cause.