What a productive year!
As 2023 is coming to a close all of us at Communication is Key AAC are so proud of all that we have accomplished this past year! We wanted to share some highlights from the last quarter of the year starting with the success of our September Golf Outing at Whispering Willows Golf Course in Livonia. This year we sold out the event again and raised over $27,000! We had some new sponsors this year along with some returning sponsors. Thank you JMD Building Restoration for your Platinum sponsorship, Building Bridges Therapy Center, Dan & Pam Davis, ACE Flooring, BAPI Construction, Secure Planning Services, SAV’s Welding Services, Haplin & Associates, Mark Chevrolet, Puff Dispensary, and Living and Learning Enrichment Center for your top tier support. Thank you to our hole sponsors, The Post, Ironwood Grill, St. Vincent Parish, Colarossi & Colarossi law firm, Sunbelt RenCtals, GBS Scaffolding, Scheana Roofing, Cougar Sales & Rental, Bill Brown Ford, Varsity Ford, Healing Haven, Kevin Cermak Realty, Digital Interiors, Benny’s Pizza Pub, Miracle League Royals, Jim & Diana Tarcha, DKL Benefit Group, CAKE, McNish Group ,Reset Brain Body, Parlour 7 Salon, Royal Roofing, UHY, Probability Physical Therapy, and Pop Daddy Snacks. The golf cannon was in full effect, the weather was beautiful, and the raffle table was full of amazing prizes from so many of our supporters. As always, we are so grateful to our amazing community of golfers, sponsors, and volunteers.
We have also continued our playground board gifting and have provided over 25 boards and counting this year. These Michigan boards can be found in Livonia, Howell, Ann Arbor, St. Johns ,Godwin, Flint, Dearborn, Brownstown, Lapeer, Warren and Canton to name a few. We strive to slowly expand out of state and have collaborated for boards in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Ohio, and Wisconsin!
In October we were so excited to sponsor 25 people to attend the annual Talking AAC conference at MSU in East Lansing, MI. We sent professionals including teachers and Speech Language Pathologists, parents, and 4 of our CiK board members. It was two educational and inspirational days that culminated in another one of our playground core boards being gifted at the closing ceremony to a school in Midland. Overwhelmingly we had such positive feedback from all that attended this event and everyone took something completely different away from the event.
In November, we were fortunate enough to be able to do a SECOND large gifting project this year to our friends at Garden Cities' Memorial Elementary School. This donation included AAC devices for classroom modeling, training for staff, speech generating software, laminating machines, literacy tools, classroom fidgets and sensory toys. We also were so happy to provide TWO robust AAC systems dedicated for specific students who without this were missing out on their communication, academic, and personal potential.
November was National Caregiver month, and supporting our caregivers is a personal passion for all of us at CiK. We know first hand the heavy weight we carry daily. Therefore, we did a caregiver giveaway and gave out a Massage Envy Gift Card to one of our lucky followers.
We also held another fundraising event that month for Giving Tuesday and sold some exciting new shirt and mug designs featuring either our logo or a wonderful quote saying “AAC, adapt, advocate, accept, connect, model”. We’ve already heard from one special education teacher who received the mug as a Christmas gift who said “The AAC mug is the best gift ever. It’s so perfect!”. Thank you to all who donated to CiK during Giving Tuesday! These can be purchased at https://www.bonfire.com/store/communication-is-key
In December, we have been focusing on connecting with our own families and enjoying our holiday season. We adopted two families with complex communicators in Wayne County Michigan, and one in Saginaw County who also suffered a tremendous loss of their home. We hope we brought a little joy and relief to these families.
As we move into the upcoming year we are planning for our upcoming Super Bowl square fundraiser which has been a huge hit in the past! Watch our social media for updates!
Thank you again to all of our followers and we wish you all health and happiness in the year ahead!!
xo
Julia & CiK crew
