Add First Coast Zoo Walk to Your facebook Page to Raise Funds for Autism!

Facebook makes it easy to fundraise for the Heal First Coast Zoo Walk! Here are a few “steps” to get your Zoo Walk page moving and give your friends an opportunity to help!

1. To use the firstgiving application: From your facebook page -- click on application and type "firstgiving" into the search box. Choose the FG/ Firstgiving page. Then add the application to your profile. It will automatically upload a widget to your facebook profile page.
2. Send a facebook "note" or "invitation" to individual friends inboxes. Simply draft the note or create a facebook invitation compete with link to your firstgiving fundraising page. Then click on the friends you'd like to send it to.
3. Utilize your status! When you include the link to your firstgiving page in your status, it appears on your friends' home pages and they have an instant hyperlink that will take them to your zoo page.
4. If you have problems with your Firstgiving fundraising page, or adding it to your facebook page, contact firstgiving directly at support@firstgiving.com or call them toll-free at 877-365-2949.

Be sure to mention to friends that all of the money they donate goes directly back into the local First Coast community, NOT into high rent offices and private jets.

Best of luck in your fundraising efforts! See you at the Zoo on April 25th!

• Click here to sign up for the April 25 Zoo Walk! 
• Click here to download flyer and post at your school, gym, or coffee shop!

Renowned DAN! Doctors Coming to Jacksonville for Autism Seminar

“Sisters in Science Spirit and Spunk”- a seminar and forum with Renown DAN! Doctors Julie Buckley, MD, Stephanie Cave, MD, Liz Mumper, MD, and Maureen McDonnell, RN. 

On Friday, April 30, from 7:00-10:00 PM, four of the leading ladies  in integrative Autism medicine will join forces in the Student Union Center Auditorium at the University of North Florida - to share their science based experience and pearls of wisdom.  Topics will include the latest in Autism research-based treatment, prevention, recovery and survival.  Participants will then be given the opportunity to have their questions answered by this seasoned panel of expert clinicians.

HEAL Outreach Coordinator, Janeen Herskovitz said, “This is the first seminar of its kind.  These women are on the front lines of autism treatment and research.  To assemble these clinicians together on one stage in such an intimate format is a rare opportunity and HEAL is very excited to be able to offer it to our community.

About the clinicians:

Maureen McDonnell, RN, has been the national coordinator for the DAN!™ Conferences and initiated the DAN!™ Physician Training program, the Mini DAN!™ Forum, and the DAN!™ Nurse’s Training program.  She currently is practicing in North Carolina and founded SOKHOP, “Saving Our Kids, Healing Our Planet”.

Dr. Liz Mumper is President and CEO of The RIMLAND Center and an Associate Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics at the Edward Via Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine. She has written book chapters about allergy, immunology and behavioral and developmental pediatrics.

Dr. Stephanie Cave has been in the private practice of Medicine in Baton Rouge, Louisiana since 1986. She treats over 700 autistic children with her colleague, Dr. Amy Holmes. Dr. Cave is the author of the book, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children's Vaccinations.

Dr. Julie Buckley co-founded and is President of HEAL! (Healing Every Autistic Life!). Her first book, Healing our Autistic Children was published in January of this year. In addition to training other physicians in autism treatment, she has developed a patented antioxidant formula for peri-vaccination and peri-oxidative stressor use.

HEAL Film Camp With Joey Travolta in June

The HEAL Foundation is proud to bring filmmaker Joey Travolta to Jacksonville for another year of fun and filmmaking. Travolta travels the country with his production crew, providing special need populations with a two-week film camp. Dates for this year are June 21-July 2, 2010.  Fifty local kids between the ages of 10 and 17, 30 whom have autism, will have the opportunity to write, act, direct, and produce a collaborative short film. 

To view  a video clip  from Film Camp go to http://www.healautismnow.org/videos.html

HEAL would like to thank Richard Willich and MDI Holdings for their sponsorship of the camp and the University of North Florida for the involvement of their College of Education with this project.  UNF is also providing classroom space and a film location for the camp.  HEAL is grateful to producer Karen Sadler of Atlantic Beach FilmLab Productions for providing creative and production services.  
PLEASE NOTE!  In order to participate, students must be NOMINATED  and REGISTERED by a teacher or therapist. 

Registration materials are going out  in  Duval and St. Johns County School systems and are available from FILMLAB at www.filmlabproductions.com.

Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens VSA Festival- Ezequiel’s Story

This week, the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens will host the 15th Annual Very Special Arts (VSA) Festival.   Approximately 2,500 children from the Exceptional Student Education (ESE) departments of schools in the five-county Jacksonville region will participate in the annual festival. 

The HEAL Foundation is a proud sponsor  and also volunteers for the VSA  where students actively participate in art making projects inside the Cummer Museum and its spectacular river front gardens.  The Festival which also provides a musical interactive element, has touched the lives of thousands of student’s living in the Greater Jacksonville area. The festival also amasses over 1,000 volunteers from across the First Coast Area.

Read a heartwarming story of Ezequiel and how the VSA changed his life.

Ezequiel’s Story

A third grade student, named Ezequiel, is part of our Weaver Academy of Art program at The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens. Ezequiel attends S.P. Livingston Elementary School, located in the northwest district of Duval County. He is a child with autism and additionally, had been in foster care most of his young life. In preparation for the 2009 VSA Arts Festival, Ezequiel’s ESE class visited The Cummer and toured through an exhibition that contained works by Georgia O’Keeffe. Students created paintings inspired by O’Keeffe’s sunflowers that became an exhibition in Art Connections. Ezequiel’s was then selected as the finest example and was used for the design of the 2009 VSA Arts Festival volunteer t-shirts, the banner on the front of the museum and note cards.

One week after the exhibition was hung and a couple weeks before the VSA Arts Festival, museum employees learned from Ezequiel’s art teacher that he unexpectedly lost his one caregiver, his foster mom. Ezequiel proceeded to spend a difficult week in the custody of Department of Children and Family Services (DCF). The Cummer asked Ezequiel what we could do to assist him through this stressful period and he claimed he needed books and art supplies. The Cummer staff created a care package that went with him to provide comfort as he was shuffled to several different places. Two weeks later, one of Ezequiel’s teachers took custody and began the adoption process.
During this period, The Cummer was asked to participate in the Turtle Trails project, a public sculpture display much like the cows in Chicago many years ago. THE PLAYERS was sponsoring our particular turtle and we chose to highlight our programs by working with students in the design and creation. We again chose Ezequiel’s flower painting as the inspiration for “Sea Petals” and worked for four weeks after school at S.P. Livingston Elementary School, with a total of 56 students, to complete the turtle. Ezequiel was a regular artist to the project.