Our Autism Campaign
The way it should be
Here at Butterbean bizarre we are passionate about raising awareness around Autism and the power of inclusion. Our son is on the spectrum, and struggles daily in a society, that consistently challenges what they think goes against the grain. He also suffers with anxiety, and there are many misconceptions when it comes to children with mental health conditions and the seriousness in which they are taken. So this is how my campaign begun, with the aim primarily to help spread a positive message around autism & inclusion and to raise money for charities and causes, both within my community and further a field.
Read below how we are achieving this.
Where it began
2019 taking that first leap
In 2019 following the struggles of my son, and the negative views that surrounded autism. I had one wish and that was to show the importance of inclusion, and why it is important to accept everyone for who they are. The first leap to make our campaign public was daunting, but the support we were shown was amazing. Its also thanks to this continued support, that our campaign is still successful.
Now for the honesty part, our first Autism items we created contained puzzle pieces. But since we have grown and learnt how to truly support autism awareness. We have since focused our design around inclusion and diversity. Each month we aim to donate our inclusion frame to schools and nurseries around the U.K, to help instil a positive message to the next generation.
our 2019 achievements
Leading the way
We hadn't anticipated that the first year of our campaign would be so successful. But with a great amount of support from our followers, here is the amazing things we achieved.
Had our items donated at the twinkle ball, hosted by Paddy McGuinness & his wife Christine in aid of The National Autistic Society. Christine shared our page on her Instagram story. Which helped our campaign.
Raised £750 in a week, for national autism week by hosting a raffle. All proceeds were donated to The National Autistic Society. Our fundraiser gained local press features, We were invited to talk on BBC radio Suffolk about our campaign.
Donated £1000 from the sale of our autism awareness items to The National Autistic Society.
Launched a new autism design, around the rainbow spectrum.
Melanie & Harry did a 5 mile sponsored walk, which helped install a defibrillator into a local pre-school. The walk was featured in the local press and helped raise awareness around autism, and the positivity in helping others.
Raised £295 for our local National Autistic society branch, so they could continue running their groups.
Melanie was a finalist in the East Suffolk business & community awards, for her services to the community and raising awareness around autism.
Donated 30 of our light up bottles, as a Christmas gift to a local charity, that support children and young adults with additional needs.
2020 achievements
The year for change
2020 saw covid-19 take a hold of the country. Whilst this did slightly impact our usual autism fundraisers. We made a significant change in our community and showed the importance of inclusion. Melanie created free visuals to help individuals with additional needs, understand the changes in the world around them due to covid-19. You can read about it below this post. But here our are 2020 achievements.
Donated over £1,500 for The National Autistic Society from the sale of our autism items.
Raised £350 during national autism week, this was a great achievement giving the current situation with covid-19 and the financial impact to people.
Created our new autism awareness design, designed around the importance of inclusion.
Melanie won the Suffolk business awards 2020, Changing lives special recognition award. For her help during the pandemic, showing the power of inclusion and making free resources for individuals with additional needs.
Melanie won stars of Norfolk & Waveney 2020, for community hero of the year. For her help during the pandemic, and her services to the community for showing the power of inclusion.
Melanie was awarded BBC radio Suffolk 'making a difference awards'. For her help during the pandemic, Melanie was invited to talk on BBC radio Suffolk which allowed her to speak about our campaign.
Melanie's & Harrys yearly Christmas fundraiser, saw them gift Harry and Jessica's school with 360 Christmas crackers & gift bags for all the pupils at the school. This act was featured on BBC news website, as a positive act of kindness in a tough year.
Making a difference
Regional & national award winner
When Covid-19 struck our country, it quickly became apparent to Melanie the lack of support in place for individuals with additional needs. The country entered a lockdown, but there was no visual resources readily available to explain what was going on, and the changes that covid-19 would bring. Many individuals with additional needs rely upon visual aids, to help them understand the world around them.
Melanie decided to create her own visual resources, such as social stories to help aid her autistic son Harry. Melanie shared them on her Facebook page Climbing the rainbow in the hope to help other families, and they were a big hit. The Facebook page went from 200 to over 3,000 likes over night, as her free resources were shared across the social media platform. This spurred Melanie on to continue making free resources, to keep up with the latest guidelines. Melanie also tailored them to help suit individual circumstances. The resources were so popular they were used in schools, doctors surgeries and hospitals.
This saw Melanie win 2 regional awards, as well as a national award from Lloyds bank for her help during the pandemic for the special needs community. Melanie also featured on Facebooks community campaign video, Melanie still continues to create free resources and you can find them on our blog website under printables.
So whats next?
Melanie hopes to be able to work with her local council and other services, to make her visuals readily available to those who need it.
You can find our blog page at www.climbingtherainbow.org
Harry & Jessica donating the christmas gifts to the children wards staff.
2021 So far
Making an impact
Whilst the world was still battling Covid -19, we were determined to continue to spread positivity across our community. To show others that despite what may be occurring around us, we can still help to make a difference in others lives. Here are some of our achievements so far:
At the start of 2021, We found out that Melanie had won “Lloyds bank small business of the year 2020 competition”. This was a fantastic achievement to win a national award, this was for her work during the pandemic switching from creating craft items to making free resources. The prize was a 90 minute mentoring session with Levi roots. Who helped Melanie understand how to further her advocacy.
Melanie's Lloyds bank award was featured in the local press, which resulted in more awareness being raised around inclusion and how to make a positive impact on your community.
We launched our new autism awareness design, centred around the superhero theme and the struggles children with additional needs face everyday at school.
During national autism awareness month, we held our yearly online fundraiser in memory of Harry Cole a beautiful boy we was blessed to know. We raised a staggering £2,600 in 3 weeks and the money from the fundraiser was donated to two charities, The warren school which is a special school in our town, which was the school Harry attended. The money was to help towards the building of a special playground at their school. The second charity was The National autistic society. Both these charities were close to Harry's parents.
In March 2021 we have managed to raise £3,000 so far for The National autistic society from our fundraising and donations from our autism items. This is an amazing achievement and a great start to 2021.
In April 2021, Melanie received a letter to say that she was recognised as one of Hopestead's community champions. For her work during the pandemic and for supporting her community.
In October 2021, Melanie featured in Facebook's community connections video about her visuals and autism support during the pandemic. The video was viewed over a million times and saw her blog & business reach new supporters.
In December 2021, Melanie donated 60 light up bottles to the staff on the children's ward at her local hospital. This was part of her yearly Christmas fundraiser and was supported by donations from the community.