Road Trip!

Dear friends, family, co-workers, and other awesome supporters!

We would like to thank all of the supporters, donors, and cheerleaders who have helped us this year by sharing this story of inspiration. For those who have come out and supported us at our Stone Pony and Dublin House fundraisers; who have contributed financially or have lent us their expertise, this story is just one way your help has contributed to our endeavor. Thanks to your generosity, we learned so much that will one day benefit our boys, and hopefully many others in the future. We are so very grateful.

ROAD TRIP

This summer I had the road trip of a lifetime.

For four glorious, childless, caretaking-free days, I had the opportunity to hit the road to Whitehouse, Ohio with two of my fabulous cohorts in crime from HomeLife 21.

There were decadent tacos consumed, with the requisite margarita chaser.

My dear friends and I were able to ascertain with all due certainty that rest stops in Ohio are far superior to those in Pennsylvania.

And there were secrets shared we will all take to our graves.

There’s not enough I can say about these women, who I carefully selected years ago to accompany me on this journey to create a safe, exciting, out-of-the-box residence for our sons, in part because of their talents, but also because I knew I would continue to like them for another forty years.

I have my priorities.

As much as I enjoyed the bonding, the real star of the trip was visiting Bittersweet Farms, the first farmstead-based program for adults with autism in the United States, established in 1983. The farm impacts lives through its residential, vocational, educational, and recreational programs. It sits on eighty acres and boasts many greenhouses, a wonderful market and retail store, an art studio, a full-scale commercial kitchen, six residential homes, an outdoor pavilion and pool, and other buildings necessary to its success.

And while all those facts are accurate, the true essence, the soul of Bittersweet, is in its people.

Bittersweet is the vision of Bettye Ruth Kay, a public school teacher in Toledo, Ohio, who with the help of her students and their families brought this concept from a dream to an intentional community, an establishment dedicated to improving the lives of people with autism. They have since expanded to two other locations, but my friends and I toured the Whitehouse location specifically, Bittersweet’s origin story.

And what a tour it was.