I am writing to you to appeal to you to light the White House Blue for World Autism Awareness Day, April 1st and 2nd. There are several reasons I think this is a great idea.
I am a military wife and a mom to four great boys. My eldest son, Zack, has high functioning Autism. Did you know that while 1 in 110 children has autism, 1 in 88 military kids has it? I just learned this statistic myself. As a great advocate for Military Families, Mrs. Obama, we'd appreciate your support in this. April is also the month of the military child.
We are lucky to live in an area where we get good support through our local school, but know many, if not most, families like us are not so fortunate.
My husband deployed in December. The boys and I are in Northern Virginia. Zack has moved 8 times in his 12 years. You may or may not know that transitions are one of the biggest challenges for Autistic kids. I work very hard to keep our life stable for Zack and his three brothers. We all work hard together and will be lighting our front lights blue for the whole month of April.
If 1 in 110 kids have been diagnosed, that means at least 9% of the voting public is affected by autism in some way. What a great way to show your support than to light the white house blue for two days! We, the families, would really appreciate the effort.
It was fun to see that you made the White House fountain green for St. Patrick's day, so please do this for us.
We, the autism family community, are counting on you!
Many thanks,
Erin
