We’re taking a look back at 2014 so we can move forward in 2015. What a year! What began as an idea turned into an autism app in 2013 then became our autism advocacy (an initiative for change) at the beginning of 2014 which transformed into a 501(c)3 autism charity! Wow!
As a family with a loved one on the autism spectrum, we wanted to use our creative talents and positive attitudes to help other autism families. In his own words, here is my son Jonathan’s autism story of hope. He is the inspiration behind our founding Geek Club Books:
In late 2013 our first autism story app, the Mighty League, Vol. 1: The Terrible Taunting was released on iTunes and Android app markets. We were on our way towards turning Jonathan’s inspiring words into action. In 2014, we moved full tilt into our creative form of autism advocacy. Here are a few notable highlights:
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Our Mighty League Autism Story App was in the top 25 of ALL app downloads on iTunes on World Autism Awareness Day. Ours is the first story app with an autistic main character and thousands of children are learning about autism in an entertaining and engaging way. |
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Jonathan was recognized and received a Temple Grandin Award for being an Autistic role model and advocate for positive change through his work on our autism story apps. |
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Toys-R-Us selected the Mighty League, Vol. 1: The Terrible Taunting autism story app to be one of their ‘featured apps’ in their Tabeo Tablet. |
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We flew to Virginia to speak on a panel at The ARC on autism empowerment through entrepreneurship. |
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We piloted the Penfriend Project, a program that gives autistic writers an opportunity to express their personal autism stories in a monthly column. Their essays and videos are some of most popular posts we publish. That’s empowering! And we as a community benefit too. We learn tolerance and understanding through their words. |
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We had many opportunities to collaborate with other autism advocates and autism nonprofitsin 2014. We launched the ‘Autimism: Positive for a Change‘ public awareness campaign with The Autism Society of Northern Virginia and Conquer for Conner-My Special Love. Jodi co-founded Zoom Autism Magazine with Sharon Cummings and Sharon Fuentes to present autism through many lenses. |
And we ended the year with the completion of our first fundraiser. We ran a successful Indiegogo campaign to fund our next autism story app.
We are so grateful for you−our benefactors, our contributors, and our community−for helping us make 2014 magical! We look forward to our journey together in 2015!
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