Can You Donate Your Spare Change?

Eric uses the services of United Cerebral Palsy of Southern Arizona, UCPSA for short.  Since before I hurt my back oh so last century they provided rehab services for Eric. Since I have hurt my back and can no longer lift, they provide attendant care to help Eric with the things that I can no longer do for him, such as dressing, transfers and personal care. We also rely on them for respite services so John and I can have some couple time. With out the help of the wonderful people at UCPSA, Eric probably would not be living at home now.

Since we have been with them a very long time let me tell you what they have done for us recently. When Teri graduated Law School and got sworn into the California Bar, they provided round the clock care so we could both see Teri accomplish these wonderful things. We usually just do the parent thing with Teri one at a time. Eric's case Manager Lisa thought we should both be there for those 2 special occasions. Lisa moved heaven and Earth to make that happen. When Teri need help back in July and I was gone for a week they helped John get through the week.

For the the past several years the state of Arizona has cut back on the money they pay to providers such as UCPSA. Here is where the simply wonderful people at Circle K come in. On their counters they have canisters for spare change. I know we all have spare change laying around the house and in car. What I am asking you to do is gather the spare change from your car and drop it in the canister when you drive by Circle K. Go through the couch cushions and old purses. We all know that we are all guilty of this, and since you were not using the money anyway why not drop it off at Circle K.  That jar of pennies, nickles and dimes that you pull out of your pocket or wallet would make a good donation too. That spare change laying around in your desk would work too. The canister is right on the counter. You can say hi and say that I told you about the canisters or you can sneak in and just drop it off.

Please don't worry that it is only a few coins. A few coins from a few hundred people really add up.  With Washington at odds with one another right now we don't know if this vital service will be trimmed further.  So please do you part and drop that spare change off a Circle K.  There are over a million people who live in Southern Arizona, just think what we could do if we all dropped off our spare change at Circle K.

If you live outside of the Southern Arizona area and would still like to help here is the link to Support UCPSA.

Please feel free to pass this on to friends and family. If you can post this blog at work please do so, but ask first. Feel free to tweet,  face book or use any social media the link to this blog too. We as a family would like to thank you in advance for all your support.

Full disclosure time. I am not employee of UCPSA or Circle K or receiving any compensation for this blog post. All money raised by Circle K  will go to UCPSA.  For the foreseeable future Eric will continue to receive services from UCPSA.

Eric is on Spring Vacation

It hardly seems possible that Eric is on spring vacation from school. I really don't think he has earned it this year since he has spent most of 2010/2011 school year home sick. This is life as we know it so I am trying to keep him active with field trips to the likes of Target yesterday and Costco today. If the weather is nice I do plan on an outing to the U of A to get Eric Sweet 16 gear to wear to school and camp. He has got to support the home town team and family Alma Mater after all.

We have such broken up shifts for aides this week that things like a trip to the movies are out. The weather is finally decent this week in the 80 to 90's range. So a lot of knitting has gotten done and some spinning has also gotten done. I want to thank Chris for his help with plying and how to judge if my spinning is to tight. I really did not know that you could spin too tight only to loosely..

As you can tell I am finally getting back on my feet with the energy to blog. So Hopefully I will get a few more out this week. By the way how did the change hunt challenge go for everyone?

Well it is time to go make salmon salads with fresh avocado and papaya for dinner.