Jean and John's Fundraiser for LearningSpring School

Happy Spring to all of you, missing you and hope you and your families are doing well!

It is Autism Acceptance Month and as many of you know The LearningSpring School (A place for children diagnosed on the autism spectrum to learn, to grow and to belong), is near and dear to our hearts and Jean continues to serve on the Board of Trustees and John is an active member of the Host Committee of Blooms. We'd like to invite you to celebrate Autism Acceptance Month by joining us at our annual LSS Blooms Celebration on Monday, April 24, 2023, 6pm at Tribeca Rooftop, NYC.

At last year's event, we honored the founding member of the Talking Heads, David Bryne. It was our first in person event since 2019 and the energy was high and the night was full of magic. This year will be another exciting Blooms Gala as we have two amazing Honorees, we will be honoring Freddie Highmore, a Golden Globe Nominee who is currently starring in the ABC drama series The Good Doctor, where he plays a young autistic surgeon, he has also starred in acclaimed movies and shows such as Bates Motel and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We will also be honoring, Victor Calise, Director of Global Culture, Equity and Inclusion at Walmart where he spearheads disability inclusion and accessibility into every aspect of the company from infrastructure to employment, to the shopping experience. Previously, Victor spent more than two decades in public service, his culminating role from 2012 to 2022 was as Commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities under three different Administrations.

LSS's goal is to remain a tuition-free institution and with your help we can reach this goal and provide a top-notch education for all those students on the Autism Spectrum who need it. As many of the schools in NYC dedicated to students on the spectrum turn private - due to the inability to raise funds to close the gap, the demographic of children who can attend these schools is shrinking as the tuitions are astronomical.

All proceeds raised from this celebration allow LearningSpring to remain versatile in providing a unique education to each and every one of our students.

It costs LSS $81,698 per student and the Department of Education reimburses the school $67,164 per student. Every year we need to fill the FUNDING GAP which amounts to $14,534 per student, LSS has approximately 107 total students so every level of support counts. We depend on the Blooms event to help us meet our fundraising goals and we hope you will support! If you cannot donate, but want to help by spreading the word, that would be a huge help as well!