Each year as part of our annual conference, the Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation and Children Making Strides award the Doug Flutie, Jr. Award to a person who has shown great commitment and dedication to raising awareness of autism spectrum disorder, or has made a significant impact in the lives of individuals with autism. The award recipient can be a parent, teacher, advocate, individual with autism spectrum disorder or anyone else who has made a difference in the autism community. For the second year in a row, we are asking the local autism community to vote on who they think is deserving of this award!
To qualify for the award, the recipient must be from the New England area and be available to accept the award at our annual conference on Tuesday April 7th, 2009 at The Sheraton Four Points in Norwood, MA.
Please send your nomination for this year's Doug Flutie, Jr. Award to info@dougflutiejrfoundation.org along with a brief description of who the person is and why you think they should be nominated. Be sure to include both your contact information and the nominee's contact information including email address and phone number.
Nominees will be accepted through Friday, March 6th and the winner will be announced on Friday, March 13th.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Auction Item Ideas
Hello everyone!
We're in the process of organizing two of our major annual events - our 10th Annual Full Court Charity Challenge (on March 7th) and our 10th Annual Doug Flutie, Jr. Celebrity Golf Classic (on June 22nd & 23rd). Part of each of these events is a silent auction where, in the past, we've been heavy on autographed sports memorabilia. While those items are very nice and typically do very well at the auctions, we've noticed that people are leaning more toward "experience" items lately, like weekend stays in the mountains and dinner and a play-type items.
We are reaching out to our supporters to ask if you have any sort of items that you would be willing to donate for one of these events to please contact us. If you have a place up north or a timeshare that you could offer for a weekend or a week, or if you are a business and could offer a gift certificate for a service (for example - house cleaning services). Anything like those are great, unique items that people enjoy because they really feel like they are getting something for their contribution.
If you have something interesting that you think that we could use for one of our upcoming auctions, please email me at cchirco@flutiefoundation.org.
Thanks!
Chris Chirco
Director of Programming
The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism
We're in the process of organizing two of our major annual events - our 10th Annual Full Court Charity Challenge (on March 7th) and our 10th Annual Doug Flutie, Jr. Celebrity Golf Classic (on June 22nd & 23rd). Part of each of these events is a silent auction where, in the past, we've been heavy on autographed sports memorabilia. While those items are very nice and typically do very well at the auctions, we've noticed that people are leaning more toward "experience" items lately, like weekend stays in the mountains and dinner and a play-type items.
We are reaching out to our supporters to ask if you have any sort of items that you would be willing to donate for one of these events to please contact us. If you have a place up north or a timeshare that you could offer for a weekend or a week, or if you are a business and could offer a gift certificate for a service (for example - house cleaning services). Anything like those are great, unique items that people enjoy because they really feel like they are getting something for their contribution.
If you have something interesting that you think that we could use for one of our upcoming auctions, please email me at cchirco@flutiefoundation.org.
Thanks!
Chris Chirco
Director of Programming
The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Massachusetts Autism Insurance Reform Bill!
I meant to get this up last week, but I was out of commission with a nasty illness. Anyway, an AUTISM INSURANCE REFORM Bill was introduced in the Massachusetts Legislature. The bill, House Docket 984 "An Act Relative to Insurance Coverage for Autism" (ARICA), is sponsored by Representative Barbara A. L'Italien and State Senator Frederick E. Berry. It would require private healthcare policies to provide coverage of the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders. ARICA would cover applied behavior analysis (ABA) and other medically necessary, evidence-based treatments prescribed by an insured's treating physician or psychologist. AFAM (Advocates for Autism of Massachusetts) and its member organizations are aggressively working to ensure passage of this crucial legislation.
For more information about the Bill including the full version, go to http://www.flutiefoundation.org/Programs-AFAM.asp. If you scroll down a bit, you'll see the summary of the Bill and at the bottom of the page there is a link to a pdf of the full version.
Contact your legislators and let them know that you support this Bill!!!
Chris Chirco
Director of Programming
The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism
For more information about the Bill including the full version, go to http://www.flutiefoundation.org/Programs-AFAM.asp. If you scroll down a bit, you'll see the summary of the Bill and at the bottom of the page there is a link to a pdf of the full version.
Contact your legislators and let them know that you support this Bill!!!
Chris Chirco
Director of Programming
The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Photos from Flutie Bowl posted!
Our photographer from Flutie Bowl, Derek Wilmot took some great shots at the 6th Annual Flutie Bowl! To see them, visit the Flutie Bowl page on our website.
Chris Chirco
Director of Programming
Chris Chirco
Director of Programming
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Donate & Merchandise pages on our website
Hey everyone,
If you've visited our Donate or Merchandise pages in the last couple of days, you might have noticed that currently you cannot donate or purchase merchandise online. Our good friends at Boston Interactive are in the process of building new and improved pages for us that should be up shortly. In the meantime, if you would like to purchase Flutie Foundation merchandise or would like to make a donation to our Foundation, please give our office a call at 1-866-3AUTISM. Feel free to send us an email or give us a call with any other questions as well.
Thank you!
Chris Chirco
Director of Programming
The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation
If you've visited our Donate or Merchandise pages in the last couple of days, you might have noticed that currently you cannot donate or purchase merchandise online. Our good friends at Boston Interactive are in the process of building new and improved pages for us that should be up shortly. In the meantime, if you would like to purchase Flutie Foundation merchandise or would like to make a donation to our Foundation, please give our office a call at 1-866-3AUTISM. Feel free to send us an email or give us a call with any other questions as well.
Thank you!
Chris Chirco
Director of Programming
The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Flutie Bowl etc...
Happy belated New Year!
As we have finally dug out from the week leading up to our 6th Annual Flutie Bowl event which took place on Monday night, January 12th, at Lucky Strike Lanes in Boston, I had a chance to reflect on how truly lucky we are to have such wonderful supporters! This year’s bowling event could have very easily been a disaster in our current economic climate, however the event was sold out and everyone in attendance seemed to have had a great time! At the end of the night the Foundation had raised close to $50,000! Thank you to Lucky Strike for donating the venue and the food for the event! You guys are great! Thank you to all of our lane and product sponsors as well. Our success wouldn't be possible without your support.
These events can not be successful without the help of an incredible crew of volunteers. At Flutie Bowl, they kept the event running very smoothly leaving the Foundation’s staff free to interact with sponsors and supporters. A very special thank you to the volunteers from the Junior League of Boston! Also, thank you to John Breen and Jen Lofberg who help out at just about every Flutie Foundation event and are always willing to do whatever is asked of them. Every charity should have a dedicated group of volunteers like ours, and for that, we are grateful!
Now we’ll start focusing on our next event – the 10th Annual Full Court Charity Challenge on March 7th at Basketball City in Boston, Mass. I can’t believe we’re in the 10th year of this event already! It seems like only yesterday the teams were lacing up the sneakers for the 1st Annual Full Court Charity Challenge. Since 1999, the basketball tournament has brought in over 1 million dollars to the Foundation with the help of great corporate sponsors like Tudor Investment Corporation and the countless other companies who have purchased team sponsorships over the years. Hopefully we’ll be seeing a lot of familiar faces back at the Tournament this year!
Chris Chirco
Director of Programming
Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation
As we have finally dug out from the week leading up to our 6th Annual Flutie Bowl event which took place on Monday night, January 12th, at Lucky Strike Lanes in Boston, I had a chance to reflect on how truly lucky we are to have such wonderful supporters! This year’s bowling event could have very easily been a disaster in our current economic climate, however the event was sold out and everyone in attendance seemed to have had a great time! At the end of the night the Foundation had raised close to $50,000! Thank you to Lucky Strike for donating the venue and the food for the event! You guys are great! Thank you to all of our lane and product sponsors as well. Our success wouldn't be possible without your support.
These events can not be successful without the help of an incredible crew of volunteers. At Flutie Bowl, they kept the event running very smoothly leaving the Foundation’s staff free to interact with sponsors and supporters. A very special thank you to the volunteers from the Junior League of Boston! Also, thank you to John Breen and Jen Lofberg who help out at just about every Flutie Foundation event and are always willing to do whatever is asked of them. Every charity should have a dedicated group of volunteers like ours, and for that, we are grateful!
Now we’ll start focusing on our next event – the 10th Annual Full Court Charity Challenge on March 7th at Basketball City in Boston, Mass. I can’t believe we’re in the 10th year of this event already! It seems like only yesterday the teams were lacing up the sneakers for the 1st Annual Full Court Charity Challenge. Since 1999, the basketball tournament has brought in over 1 million dollars to the Foundation with the help of great corporate sponsors like Tudor Investment Corporation and the countless other companies who have purchased team sponsorships over the years. Hopefully we’ll be seeing a lot of familiar faces back at the Tournament this year!
Chris Chirco
Director of Programming
Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation
Monday, August 11, 2008
Hi Everyone!
I hope you are all having a wonderful summer, I can't believe that it's going by so quickly. Dougie just finished summer school, so we are packing up our RV and heading down to our house in Florida for a few weeks (before football season starts and Doug has to go back to work as a college football analyst for ESPN/ABC). Dougie does very well when we travel down to Florida, he enjoys riding in the RV (we drive because that eliminates the stress of flying for all of us) and we go to our own house so Dougie is very familiar with it and very comfortable there (which eliminates the stress of staying at different hotels). Our house is fairly close to Disney World so we are able to make day trips to the different parks. Dougie handles the crowds great and enjoys the lower key rides, his favorite rides are the Buzz Light Year ride and the Haunted Mansion in Magic Kingdom, but we only go to the parks a day here or there, a week straight would be to much for him (and us, haha!).
We spend a lot of time just hanging out at the house relaxing and swimming in the pool. Dougie has become quite the good swimmer this year. Our pool in Florida is salt water and only 6' deep (in the deep end) so now that Dougie is about 5'7" he can swim into the deep end and push his feet off the bottom and the salt water helps him to float better and because of this he has learned that if he kicks his feet and uses his arms he can swim back and forth across the pool. It's awesome, he just started doing this this summer, so now when we are home in our house in MA and he swims in the pool there (which is deeper and not salt water) he has the confidence and knowledge to kick his feet and use his arms, so now he swims great there too!! We are very proud of Dougie!!
I want to thank everyone who joined us for the Harley Ride and party at the Hard Rock Cafe on August 3rd. Everyone at Pitching in for Kids and the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation did a great job planning such a fun event, the Flutie Brothers Band played at the Hard Rock and we all had a great time!! Thanks also to Pitching in for Kids for being so generous to the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation, we really appreciate your kindness!!!
Thanks again for your continued support and generosity! Don't forget the Eastern Bank Flutie 5K Road Race on September 14th! Hope to see you there!
Enjoy the rest of your summer!
Laurie Flutie
We spend a lot of time just hanging out at the house relaxing and swimming in the pool. Dougie has become quite the good swimmer this year. Our pool in Florida is salt water and only 6' deep (in the deep end) so now that Dougie is about 5'7" he can swim into the deep end and push his feet off the bottom and the salt water helps him to float better and because of this he has learned that if he kicks his feet and uses his arms he can swim back and forth across the pool. It's awesome, he just started doing this this summer, so now when we are home in our house in MA and he swims in the pool there (which is deeper and not salt water) he has the confidence and knowledge to kick his feet and use his arms, so now he swims great there too!! We are very proud of Dougie!!
I want to thank everyone who joined us for the Harley Ride and party at the Hard Rock Cafe on August 3rd. Everyone at Pitching in for Kids and the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation did a great job planning such a fun event, the Flutie Brothers Band played at the Hard Rock and we all had a great time!! Thanks also to Pitching in for Kids for being so generous to the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation, we really appreciate your kindness!!!
Thanks again for your continued support and generosity! Don't forget the Eastern Bank Flutie 5K Road Race on September 14th! Hope to see you there!
Enjoy the rest of your summer!
Laurie Flutie
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