Welcome to the Dad Blog on AutismFreeZone

Thank you so much for reading my blog. I'm Randy, and I am the dad of a five year-old girl diagnosed with autism almost two and half years ago. I've launched this blog mostly to help cope with this experience which has presented challenges emotionally, financially, physically and spiritually.

I work in Hollywood, CA.  I am a Creative Director for movie marketing.  My job is to get you to see a movie or watch a television show.  I spent much of my career as a film editor before becoming management a few years back.  Before autism, I saw myself as a pretty successful guy making his way up the ranks from working in a video store in Philly as a teenager to running a department in Hollywood.  Autism has shaken who I am and how I see myself to the core. 

I'm sure that my experience is common to all of us in the autism community.  We need to unite and help each other.  If this blog attracts like-minded people, I will feel empowered and in control when we all know that I am neither (but if I lie a little to myself to help me get through this, who cares...). Surely autism had been the most far reaching event in the history of our family.  We've tried different things that have worked, others that haven't and we still search every evening for the next idea.  Sometimes we are spinning our wheels and other times we've had astounding success which keeps us going.  Everyday is a new adventure.

The next chapter in our journey is the launch of www.AutismFreeZone.com.

You are probably wondering what is www.AutismFreeZone.com?  Here's my idea...

AutismFreeZone is the first community based web-site focused on helping families impacted with autism deal with the financial hardships that have overwhelmed us.  As our economy struggles, so too do we who want nothing more than to fund our kid's diet, school program, interventions and more, yet we are not sure how to do it.  Our family's approach is to just spend the money and deal with the consequences later, "This is our kid, how can we not do everything to help her" is what my wife always says.  I believe it too, but here we are well into the journey and flailing financially.

Autismfreezone will save people money in many ways. The first thing is that there will be no membership fee for autismfreezone.com.

Next, the members will drive our initiatives, such as, which companies and products we need to get discounts from to benefit the largest percentage of members.

Here are some bullet points to help you understand some of our ideas that will manifest more fully with time.

1) A community based, password protected website for families with children on the spectrum.
2) A free-market (a la "Freecycle" for autism), where families can give those things they are done with and get needed items and services from each other for free.
3) Discounts from companies that have products which are needed by the community.
4) A knowledge portal that can be easily navigated.
5) Social networking tools, such as, video posts, podcasts, blogs and chats.
6) Sweepstakes, profit sharing and fund-raising to benefit the member families directly.

We need to have as MANY MEMBERS as possible. Power in numbers! The more people in our group the more incentive for companies, organizations and the government to listen and give us what we need: FINANCIAL RELIEF.

So for now sign-up. We will be sending out emails to keep you updated.

We will do a pre-launch to show you how AutismFreeZone is going to help all of our members save money through the power of community.  This is slated for the end of May.

Please feel free to comment, add your experiences and to help us build a place where all families impacted by autism can join together as we share our journey.

Families, THE TIME IS NOW, people are starting to hear us. We need to unite, for our kids and for our futures.

In my business, we say:

"Its show time!"

Best,

Randy

Be Sure to Check-Out "THE MOM BLOG" Authored by my wife Royce

Comments

[Dana]

This is a great idea. I'd like to pass the info on to the moms and dads in my support group. One question: How do you sign up? I'm sure it's right in front of my face but my brain is really fried right now (it's usual state) and it's not jumping out at me. Please let me know.

Thanks!

[Randy]

Dana, Thank you so much! Please pass this on to everyone you can. To Sign-Up just fill in your name and email in the Sign-Up form, located on the upper right hand corner of this page. We are so encouraged by the response we have received. So far we have only posted a few select messages to the Yahoo! groups that we have frequented over the years. We have 82 members in about 36 hours!

This is going to be awesome. We will send out an email to all of our members to keep them updated on when different elements of the website will be going "live"

Thanks again for signing up!

Randy

[Deborah]

Randy/Royce,
This is a fabulous idea!!! I have a group on yahoo (autism_and_vaccinations)that a post was added to telling us of this concept. I in turn posted to the groups I am a member of.

Be prepared; the dam is about to break. This idea is fantastic. I have some things already I plan on giving away.

[Jeanne]

Randy and Royce,

I don't know if you've heard this yet, but WHAT A GREAT IDEA! ;-) I've signed up and am now going to put a link on my blog for you guys, as well as a write-up and link on The Autism Solution Center's website.

Can't wait for you guys to get up and running!
Jeanne

[Cherie]

Thank you SO much for doing this! I got this forwarded by the director of a center here in Iowa that serves many kids with ASD's including my 12 year old with Asperger's. It is a wonderful idea and I look forward to talking with people across the country!

[Brian Menard]

As a dad dealing with an Asperger's son and a Cyclothymia son, the day-to-day struggles can be overwhelming. A site like this, that can help with the cost even just a little, is a huge blessing. Thanks for your efforts and for making it available.