In regards the "HP Share The Magic" contest!!

The entire context of our family has been largely inward-directed, shaped by our younger son's diagnosis of autism.

He is ten, going on five-years-old-forever if we don’t work hard with him... So everything we do focuses in some way on trying to build and reinforce his interactive behaviors and social skills. Since it turns out that he is surprisingly capable of interacting intelligently with computers (he is NOT "stupid", just “blocked” in some areas of social interaction), the touch-screen system in this package should dramatically influence and increase his options for productive interaction, “opening up” his future life.

We've been exceedingly lucky in his early school years, to find good special-needs teachers in our local school system - in particular one, Montessori trained, who absolutely took him in-hand over the course of four school years and brought him amazingly further along than we had ever hoped. That teacher has a daughter just graduating from a local Community College here (taking eighteen months for the entire program!) and going off to a State College this next year, with a major in teaching sign language to Special Needs children.

Because that daughter has worked fairly constantly with our son, a couple of hours every weekend, we heard all the interesting details about how things are going for her - things like the typical hassles in getting class schedules worked out, about how many hours she works at her job, and how management finagles things to avoid having to pay overtime. She's a workaholic, and works harder than almost anyone we know -- she's a good kid, a sweet person, and I would dearly love to be able to give HER one of these laptops to take with her to College this next year - she has been a strong positive outward-directed part of our life for several years, and I (WE) would really get a blast out of “Sharing the Magic” and seeing the look on her face when we give her one of these systems!

Our older son, remarkably without complaint, has gotten somewhat shortchanged in all this, and a part of this package would help improve the “balance”. He needs to use a computer and printer for school assignments, and he is planning a career as a Special Needs teacher, oddly enough (his heart is big). His online skills (and future success) would be enhanced and aided by the desktop system and the printer, perhaps as much as it would be improved by the graphics software package...

Luckily, given the stresses and strains, our family- and community-support-network includes ASGO (the Autism Society of Greater Orlando). An all-volunteer organization, they provide (among other things) much-needed opportunities for relaxed and outward-directed social interaction, sharing time and information with other families in similar situations. They cover all of their operating costs with fundraisers and donations, and they don’t HAVE a budget for office equipment – I was talking today with Donna, the main person there, about how ASGO could best use an equipment donation, and she said that she would benefit HUGELY from having a notebook PC, instead of having to print out everything she might possibly need when away from the office, which is much of the time. So the ripple effect of a donation to ASGO would extend to cover (and improve the quality of life within) our entire community – very cool!

Personally, I’m also hoping that HP and Microsoft will want to take advantage of the Public Relations benefits of their donations by helping publicize these prizes, thereby giving ASGO some well deserved publicity in the process of describing how WE have helped “Share The Magic”!

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