by Carrie Moritz, Garretson Gazette
An on-line fundraiser surpassed its $1000 goal in just over 24 hours this past week, with proceeds that will benefit Blue Dragon Academy. The fundraiser, done by an organization called “Stephen’s Light,” helps to bring awareness and compassion about autism and other disabilities. This was done to help honor the memory of four-year-old Stephen, who died in an unfortunate accident this past October.
Stephen’s mother, Madeline Andrews, worked at BDA for two years while they lived in Brandon. Stephen had autism and global development delay, and Andrews didn’t feel right about leaving him in daycare and working elsewhere.
“Blue Dragon Academy was a dream for both of us, as I could work and know he was being well taken care of. Although most of the staff did not have formal training for an autistic child, they quickly learned all of his quirks and how to best adapt to what he needed without disturbing the other children,” she wrote in an email to the Gazette. “Also, the kids responded so well to him. Social settings can be very hard for an autistic child and sometimes they really just like to keep to themselves. I have to say that all of the kids at BDA were so nice to Stephen. They respected his space when he needed it but also took the time to see if he wanted to join them. I can’t tell you what that does to a mother’s heart, whose greatest fear is her child being left out.”
They moved to Mississippi in April of last year, where Andrews is from. Stephen began attending Lower Quitman Elementary in PreK, and the fundraiser will benefit the Quitman, MS school as well.
“She [Andrews] is still working her magic for BDA even though she lives in Mississippi,” said Heidi Fink, director of Blue Dragon Academy. The $1000 in donations is being matched at 50% by Usborne Books, which means BDA will be receiving at least 75 books.
“We are going to pick books with themes of trains, kindness, acceptance, differences- things that we are all about at Stephen’s Light,” said Andrews. Stephen adored trains. In a story run by KELO News, Andrews elaborated, saying, "I don't know when it started, we must have had Thomas on the TV or something and he just fell in love, trains were just his life, which became our life," she said.
“It's very important for kids to be accepting of everybody, not everybody is the same, everybody has difficulties, learning disabilities of all sorts," Fink said to KELO.
And with this successful fundraiser, it means that Stephen’s light really does get to keep shining.
Stephen’s Light runs an ongoing “kindness campaign,” where acts of kindness are performed. Free cards to help promote the campaign can be ordered by messaging Stephen’s Light on Facebook with a mailing address.
