What is a Binga?

So a blog is a deeply personal thing; a place to pour your heart out and invite others to share in your experiences. You can cry, and laugh, and cheer - you can get mad or find a cause to believe in. But what happens when the blog you want to write is about a child? How do you weigh her privacy against sharing some of her stories so that people might empathize with her?


I've been struggling with these questions and plan to tread carefully and with her permission while bringing you to know her, so please meet Tobi; Our Little Binga. What is a Binga? We have no idea but we've been calling our youngest daughter a binga since the day she was born and this blog is for her!

Please follow us on our quest for a Service Dog for Tobi.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

A Milestone Reached and Coming Challenges

Wow, so I know it's been awhile since I last posted but here I am now! I will tell you that the Benefit Dinner was a success, but not in the way I had imagined.

As you may know, I had made a Facebook event for the dinner, told everyone I could think of about it and asked them to share; I posted the event on three radio stations and two newspapers (I even got a call from a woman as a result who said that Autism was a subject close to her heart), and our oldest daughter posted dozens of fliers all over our town and nearby cities.

We had some amazing volunteers!! They gave their time to be there, to help set-up and clean-up, they spread the word and called friends and family, they ran out for last minute supplies, they made a ton of food, donated a raffle item... My husband and I were so incredibly touched by this group of people that it's hard to find the right words. My sister's best friend even came and set-up a scentsy booth!

So who came? Hardly anyone. We had so many beautifully set up tables and only used two for diners. It was a little disheartening, but in the end, the ones who did offer their support were the ones whose generous donations of time and yes, money, combined with the previously raised donations, that let us reach our first milestone - the puppy deposit!

I can't begin to tell you how moved we still are by all of you who have helped us get this far. All of your names are now on Puzzle Pieces for Tobi, so that she will always have this reminder of who helped her get her service dog.

Though this was only the first step, it feels like it was the most important one. We have paid the puppy deposit and Tobi's dog will be born in October or November!! This means that we have time to raise the upcoming Training Deposit, because while we have purchased a puppy to be trained, we still need to pay for the specialized training this dog will endure for the first 1 -2 years of it's life.

School begins shortly and that's causing a basketful of issues right now but slowly we're working on the next fundraiser, a Chinese Auction (thank you to those of you who pointed us in this direction!), and when I have a little more information, I will be posting here; no doubt asking if anyone has anything under the sun they might like to offer up to be raffled off. ;)

Again, I want to say a huge, hearty thank you to all of you who has helped us get this far; there is no way we could do this without you.