Good News: Red Carpet Premiere Party was a HUGE success!

Seems like Good Friend, Inc.'s hometown of Waukesha, Wis., has been the epicenter for a lot of bad news over the last few days.  Let me tell you some good news that will warm your heart.  And let me replace those sad images with inspiring ones.

On Wednesday, May 28, we welcomed joyfully more than 200 community members from southeastern Wisconsin to northern Illinois, from toddlers to retirees, to be part of a culmination of dreams and fulfillment of miracles.  More than 30 VIPs -- cast and crew members from We ALL Fit, dressed in their finest attire -- walked the red carpet at Marcus Majestic, right on the Waukesha/Brookfield edge.

As the program got underway in the packed auditorium, we explained "silent clapping" to our guests: instead of making a lot of noise that might be startling and uncomfortable for some of our guests, we opted to raise our hands in the air and shake them to demonstrate our appreciation.  And there was a lot of appreciating going on that night.

We appreciated fathers who support their
sons, regardless of their differences.

We appreciated families who make autism
awareness, acceptance, and empathy a joint effort.

We appreciated title sponsor AutoZone (staff members lower left
corner), whose Milwaukee regional manager Tony Blackmer
decided to pick up the tab for the venue on Good Friend's behalf.

We appreciated moms who cry as they think about
what this film means to the community at large.

We appreciated families and friends and neighbors
enjoying a rare night out at the movies.

We appreciated that people with autism are extraordinary,
often possessing amazing skills, like playing One Direction
songs on the recorder.

We hope you have an opportunity to see our latest autism peer sensitivity film soon.  We ALL Fit is now available on DVD through our website store.  We are also receptive to doing free community screenings around Wisconsin and northern Illinois.  If you think you can get at least 40 guests to attend, contact me (chelsea@goodfriendinc.com) and we'll set something up.

We appreciated our young stars, some
of whom just needed someone to believe
in them in order to believe in themselves.

It's coming! The release of "We ALL Fit" is less than four weeks away!

We at Good Friend, Inc., could not be more excited about the premiere of our latest autism peer sensitivity film, "We ALL Fit"!  Never has one of our products been the culmination of so much research, collaboration, and experience.  With careful consideration of the learning styles of intermediate childhood (ages 6-10), we put together a multimedia presentation that would meet learners where they're at.  With a Community Conversation about Meaningful Inclusion in Elementary School, we covered social emotional topics teachers and parents believed important.  With a research study illustrating what students still needed to know after our services were delivered, we loaded this film with tools.  We field tested and tweaked and tested again.  We gathered feedback from students and teachers and researchers.  And this is it.

On Wednesday, May 28, from 6:30-7:30 p.m., nearly 250 people will assemble at the Marcus Majestic Theatre in Brookfield, Wis., to see "We ALL Fit" on the big screen.  We are currently registering cast and crew and their guests, but will open the event up to the general public in just six days.  Registration will be required to procure a ticket, and a ticket is required for admission.  There is no fee for the ticket.  (Event sponsors such as AutoZone are offsetting costs.  Sponsor opportunities are still available.  Email chelsea@goodfriendinc.com for more info.)  Since the target audience for the film are students in K-5th grade, the event is meant to be family-friendly.  Our cast and crew are encouraged to wear their finest evening wear to walk the red carpet.  So if you want to go all out, too, feel free!

Here's what inclusion expert Paula Kluth, Ph.D., has to say about "We ALL Fit", which is being considered by film festivals in Toronto and Chicago:

"Another useful classroom resource from Good Friend, Inc.! This short video not only offers ideas for building community in the classroom, but provides opportunities for all learners to build communication, collaboration, teaching, and advocacy skills. With each viewing, every member of the classroom can learn something new about getting and giving support, about friendship, and about true inclusion."

How better to mark Mental Health Awareness Month than with a healthy dose of "We ALL Fit"?!  Check out the music video this week, Children's Mental Health Awareness Week, which now boasts nearly 16K views and more than 300 Likes.  Use it to start a conversation in your class or family.  And keep watching the blog all month for more information!

"A Difference for the Good"

I could spend the next month's worth of blogs breaking down the lyrics of The Figureheads' original song, "We ALL Fit", written and produced for Good Friend's upcoming elementary school peer sensitivity film of the same title.  And each week I could focus on a phrase that has come to mean so much more to me over the process of observing the interactions on the film and music video sets.  But with the video scheduled to be available on YouTube within the next month, I don't want to infuse my own experiences into the song for you.  I want you to tell us your stories!

Jeremy Bryan, Dave Olson, and Greg Marshall
of The Figureheads on the set of our music video

Still, I can't resist these lines from the bridge:

And if I had a friend
Someone who understood
Then that would make a difference,
a difference for the good.

What difference has having a friend (or a group of friends) had in your life?  Go back to your elementary school days.  What about then?  What did it mean to you to have a friend?  Forget about trauma and tragedy, like parents divorcing or grandparents dying.  What if you didn't have a friend to get through the daily things, like learning to ride your bike?  Or letting you borrow a pencil when yours broke?  Or handing you a tissue when you were about to sneeze?

What if you wanted a friend desperately, but you were dropped into a new foreign language immersion school, and you didn't speak the language?  Now you need a friend more than ever, but you don't have the tools to connect.  You can't tell them about your interests and don't know how to ask them about theirs.

Consider for a moment that this is what it's like to have autism.  You don't speak the social language, and you don't understand the nonverbal components that are inherent in the customs of this neurotypical world.  But you need a friend.  Because you know that that would make a difference for the good.  Your friend would help you make sense of what you see and hear.  Your friend would stand up for you when others, unaware of the way your brain is wired, tease, belittle, and bully you.  Your friend would see when you need space and when you need support.

When one of the 9-year-old members of our cast heard the bridge for the first time, he told his mom, while rocking to self-regulate and connect to the music's beat, "That's just like me."  She and I had tears in our eyes as we pondered and observed, convicted by the simplicity and the heartbreak of the truth of it all.

Please consider today how you can encourage your typically-developing students to be a friend to a classmate with autism.  If you're not sure how to teach them to make a difference for the good, Good Friend would be happy to help!

A BIG week!

Sometimes, Mondays ROCK!  And yesterday was one of them.  Good Friend kicked off an exhilarating, exhausting week Monday morning with a summary of the findings of the research study conducted by two professors at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.  We're reserving the best bits of news for the guests of our annual Member Appreciation Night this Friday!  But what we can say is that both our staff in-services and Peer Sensitivity Workshops make a measurable, positive difference in expanding autism awareness, acceptance, and empathy!  Denise and I are still trying to wrap our heads around the magnitude of Simone DeVore and Brooke Winchell's findings, which will be presented at the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders' annual conference in Chicago next month.

Dr. Brooke Winchell had her work cut out for her as she began to pour over the raw data from the surveys UW-W collected during Good Friend staff in-services and Peer Sensitivity Workshops in the 2012-'13 school year.

Zooming back to host the first of our two open casting calls for "We ALL Fit", our new elementary school peer autism awareness short film, we shifted from one excitement to another.  We met 23 hopefuls for the project, and are realizing we'll have some difficult decisions to make once we complete today's session.  We welcome you to audition!  We have some specific profiles we're looking for, and no acting experience is necessary.  Here's the list:

• girl with autism, age 6-10, who has some reliable spoken language
• boy with autism, age 7-11, who uses a type-to-speak device
• boy age 2-4, dark-haired
• girl age 2-4, blonde-haired, willing to have a tantrum for the camera
• extras: six 10-11 year-olds (mix of boys and girls), three adults (age 25-65), two 12-15 year-olds

Just show up at Citizens Bank of Mukwonago in Waukesha near Center Rd. and Hwy. 59 and go upstairs to the Training Center between noon and 3 p.m. TODAY for a quick on-camera audition.  Call Denise at 262-391-1369 with any questions.

We hope to introduce you to at least a few of our 30 newly-chosen cast members at Friday's Member Appreciation Night.  How many more reasons do you need to join us??  Awards, celebrations, new study findings, an Aaron Rodgers autographed football up for grabs ... PHEW!  Like I said, it's a BIG week!  If you plan to be at Steinhafels in the Community Room at 7 p.m. on Friday, please email Denise if she doesn't know already.

TICK TOCK: Less than two days remain!

We are now in the hourly countdown of our KICKSTARTER crowd-funding campaign!  With some additional donations made to our website and by check by Benny B., Pamme W., Les & Jeannette S., and others, I was able to post a large pledge for "We ALL Fit".  We are now in a mad dash to find $6,400.  Donations made via Amazon payments (with a credit card or Amazon account) are tax-deductible, minus the value of any reward a backer chooses (if any).

Watch the 3:40 video at http://kck.st/126nroy!

Will you please share this project with at least five people and/or businesses today?  Apparently, 30 days is too short a time to tell prospective backers about the value of this film!  But if we don't raise all $10K, we get NOTHING.

Special thanks to $100 backers Megan Dabols, Jackie Dorshorst, Shelly Dretzka, Jake Gould, and Jane Menheer!

In anticipation of the film being fully-funded, we have scheduled open auditions in Waukesha!  Choose which session you'd like to attend: Monday, August 5, from 4 to 7 p.m., or Tuesday, August 6, from noon to 3 p.m.  Each audition should only take a few minutes, but you may have to wait.  Since we're looking for quite a few students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in addition to children of typical neurology, if you have a kiddo who can't wait for his or her audition, please contact me (414-510-0385) to set up a specific appointment.  We'll be upstairs in the Training Center of Citizens Bank of Mukwonago (Waukesha office).  Check out the Facebook event for more information.

We're so glad you're with us every step of the way for this elementary school peer sensitivity film!

You Are Invited

You are invited to make a difference.  You are invited to be an inspiration.  You are invited to celebrate friendship.  You are invited to participate!

So far, 21 of you have accepted our invitation to participate in backing our new autism peer sensitivity film, "We ALL Fit".  Special thanks to $100 backers Kim Braatz, Jessica Lowney, Mike Rubingh, and Melanie Walsh!  While the KICKSTARTER campaign is currently reflecting $1,585 in pledges, I have another $600 here from donors who've mailed checks.  THANK YOU!  That puts our project at nearly 22% funded, and we only have a week left of this campaign!  If we don't get $10,000 in pledges by the morning of July 17, the pledges made will not be collected.  So PLEASE -- if you are able to participate by pledging, sharing the campaign via word-of-mouth, email, or social media, or both, DO SO NOW.  This is not a Save-the-Date, but an urgent plea!  Here's the shortened URL: http://kck.st/126nroy

Good Friend co-founder Denise Schamens invited me to help her make our first video more than six years ago.  She and I have developed a rather productive synergy over the short but impactful life of our nonprofit organization.  Without the distractions of home, I managed to get the script written while on vacation, bouncing ideas off her as inspired.  Now Denise is making her final reviews before we release the script to the critique of a broader audience.  That means open auditions are coming soon!  I can tell you that this will be a LARGE cast, and we're looking for a group of some 20 children ages 5-11 (mostly 10- to 11-year-olds), diverse in both their neurology and ethnicity.  We'll also need a few adults.  For details as they're released, join the open Facebook group, Theatre Auditions for Southeastern Wisconsin.  You are invited to audition!

Friday, August 9, from 6:30-8:30 p.m., will be our 6th annual dessert reception Member Appreciation Night at Steinhafels' Community Room in Waukesha, Wis.  Don't let the name fool you -- you don't have to be a member to celebrate with us!  We will be honoring a very special student from Park Lawn Elementary School (Oconomowoc) who embodies our Good Friend autism awareness-acceptance-empathy message.  There will be entertainment, goodies, and information about our organization.  If you're someone who thinks our schools should be places where we foster healthy social-emotional development, you should plan to attend!  Paper invitations will be mailed to our members automatically.  If you want to be included on the mailing list, email me your address.

We also invite you to join Team Good Friend for Autism Society of Southeastern Wisconsin's Dylan's Run/Walk!  The event is on Sunday, Sept. 8, but we need to get our team squared away by Wednesday, August 7!  We have appreciated the support of ASSEW for our first two films, as well as for all they've done for our community.  This event has been fun to participate in ... and then stay for Indian Summer Festival.

What invitations will you accept??

Giving Tuesday

Have you heard of this concept?  There's Black Friday the day after Thanksgiving which generally helps big box retail; and Small Business Saturday follows that, whereby consumers are encouraged to "shop small" and patronize their local retailers.  Today is Cyber Monday, and I'm sure many of you are postponing reading this week's blog to get all the online deals.

Tomorrow is an important day for autism awareness, acceptance, and empathy.  At least it is to us at Good Friend.  Giving Tuesday is about looking at the bigger picture -- drawing back from the sales and the hype and considering how you want to make a difference.  How do you want to give?  Do you want to give of your time to your favorite cause?  Do you want to donate on behalf of someone on your gift list?  Do you want to purchase something that supports your beliefs?  Do you want to share your priorities?

Good Friend is drawing very near to reaching directly its 20,000th person with its awareness-acceptance-empathy message.  This has happened because you have given.  If you've purchased a DVD, you are both sharing the message with others through the use of the peer sensitivity film and helping us to teach students to be good friends to their classmates with autism.

So on this Giving Tuesday, please honor our 501(c)(3) nonprofit: Buy a t-shirt for your favorite service provider or relative, make a donation in honor of a loved one with autism, or share our mission with your Facebook and twitter contacts.  We are so thankful for your support!

Ce-le-brate Good Friend, C'MON!

OK, so it's not quite Kool & the Gang.  But we do have a lot to celebrate!  August 10th marks Good Friend's FIFTH incorporation anniversary, which is a big deal in the life of a nonprofit organization.  It means we're here to stay.  It means that, though the economy has been shaky these past few years, our mission is valuable enough that people are investing in it.  It means, in the eyes of some larger foundations, that we are worthy of support.

THANK YOU for what you've done to enable us to present the Awareness-Acceptance-Empathy® message to nearly 17,000 people since December, 2007!

Our fiscal year ends June 30th.  This last week is the perfect time to get your donation counted!  We have two HUGE projects coming up this fall (one being University of Wisconsin-Whitewater's independent study of our elementary school staff and student services, and another that's so big, we can't even tell you about it yet!) which will require a lot of resources.  And since school's out in the summer, we're generally not generating as much income.  So while we're already up more than 12% this year over last in revenue, we've fallen rather short of fully-funding our operations.  Any amount you can contribute, whether by mailing your check (to Good Friend, Inc., 808 Cavalier Dr., Waukesha, WI 53186) or donating through our website, is greatly appreciated and goes a long way!

And did you hear that Choosing To Be a GFF was named by the American Library Association a 2012 ALSC Notable Children's Video?  Another reason to celebrate!  We hope you'll join us at 6:30 p.m. on August 3rd in Steinhafels' Community Room (Waukesha, Wis.) to celebrate these successes and the people who helped make them happen.  The registration page will be on our website next month.  Stay tuned for details!

Lead by Example

The past few days have offered Denise and me wonderful opportunities to communicate Good Friend's Awareness-Acceptance-Empathy message.  As parents and professionals, we absorbed the teachings of dozens of speakers at the Autism Society of Wisconsin Conference.  The closing keynote speaker on Sunday, Nicole Beurkens of Horizons Developmental Resource Center, offered one of my favorite "a-ha" moments of the three-day run: Making meaning of information is critical.  We are quick to offer information to people and eager to see what they do with that information.  But if they aren't able to attach appropriate meaning to that input, then the output will seemingly fall short.

During our presentations at both the ASW and WASC JAM (Wisconsin Association for Student Council Junior and Middle School) Conferences, Denise and I emphasized how important it is to give middle school students relevant information about autism so they can be aware of why peers with ASD experience the world differently.  But awareness is not enough, as we all know.  Because if we don't make meaning of why we need to understand the differences, then acceptance won't come easily, and empathy may not be an outcome at all.

Ellie Trewyn, narrator of our award-winning film Choosing To Be a GFF (2011), along with Jacob Schamens, another of the film's stars and the older sibling of a brother in middle school with autism, were critical to creating meaning for the 5th through 9th grade students who attended our WASC JAM Super Sectional presentations yesterday.  Throughout the presentation, these high school freshmen were able to tell their peers how their perceptions of autism and bullying had changed as a result of participating in Good Friend's development and production of the film, how important student leaders are, and what they've been able to accomplish in their own peer groups as far as acceptance goes.

In the hotel atrium following their WASC JAM Conference presentations are (left to right) Chelsea Budde, Ellie Trewyn, Jacob Schamens, Denise Schamens, and Dani Rossa.

Ellie's stories highlight the importance of meaning.  She said that while she's spoken with her close friends many times about her connection to the film and the cause, they were astonished when she took the initiative during a recent school lunch period to help a distressed friend with autism.  Ellie was confused by their amazement over her gesture of kindness, assuming that any of them should and would have done the same thing.  Her message to the students was clear: Do the right thing, no matter what your friends think. Being a leader means showing others the right thing to do, hoping they'll follow, but not caring if they don't.

We appreciate students who lead by example.  We have one more week to accept nominations for our Good Friend in Education Award.  Send Denise a short email about who you know who's demonstrating acceptance of autism.

"Thank you for supporting the mission."

I am an unashamed Goodwill shopper.  In fact, for Easter, my daughter and I wore beautiful things I had found at Goodwill somewhere along the line.  And I just love it when you make your purchases and when you drop off donations, an employee says to you, "Thank you for supporting the mission."  I don't shop at Goodwill for the great bargains (exclusively); I shop there and donate goods to them because I believe in Goodwill's mission, its vision, and its values.

Events have great power and purpose when we believe.  Our belief in the power of acceptance has led Good Friend on a journey of five years.  We believe that children tease what they don't understand, so we purposed ourselves to teach them about autism spectrum disorders.  We believe that friendship is a right of all children -- not only socially adept ones -- and consequently we developed a model to foster relationships.  We believe that relationships have impact beyond school, and look forward to hearing stories of employment after graduation that can be tied back to what students learned by participating in Good Friend services.

We have had parents who believe that Good Friend can make a difference in their child's educational experience offer to pay for our services on behalf of the school.  And we generally respectfully decline -- not because we don't believe that we can make that difference, but because we know that the administration and staff have to believe, too.  We need them to be partners with us in autism awareness, acceptance, and empathy.  Because otherwise, when our hour is up and there is no support for those social pillars, they will crumble.

During National Autism Awareness Month, we encourage you to support Good Friend's mission by

• participating in or donating on behalf of a bowler for our 4th annual Hoa Aloha Autism Awareness Bowling Event; Sunday, April 22, at New Berlin Bowl.
• "[High]lighting It Up Blue" with a blue feather, natural hair extension, and/or sparkly tinsel in your hair by Salon Brillaré.
• hosting a screening of one or both of Good Friend's peer sensitivity films.
• inviting Good Friend to come to your school (via staff initiative!) to work with faculty and/or students
• making a donation to Good Friend, Inc.
• telling someone about the importance of social support for all students, and how Good Friend can help create a culture of acceptance.

Thank you for supporting the mission: To create autism awareness, teach acceptance of differences, and foster empathy for students with autism spectrum disorder among their typically-developing peers.

SPECIAL ALERT for Autism Society Chapters

We are tickled by the overwhelmingly positive response to the Autism Society of Ohio, Greater Akron office campaign to bring our autism peer education DVDs to schools.  (Here's the Facebook thread.)  Select Autism Society chapters across the country received an email earlier this month with a special offer for our 2-disc DVD set, which includes How Can I Be a Good Friend to Someone with Autism? (2007), intended for grades K-5, and the award-winning Choosing To Be a GFF (2011), for grades 6-8.

If your chapter was NOT on our email list, please have them get in touch with Chelsea, who will gladly send the details so you can get this campaign ready for schools in your area in recognition of National Autism Awareness Month!