Kidz Town partners with Kanceptional Foundation for first annual Autism Awareness Fundraiser
DE PERE, Wis. (WFRV) – Sunday was the first annual Autism Awareness Fundraiser at Kidz Town, an indoor playground for the youth located at 1109 Honey Court in De Pere.
After bringing her children to the playground since they were babies, Nicole Schuman has become a close friend of the owner, Toni Vincent, and worked with her to bring her vision for the event to life.
She said when she realized she had nowhere to take her kids for Autism Awareness Month, Vincent offered the space for it.
“She’s known Xavier since he was one, and now she’s watching my other babies grow up,” stated Schuman. “And since April is Autism Awareness Month, I was looking through Facebook, looking for an event to take the kids to and there wasn’t really much around here, I know some places do like a run or a walk so I just thought ‘Why don’t we put something together?'”
Being a small business owner herself, Schuman invited several local businesses to take part as well as local food trucks like Weasel’s Mini Donuts & More, Cocco’s Famous Gyros, and Rollin’ Cones.
Below is the list of Vendors that participated:
Crafty Jax Magnets
D&K Creations
Fairy Findings
Jedi Woods
Krystals Kandles
Randle Creations
Wonders by Women
Anyone was welcome to attend the event from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. Throughout the event, you could shop local vendors and let the kids play at Kidz Town, grab a bite to eat at the local food trucks and enter for door prizes, raffle baskets, and a Sensory Swing giveaway.
Kidz Town partnered with the Kanceptional Foundation so they could provide a Sensitivity Training class during the event to help the community better understand what it is like to live with autism.
“We had a sensory education session at noon and she kind of went over how autism is different and how we can help them and a little bit about what it looks like so the public can be educated because there is bound to be someone you know who has autism,” explained Schuman.
Admission was $11 for your first kid and $6 for siblings while Adults and infants under 12 months were free and admissions paid during the event were donated to the Kanceptional Foundation for autism research.
“People were coming and going and talking to each other, talking to other families that have autistic kids, and helping raise awareness and money,” said Schuman. “All that will go back into more education on it as well.”
Arabelle Steffel is 12 years old and when she was diagnosed with high-functioning autism, she said it was hard to explain her way of thinking to loved ones, so events like this make her hopeful for the future.
“It’s nice to have people who are actually starting to learn stuff,” beamed Steffel. “It makes me really excited and happy because it’s like one of the videos said of what they played that there’s a bunch of different boxes and sections people put autism in, autism affects every one of us differently.”
Steffel is not alone in her excitement because Virginia Lucky is the mother of a child with autism and knows first-hand how important hard conversations like what coping mechanisms to learn and how to teach social-emotional skills.
“It means a lot to me that the community is making more of an effort to learn about individuals with autism, especially with my daughter being diagnosed on the spectrum just before she hit the age of two,” stated Lucky.
For Virginia Lucky, the highlight of the event was watching her daughter take time to enjoy herself and interact with others throughout the day.
“There was a solid thirty minutes where she was actually playing hide and go seek with other kids in the area here,” she said. “Seeing other kids around the area more than willing to play with a child that is slightly different from them, it actually is very heartwarming.”
If you’re interested in taking your kids to the indoor playground or looking to find upcoming events at Kidz Town, check out their website for more information.
