For Autism Awareness Month Tawanka Elementary School Raised $1,000!

Tawanka Elementary School, a local elementary school raised $1,000 to support We Make, Autism At Work!

Feastersville Trevose, PA—Shelby Rothman and Sarah King both work at Tawanka Elementary School as Autistic Support Teachers and this year they rallied their school again to raise $1,000 in funding for We Make, Autism at Work, a local organization serving students and adults with autism. As a way to acknowledge April as Autism Awareness Month, the teachers worked with students and staff to design t-shirts. Through the t-shirt sales, they were able to generate $1,000 in support to donate to We Make. T-shirts were made at Rooney Family Screen Printing and Embroidery. This was the 5th school year doing this fundraiser. To kick off our Autism Acceptance week, on Monday Ms. Rothman and Ms. King invited Ben Hartranft, also known as BenEnergy (a local motivational speaker that goes by the name BenEnergy,) visit the school and share his experiences with Autism. Our theme this year is "Be happy in your own shell." At Tawanka they took this theme to heart and were intentional about spreading kindness throughout their school building!

Through this organized and concerted effort of t-shirt sale fundraising, interactive bulletin boards, grade level question and answer sessions, classroom lessons and activities, the team was able to achieve their goal of "Raising awareness and acceptance of autism and differences among our school community," stated Ms. Rothman.

All week the students and staff participated in spirit week, wearing different themed clothes representing diversity. On April 10th, students and staff wore the shirts they designed and sold and took a photo together. Moe Siddiqu, Executive Director of We Make was thrilled to accept the support from Tawanka Elementary and shared, "We are so grateful to Shelby Rothman, Sarah King and Principal Donald Palmer and everyone that is part of the Tawanka Elementary community for their continued support of We Make! Having such generous and compassionate partners in serving students with autism is truly a wonderful feeling!"

Principal Donald Palmer commented, “Our team at Tawanka takes pride in creating an inclusive environment for all of our learners. Programs like BenEnergy show our students that with hard work and perseverance, all students can achieve success.”

For more information or to purchase a t-shirt, contact Tawanka Elementary School at (215) 809-6310.

To support We Make with a donation for Autism Awareness Month, click here: Support We Make Here.