Help Zach See the World!

I posted this back at the end of November of last year on my personal blog and the response has been overwhelming!

This project is still ongoing and we're all loving it! Please consider sending along a postcard for Zach's collection and help him see the world!

Let me introduce you my little hero: my son Zachariah:

Zach is 8 years old. Zach is also autistic. Scroll down to the post below this one to see a scrapbook page that I did on Zach a couple years ago.

We caught his autism early....at 13 months old. He's been in intervention since he was 18 months old, as it took us 5 LONG months to find a program and someone that could help us. Both Zach and the state of Vermont have come a LONG way since then.

Zach is now in second grade and is caught up with the rest of the kids in his class and is even ahead of some of them in some subjects. It took him until 4 years old to regain the small amount of words he lost at 13 months. His vocabulary still has a little ways to go, along with his pronunciation, etc.

Zach ADORES bugs......he would live outside catching bugs all day if he could. It wouldn't surprise us if one day he ended up working for National Geographic, trekking through the Amazon and the jungles of Africa discovering and researching new species of insects. He also loves to look at biology books and can tell you where many of the body's organs are and what they do.

Zach is also in love with the great big WORLD! He's fascinated by maps, topography, geography, etc. The walls in his room are covered with maps of Italy, the planets (he loves space, as well), the US, Vermont, etc. Just the other day, my dad, who is the greatest "Dumpster Diver" in the WORLD, saw that our neighbor had thrown out a perfectly good GLOBE of the world! In PERFECT condition! My dad pulled it out and brought it in for Zach. It even has the mountain ranges in topographical form on the globe! Zach has been ECSTATIC about it since my dad brought it into the house!

Anyway....along with his autism, Zach also has a lot of Obsessive Compulsive behaviors. Right now, he's having a hard time transitioning into the end of fall and the onset of winter. With his love of bugs (and he has bug jars EVERYWHERE in our house!), he's been really upset that most of the bugs have either died off or gone into hiding for the winter. My mom had a WONDERFUL idea to give Zach something to look forward to during the winter months. She got the idea from a movie she recently watched.

Zach loves the world.....he loves hearing about different places, loves to find things on the map (and now on his "new" globe), etc.

Mom thought it would be a great project to have him receive post cards from all over the world! We're planning on buying a brand new map of the world and putting it up on his wall. We're going to get a package of little stickers so that we can pinpoint where his postcards arrive from. I'm also going to keep all of his postcards in an album so that he can page through them and look at them whenever he wants.

But I need your help for this project! Would you be willing to send Zach a postcard? This is something he looks forward to each day after school. It would be such a blast for him to look in that box each day with the hopes of being able to "travel" some place new without even leaving our little town (though he's just ITCHING to get out there and see the world himself!).

So......whadda ya say? Want to help put a BIG smile on my little guy's face?

Zachariah Martin
PO Box 153
Ferrisburg, VT 05456

I have a running list of where our postcards come from, which you can check out on the sidebar over at my SunshineMama blog. :) Thanks in advance for ALL of your help! We'd love to get a postcard from ANYWHERE.....even if you're just down the road from us! Don't forget, he's also got a HUGE Vermont map on his wall, too! :)

Thanks!

-Erika

 

Comments

[Pam]

It would be my pleasure to send Zach a postcard from NEBRASKA! Thank you for sharing his amazing story with us. Zach is blessed to have YOU as his mommy.
Smiles, Pam :)

[Ying]

202 as of October 2008. Not bad.

I'll see what I can do at scs, justcards, and heartsintouch.com. =)

Have you asked Gina for a link with the Stamps for a Cause program?

http://blog.ginakdesigns.com/

I love that lady!