That’s how long we have been fundraising for Gio’s Garden. We actually received our first donation, the kickstart that told us get this ball rolling, in January 2010. But we received our first website donation the night of March 10th, 2010. Our website had just gone up a few hours earlier and we were excited, nervous, and overwhelmed. Then, we saw the first donation and knew we could do this…it didn’t matter that it came from Ron’s dad in Arizona! WE WERE GOING TO DO THIS!
And here we are, January 2012 with the exciting news that we have been keeping under wraps for 2 months: WE HAVE FOUND A HOME FOR GIO’S GARDEN AND WILL OPEN IN A FEW MONTHS!
It only took 22 months. We had numerous fundraisers, thousands of dollars donated, sleepless nights worrying if this was ever going to happen, arguments about how to do things, board members leaving, new board members joining, etc. But, through it all, our supporters came through and we reached our fundraising goal at the end of 2011.
$250,000. All of it from donations and from a special angel donor in the area who wants to see Charlotte’s original dream come true: a safe environment where special needs children can spend some time with each other while their parents get a much needed break for just a few hours to recharge their batteries.
Gio’s Garden will be located at 2028 Parmenter in Middleton. It’s a cute yellow house right next door to the EMS station, behind the fire department and across the street from St. Bernard’s Catholic Church!
This blog will be updated frequently with plenty of stuff about the house, getting our license, hiring our director and Respite Care Coordinator and opening our doors. Check back frequently, subscribe to our blog, LIKE us on Facebook and find us on Twitter and Google+. We are all over and are ready to start helping special needs families!
Thank you to all our supporters…our friends!
