After the Event

We apologize for the absence in our posting, but running an event is exhausting. We are happy to report that the event was great! The kids loved all of the activities and the parents had nothing but good things to say. The turnout could have been better, but for our first event we were very satisfied. To all of you who came out, thanks a lot! And for all of you who didn’t, make sure you come out to the next one.

What to expect in the future

It has been a while since the last time we posted. We have been working night and day to get the event next Saturday absolutely perfect.

After our event we are going to expand our effort ten fold. I know we promised the friend finder service to be up and running by now, but due to some legal issues we had to hold off on it. After the event we are going to take care of those issues and get the site going strong.

You can also expect to see PlayDates partnering with some well known organizations in Florida. The next couple of months are going to be very exciting! We plan to have our organization running strong by the end of the year.

So for all of you who are out there supporting us, just hold tight because we are not going to disappoint you.

How Do Parents Feel?

Being an organization that works towards helping children create social bonds with other children, a thought had occurred to us. How do the parents feel about connecting with the other child’s parents? Based off of personal experiences, we assume that parents would be ecstatic about finding other parents to relate to. There are a few points of interest that we would love feedback on from our readers. 

1) When it comes to finding friends for your child, how much do you really care about the parents? We understand that it’s better when everyone in the interaction “clicks”, but would you not let kids who get along play with each other because you don’t like there parents?

2) Do you get excited when an opportunity arises for your child to make a friend comes along? 

3) How much time do you put into finding friends for your child?

Hopefully the responses will help bring up some interesting topics for later.

How Do Parents Feel?

Being an organization that works towards helping children create social bonds with other children, a thought had occurred to us. How do the parents feel about connecting with the other child’s parents? Based off of personal experiences, we assume that parents would be ecstatic about finding other parents to relate to. There are a few points of interest that we would love feedback on from our readers. 

1) When it comes to finding friends for your child, how much do you really care about the parents? We understand that it’s better when everyone in the interaction “clicks”, but would you not let kids who get along play with each other because you don’t like there parents?

2) Do you get excited when an opportunity arises for your child to make a friend comes along? 

3) How much time do you put into finding friends for your child?

Hopefully the responses will help bring up some interesting topics for later.

A Great Event

Today our staff attended an event at Journey’s Christian Church in Apopka. The event was very similar to the event our organization is hosting on the 29th. This event was hosted by Nathaniel’s Hope & Bright Feats, two organizations that work with children with disabilities. Overall the event was awesome, they had different rooms which hosted a multitude of activities for the children. There were also a lot of information for the parents. In particular, we found one presentation very cool. 

This program was created by two women that offered an immersion into the world of special needs children. Their program is designed for kids 6th grade and below to help them understand what it is like to have certain disabilities. For example, to understand dislexia you would have to trace a picture while looking at it in a mirror. To understand sensory overload problems, you would have to take a test while people made loud noises and flashed lights off and on. 

To expose young kids to these types of demonstration goes a long way to opening their minds and it should be implemented in every school nationwide. We wish you all the best, hopefully we will be able to post contact information on that particular program soon.

Blast Off into Blogging

Welcome readers to PlayDate Foundation's first blog. (Applause) 

The purpose of this blog is to keep people involved in our organization up to date with what is going on in PlayDate. For those of you who just happened to stumble upon this and have no idea who we are, let me fill you in. 

PlayDate Foundation Inc. is a non-profit organization that works to promote social opportunities for children with disabilities. By social opportunities we simply mean "giving kids a chance to meet other kids." Unfortunately in today's society many kids with disabilities are forced into a non-active lifestyle. This isn't due to the fact that they can't do many things, it's purely because there just aren't enough things out there for them to do. This is where PlayDate comes in, we offer a friend finder service on our webpage (www.playdatesinc.org) and we hold monthly events in Orlando.

PlayDate was founded this year by our CEO Dennis Crosby. He started the company because his niece has downsyndrome and has lived a life with very few friends. He grew tired of seeing such a spirited young girl stuck at home because she was unable to play with kids her own age. Out of this frustration grew the idea of PlayDate. If she was having such a hard time, there must be other kids going through the same thing. From there our companies journey began.

The goal of our organization is to unite the disabled community worldwide! We know it is a huge goal, but like they say "go big or go home!" By unite we don't simply mean connecting them socially like Facebook or MySpace, no we mean really connecting them. When we vision PlayDate's future, we see weekly events hosted by not just PlayDate but the parents as well. We see nationwide programs for sports and activities such as dance and theater. Our goal is for PlayDate to become a household name in disabled families.

Our company is hosting its kickoff event this month on the 29th at the Central Florida Fairgrounds. The event will be an indoor carnival and will host disabled friendly activities. 

We are working diligently to find vendors and sponsors for this event. It hasn't been easy and we are still in need of more. If anyone out there has suggestions, feel free to contact us with them. 

That's all for today, check back regularly for more posts!