Happy Holidays from Birchtree

The Birchtree Center helps students with autism in our center-based day-school program learn the skills they need to celebrate holidays at home with their families. We hold a large practice Thanksgiving for our students every year, and we help our students learn and practice the ritual of Trick-or-Treat every Halloween.

This month, our clinical instructors are helping students learn how to make gingerbread houses. Our local Shaw's supermarket donated a gingerbread-house kit for every classroom, and the students have been busy assembling and decorating the houses. It's a fun way for students to hone their motor skills, review new vocabulary words, and practice making choices.

For tips from one of Birchtree's Behavior Analysts on winter-time activities for families living with autism, click here. For some ideas for what to do with your child with autism during his or her school vacation, click here.

From all our students, staff, families, and board members, happy holidays, and best wishes for 2010!

A Tuneful Contribution

This is the story of Hot Rod Bob, the One Arm Bandit, and a very special guitar.

Bob Canney, also known as Hot Rod Bob, wanted to help Seacoast children in need. So he organized a fundraising Cruise-In at the Texas Roadhouse in Newington this summer to benefit The Birchtree Center.

As Canney spread the word about the fundraiser, he was surprised to learn how many people have family members affected by autism. A study published in October in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, suggests that one in 91 children in the U.S. has autism. “Everyone I contacted was eager to help these kids,” Canney recalls.

Charlie Decker, "The One Arm Bandit," pin-stripes the guitar.

Canney decided to ask Charlie Decker, “The One Arm Bandit,” for help. Decker is an artist based in Windsor, Connecticut, who does custom pin-striping on cars, motorcycles, and musical instruments for customers across the U.S. and abroad. Decker was born without his right hand and wears a prosthetic arm while he paints. Decker agreed to donate his services to benefit The Birchtree Center.

Chris Mahon and Bob Canney hand the guitar to Birchtree Executive Director Dr. Christine Guarino.

Chris Mahon and his colleagues in the music department at Best Buy in Newington stepped up to donate a Les Paul electric guitar for Decker to pinstripe for a charity raffle to benefit Birchtree. Shane O’Neil, General Manager at the Texas Roadhouse restaurant in Newington, offered to sell the raffle tickets at his restaurant.

The raffle drawing took place on December 12. The event raised over $400 to support The Birchtree Center's nonprofit programs for children and youth with autism in New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont.

Thank you so much to everyone who made this event such a success!

For more information about future Cruise-In fundraisers, see www.deuceswildweb.com.