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Friday, March 29, 2024

When the bus stops coming – Part III

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As promised, I’m following up to my now three-part series on “When the bus stops coming.” As most of us can attest to (especially those of us getting “older”), you kind of forget where you left off maybe a month ago. So, as I was planning this article to be about “gratefulness and thanksgiving,” I was reminded I had a wrap up to write. While we are always grateful and thankful for those in our lives, (especially those of us with loved ones with special needs), I will simply say “THANK YOU” and they’ll know what it means.

In my last article I mentioned that I wanted to share what Turning Pointe is doing to address all of the issues I brought up. I must say firsthand however, no one organization can do it alone. From the beginning we have believed in collaboration. My mentor, my colleague, my friend who has been a consultant for over 25 years, once said to me (in a thick British accent) when we were in the thick of it (and I MEAN the thick of it), “Once you think you’ve got it figured out in autism, well you should go home.” She was telling me, we learn something new from our students every day, we will never stop learning…we will never have it all figured out. Isn’t that the truth? In autism and in life.

So, on that note, we took that statement, that vision, that mission and created Turning Pointe. A place where we strive on quality, excellence and innovation. A place where we will never feel we know more than our fellow peers or our families, a place where our students actually teach us every single day.
We’ve been building on this for a number of years now. I want to say we have been successful but saying that implies there is not loads more work to do.

We pride ourselves in surrounding our foundation with like-minded people. Community leaders, corporate partners and fellow autism organizations. We have developed such amazing partnerships, which I believe is lacking in most of the autism field. We have focused on not just our school, but transition and beyond. We have developed a Career College for those less impacted that just need a little extra step up to get the job (and sometimes, get the wife!). We are working on post transition projects that in the future will guide those that need a bit more assistance along the way.

In the meantime, we continue to strive, create, and expand our program every day to help build a future for all of our students and all of the individuals and families struggling on a daily basis; we can make it better and we will.

In conclusion, on the note of Thanksgiving, I want to thank our amazing Executive Director and fearless leader, Carrie Provanzale, who has pulled together a dream team of donors, corporate partners, teachers, staff, special services teams, volunteers and community partners. We are all forever grateful for all of them. But without our community supporting all our endeavors, nothing would be possible. So above all, thank you. Thanks for reading, caring and giving all season and year long!

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Kim Wolf
Kim Wolf
Kim Wolf is co-founder of Turning Pointe Autism Foundation.

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