Autism Benefit

Reason number 5978 that I love my company: last night we had an autism benefit at our office. Brian's son Michael is autistic, and he also is a painter. He basically takes old masterpieces and "reinterprets" them to make a new version, very much in a modern art style. Ronnie had several of his works enlarged and hung them around the office. Further expanding it, we decided to make a theme of children's art. We took pictures of all the office children and had them done in a digital painting of sorts, also enlarged, and they're outside the offices of each of their respective parents. And then one wall is a collage of the kids pictures done in a funky modern digital retouching with funky colors. It's hard to explain, but it's really cool. Then we also had all the children submit some of their own art, had it framed, and it too is hanging around the office. It's basically the most warm and inviting environment ever.

Yesterday was a whole day of children, as many of them were in the office for some or all of the day. You can imagine how productive I was, but really, I'm not staffed right now, so I was able to be on children-duty for much of the day. It was glorious. Playing dragons and dinosaurs with little Jakey, and coloring with some of the girls. Excellent.

SO, last night we had a benefit, EA style. We had food, lemonade (spiked and unspiked), friends and family were invited, Brian's son came in, and we had a silent auction for the art. It was just so lovely. I mean, first of all it's so great to meet spouses and children of coworkers- it really puts things into perspective. :) And, it's always great to support a worthy cause. Getting to eat some good food and hang out with cool people is always a bonus too. So, I wanted to share some of the art that Michael made, but I couldn't insert the pictures from the format I had to the format that format that Blogger allows. If I figure out a way, I'll post some. The money is going to support Autism related research and Pony Power, a therapeutic riding center for children, particularly those with autism. And that my friends, is awesome.