Dear Friends of Gio's Garden,

September 2009: a distant memory of our first golf outing which was only our second fundraiser EVER.

Charlotte and I knew what we needed to create. With our small board, and so many of our friends, we opened Gio’s Garden Therapeutic Respite Center on June 2, 2012.

10 years of helping special needs families get the help Gio, his brother, Charlotte and I couldn’t get until he turned six because the State of Wisconsin said he wasn’t disabled “enough.”

What does that even mean?

80-100 seizures a day, losing the ability to speak, not able to eat somedays, and already one brain surgery (he has had three).

In the midst of our struggles, we opened a place for kids birth through six living with special needs and the kid it’s named after would never use it.

We built Gio’s Garden for these special kids to have a place where they weren’t seen as “different.”

We built Gio’s Garden for siblings of these special kids to get some attention from their parents who are ALWAYS needing to care for their sister/brother.

We built Gio’s Garden for the parents of these special kids who need a break, need to run errands, need to hang with friends, or need to go on a date with their partner.

We built Gio’s Garden to save marriages.

The first time a couple said that to me, that Charlotte and I had saved their marriage, was the first time I truly realized what we had created. In 10 years, I have heard that from couples more times than I can count.

And Gio himself has no idea that HE did all this. Gio’s purpose in our world is to make positive change in all our lives.

Join us at Hawk’s Landing June 13^th as we celebrate 10 years of Gio’s Garden!

While you’re golfing and having fun, you’ll be raising money for something very special and larger than all of us.

You’ll be helping so many special needs families in our area who are struggling but you would never know because we don’t ask for help even when we desperately need it.

Ron Giordan

Gio’s Dad/Gio’s Garden Co-Founder