Walk Around the World - Message Board
This message board provides current information on 2007 walks and our developing charitable status.
Please continue to use the UK Central Message Board (link at right side of page) to chat with other Son-Rise programme particpants.
September 4
Please check for updates to walks, as they are now coming fast and furious! Unfortunately, the same doesn't apply to the T-shirts, which are on their way from the US, and expected to arrive in a few days' time.
September 2
Agreement has been reached with the Autism Treatment Center of America, enabling Son-Rise Program (Europe) to exist soon as a Charitable Corporation, registered in the United Kingdom. This means that donations can be subjected to a significant tax deduction, allowing donors to apply to the Inland Revenue for "gift aid" qualification.
This important change in status will be reflected on revised Sponsor Forms, as and when details are confirmed. Contact Liz Carosella for more information.
A bank account is being established for the new corporation. As soon as this account has been realised, we will able to offer Pay-Pal payment capability, directly to the new corporation.
We are assured by our legal advisors that it is acceptable for donors to make cheques payable to "The Son-Rise Program (Europe)" effective immediately.
August 20
"Autism: Recovery is an Option". Raun Kaufman will be giving presentations at various UK locations during September and October. See the link on the home page for more information.
August 9
Please be patient while we work with our friends in Massachussets to establish our trust status. This effort is progressing well and we hope to announce the good news very soon!
The web site is being redesigned and will be put in place, once certain legal and technical issues have been resolved. For example, we now have walks confirmed for Eire and Italy. The programme's expansion into Europe must be factored in to the new web site and its associated documentation.
If you have any pictures, maps or want to send a message to your walkers, please send via email to Liz, who will pass it on for upload to the web.
Pages for last year's walks are left unchanged, and are there purely as a reference to last year's walks. Note that contact information, attached forms and guides on these pages are not current! Use the Home page or one of the 2007 walk pages for up-to-date links.
Your comments and suggestions are all appreciated, and are being considered as we work to attain a charity status that brings certain benefits - including the opportunity to reclaim a sizeable percentage of each donation from the Inland Revenue. Guides and sponsor forms will be modified to reflect this great opportunity and incentive for giving. Don't forget to mention this to potential sponsors!
Please send all requests for registration, comments and suggestions to Liz by clicking on the email link on the Home page, or calling her on the phone number provided.
August 7
GOOD NEWS! We are very close to establishing a UK-based Trust to fund the UK and other European programmes. We will be opening a bank account under the Trust name by the end of August. Please "stay tuned" for news, and we will let you know as soon as we have confirmation.
July 28
Tee-shirts have been ordered and will be sent to Team Leaders as soon they arrive, in a few weeks' time.
Barclays Bank and Citigroup offer a donation matching scheme for their employees. If you are an employee, you can benefit from their programmes.
Read the Corporate Giving Plan and see if an organisation near you can be approached for sponsorship. Depending on the level of funding provided, participating companies can receive: paid tuition at the Adult Program in U.S., announcements on local and national media, corporate logo/link on the Son-Rise web site (the new version now under development), advertising on various Son-Rise advertisements. Please note that the Corporate Giving Plan is based on the U.S. plan and has been modified where possible to suit potential European corporate sponsors. Please excuse any apparent misspellings!
Several Volunteer Centres have been contacted and some have shown interest in providing volunteers for the Son-Rise walks. Click here for a list of these centres.
If your group is a large one (let's hope they all are!) you might consider approaching a local supermarket to supply food and drinks in return for advertising their sponsorship.
A note about this web site. Apologies for the ever-changing shape of this site! We are adding to the 2006 web site as we get news and updates from our friends in Massachussets, and as the charity status of Son-Rise develops. Once the legal status of Son-Rise in the United Kingdom has been fixed, a new site will be developed with appropriate links to the U.S. parent organisation, but with an emphasis on European issues.
June 4
An online donations facility UK Son-Rise programme will be made available via the next release of the web site, once UK charitable status has been achieved.
A page for registrations is under development and will be added to the site in the next release.
May 12
Forms for this year's walks can be downloaded by clicking on the links on each page of this site.
The Registration page currently takes you to the US registration site, then redirects you to the Home page of this site. We are putting together a UK registration page. Meanwhile, please contact the UK Coordinator.