This years Balloon Launch was held April 6 at The Century Village in Burton. This was our 3rd annual event to help raise autism awareness in our community. We time the event to coincide with World Autism Awareness Day ( April 2; April is Autism Awareness month ).
We were fortunate enough to have a beautiful day to hold the event, since you never know what the weather will hold this time of year. In past years we had the bulk of the balloons in a net. This year we chose to have everyone participate in the launch by handing out individual balloons. We had 220 balloons filled. The balloons were filled and delivered by Joanie from Party Outlet in Middlefield.
We had a raffle for a Blue Autism Speaks bear. The bear was purchased at Build A Bear, who partnered with Autism Speaks for a limited edition animal to promote awareness. The winner of the Bear was Susan Homa.
Dana Jancik from The STARS program donated cookies, Hildred Armstrong donated all the cold beverages. In addition, we also received great help from Dana, Hildred, Chris Aster, Otto Ziska, and Susan Homa in helping with setting up, decorating, and cleaning up.
Lastly, we would like to thank everyone who attended and helped promote this event and look forward to seeing everyone again next year.
Side note: Annual Geauga & Lake County Transition, Resource and Career Fair. Saturday April 27. 9:00 a.m.- 2:00 p.m for more info contact Glee Slivka 440-279-1723 or email glee.slivka@geaugaesc.org
Author: Rachel Dannemiller
Rachel is a lifelong resident of Geauga County. She is married to Tom and has a son Jason, and a dog named Harley. Rachel and her family are devoted to bringing autism awareness to the community and they are organizing the local Autism Speaks event in Burton this year.