Egg Hunt for Acceptance of All Abilities
Donation protected
The Annual Easter Egg Hunt for Acceptance of All Abilities has quickly become the largest Spring Acceptance Event of its kind in the Northwest. This year's event was on Saturday, April 19th, 2014 from 1:00 - 4:00 pm at McKenzie Stadium in Vancouver, WA.
This FREE Easter Egg Hunt, Resource Fair and afternoon of Acceptance and Family Entertainment is geared toward those of all ages with autism, developmental disabilities, physical disabilities or special needs of any type. Our theme is "Acceptance for All" and we do our best to make sure that everyone feels welcome and accepted for who they are.
As an inclusive event, we embrace neurodiversity and differing abilities promoting that each person matters, we all have gifts to give and that each one of us is an Ambassador for Acceptance in our community.
This year we will had over 13,000 filled eggs with candy and prizes. 9,000 of those eggs are purchased prefilled from Sunny Bunny Easter Eggs, a place employing individuals with disabilities.
Each egg hunter also automatically wins a prize from the prize table, our way of saying that each person is a winner.
This event is hosted by Autism Empowerment. This year we have partnered with The Miracle League of Vancouver and Innovative Services NW. We also expect to have between 30 - 50 cross-disability resource and service providers exhibiting around the stadium. We'll also have AMR, City of Vancouver Police and City of Vancouver Fire Department on hand to help with safety and first aid.
We had fun entertainment including free photos with the Easter Bunny, Rojo the Llama, Portland Aquarium, Oregon Mermaids, East / West Martial Arts, Alexander, Master of Marvels, Pinewood Derby Car Races, Oregon Dream Ponies, Face Painting, free stickers and so much more!
Our "rolling out the first egg ceremony" will feature special honored guests and sponsors. We'll also have a national anthem and color guard ceremony with Jesse Van Holyk and local scouts.
This year's event budget was originally $7,500. Autism Empowerment ended up spending above $8,500 because we had to spend extra money on canopy tents, tables and other items to provide protection in the registration and prize areas because of the rain.
We had some wonderful corporate sponsors step up to the plate: MassMutual Oregon ($1000), EarthLink ($1000), TwinStar Credit Union ($250), Mutual of Enumclaw ($250), Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce ($100), The Great Bacon Race ($100).
We also had a wide range of amazing businesses, organizations and entrepreneurs provide donations for our Silent Auction which we had hoped would happen during the event but because of the rain and needing to use different tents / tables / people at different areas, the Silent Auction was unfortunately cancelled.
4/22 Update: We will be listing many of the Silent Auction items at Autism Empowerment's eBay Giving Works Non-Profit Store online. Items should start being posted at eBay the week of 4/28/14.
See this link for a preview of what we've received for the Silent Auction and what may be listed. (Trips, Entertainment, Food, Wine, Gift Certificates, Gift Baskets and much more!)
http://www.autismempowerment.org/news-events/easter-egg-hunt-acceptance-2014/silent-auction-2014/
We also are asking for Community Support. Any money that is received above our $8,500 goal will go toward supporting next year's Event and other Autism Empowerment programs and services in the community. Some of those costs are detailed in our wish list so you can see their breakdown. All Event Staff at the Easter Egg Hunt for Acceptance of All Abilities were volunteer.
Thank you so much for your consideration in making a donation to this Acceptance event! We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and our Tax ID # is 45-2455219.
We are incredibly grateful to all of the Volunteers, Corporate Sponsors and Donors who support this event. We appreciate the opportunity to meaningfully connect with and serve children, teens, adults and families in the community.
Thank you for being an Ambassador for Acceptance of All Abilities. and supporting Acceptance for All.
This FREE Easter Egg Hunt, Resource Fair and afternoon of Acceptance and Family Entertainment is geared toward those of all ages with autism, developmental disabilities, physical disabilities or special needs of any type. Our theme is "Acceptance for All" and we do our best to make sure that everyone feels welcome and accepted for who they are.
As an inclusive event, we embrace neurodiversity and differing abilities promoting that each person matters, we all have gifts to give and that each one of us is an Ambassador for Acceptance in our community.
This year we will had over 13,000 filled eggs with candy and prizes. 9,000 of those eggs are purchased prefilled from Sunny Bunny Easter Eggs, a place employing individuals with disabilities.
Each egg hunter also automatically wins a prize from the prize table, our way of saying that each person is a winner.
This event is hosted by Autism Empowerment. This year we have partnered with The Miracle League of Vancouver and Innovative Services NW. We also expect to have between 30 - 50 cross-disability resource and service providers exhibiting around the stadium. We'll also have AMR, City of Vancouver Police and City of Vancouver Fire Department on hand to help with safety and first aid.
We had fun entertainment including free photos with the Easter Bunny, Rojo the Llama, Portland Aquarium, Oregon Mermaids, East / West Martial Arts, Alexander, Master of Marvels, Pinewood Derby Car Races, Oregon Dream Ponies, Face Painting, free stickers and so much more!
Our "rolling out the first egg ceremony" will feature special honored guests and sponsors. We'll also have a national anthem and color guard ceremony with Jesse Van Holyk and local scouts.
This year's event budget was originally $7,500. Autism Empowerment ended up spending above $8,500 because we had to spend extra money on canopy tents, tables and other items to provide protection in the registration and prize areas because of the rain.
We had some wonderful corporate sponsors step up to the plate: MassMutual Oregon ($1000), EarthLink ($1000), TwinStar Credit Union ($250), Mutual of Enumclaw ($250), Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce ($100), The Great Bacon Race ($100).
We also had a wide range of amazing businesses, organizations and entrepreneurs provide donations for our Silent Auction which we had hoped would happen during the event but because of the rain and needing to use different tents / tables / people at different areas, the Silent Auction was unfortunately cancelled.
4/22 Update: We will be listing many of the Silent Auction items at Autism Empowerment's eBay Giving Works Non-Profit Store online. Items should start being posted at eBay the week of 4/28/14.
See this link for a preview of what we've received for the Silent Auction and what may be listed. (Trips, Entertainment, Food, Wine, Gift Certificates, Gift Baskets and much more!)
http://www.autismempowerment.org/news-events/easter-egg-hunt-acceptance-2014/silent-auction-2014/
We also are asking for Community Support. Any money that is received above our $8,500 goal will go toward supporting next year's Event and other Autism Empowerment programs and services in the community. Some of those costs are detailed in our wish list so you can see their breakdown. All Event Staff at the Easter Egg Hunt for Acceptance of All Abilities were volunteer.
Thank you so much for your consideration in making a donation to this Acceptance event! We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and our Tax ID # is 45-2455219.
We are incredibly grateful to all of the Volunteers, Corporate Sponsors and Donors who support this event. We appreciate the opportunity to meaningfully connect with and serve children, teens, adults and families in the community.
Thank you for being an Ambassador for Acceptance of All Abilities. and supporting Acceptance for All.
Organizer
Karen Krejcha
Organizer
Vancouver, WA