Sarah Persichetti, 13, decided to use the opportunity of her bat mitzvah celebration to perform a charitable deed. The seventh-grader recently became a bat mitzvah at Temple Adat Elohim in Thousand Oaks. She selected the charity Cure Autism Now because her 5-yearold cousin, Zachary, had been diagnosed with autism as a baby.
"Even though I am just one person donating money to a cause, I feel like I've made a difference," Sarah said.
During the past year she collected bottles and cans at Westlake Hills Elementary School, at athletic events and from friends and family and cashed them in at a recycling center.
Sarah had a goal of raising $1,000 through the recycling program. She raised nearly $500, then contributed $500 of her own savings to attain her goal.
Sarah participated in the Cure Autism Walk in Los Angeles on April 22 and delivered her donation in person.
"It feels so good to do something good for other people in need," Sarah said. "I feel like I've grown closer to my cousin from doing this project. I encourage everyone to participate in something as meaningful and special."
something seems like a miss. you say you care for your little brother and then donate to CAN, an orgization thati wants to elimate your brother? i guess she has been brainwashed in thinking that autistics live a medicore life and that CAN wants him to improve his life. if she really has known CAN...CAN wants to elimate us and they HATE us. you just gave them hate money.
i would never donate to can...i'm tempted to actually break in and give the money back to her so that they can have a better life to accept their child and fully embrace them as autistic (not inferior).
there are so many fraudlent charties out there...i don't donate to them unless i'm 1000% sure it is the right cause. this is kinda like the cancer foudations...but that's a diffrent story.
I thought it was a really sad story as the girl is only 13, and its a very large amount of money to give (for her age).
She must have been very influenced to do that, maybe the element of emotional blackmail 'don't you care about your little cousin and want him to be cured'.
ironcially, CAN does not vouche for any true support for autistics now, but say that the only way to give them a good life is to find the cure (likely death) now and get rid of autistics. what a shame that she had to gvie her money to eugenticis.
or she automatcally thought a cure would make his brother's life better. i guess she was playing the autism=bad life card. i think this is sad that even the youth are being told that autism is evil and curation is the best thing for us. just breeding the next generation of curebies.
one more thing...many people precive that autistic familes are all doing whatever they can to cure their child. they belive that all famlies are disgusted with autism and that they are desprete for a cure. when they talk to their siblings, they think all of them are trying to be the responbile one to care for them and try to help to find a cure..
my older brother to my knowlegde did not want to cure me, he thought i was annoying at times, but he, as well as the rest of my family likes who i am. they would be upset to seeing me change from the person i am to someone non autistic...and from what i see, the non autistic life is overrated. i like my life, autism has made life better, not worse.
Or more likely, she genuinely believes CAN can cure her cousin and thought she was doing a good act.
Now I really don't like curbieism, but saying it was emotional blackmail without proof, is not right. :evil:
I said maybe it was, and what else would it be? Do you know many 13 year olds who give $1000/£2000 cash to charities?
Wouldn't there be some emotional impetus involved?
like thye shall know no fear i think she genuinely loves her cousin and believes she is making a difference. It's more of a my cousin has autism, I am going to do something for him and other people who have autism,= donate money and raise funds for autism related charity.
Which I think is excellent. I wouldn't write her off as an awful curebie or curebie to be or and idiot who must have somehow been coerced to part with her money. i think its something she really wanted to do for her cousin.
Only it had to be CAN. :roll:
but we must understand that many many or most people have not been exposed to the other side of the argument. when they are looking for an austim charity to donate to, CAN will be one of the loudest voices. and truthfully, unless you are autistic or AS yourself and/or have heard the other side of the argument, it wouldnt occur to you not to donate to CAN. To many people it's not changing the person, its just eliminating the worst of symptoms like the inability to self care. Unfortunately many dont reasd into the more severe implications behind cure.
I think the worst thing we can do is keep second guessing these peoples integrity and motives because if presented with more information, they might change their minds
Like a lot of people it seems likely that she has only heard of autism being a horrible disease and most likely does not know the damage CAN is doing. What is worrying is the massive amount of money she donated from her own savings - I do still think there was some emotional manipulation going on to make a 13 year old donate that large a sum.
Something else to consider - Is it normal for jews to fundraise for charity on their bar mitzvah?
I disagree that she simply wanted to help her cousin and so donated.
Lets look at this logically....she could have given the money straight to her cousin! Isn't that going to help him a hell of a lot more??!!
I am sure she had some kind of pressure, emotional, subliminal, from tv ads, maybe even Dr Phil.
Like a lot of people it seems likely that she has only heard of autism being a horrible disease and most likely does not know the damage CAN is doing. What is worrying is the massive amount of money she donated from her own savings - I do still think there was some emotional manipulation going on to make a 13 year old donate that large a sum.
that's probaly why my family rarely talked to me about autism, becuase of all the negative protyral autistics have in the media, and my parents wanted me to be the best i could truly be in a postive envoriment, and didn't want me to think of myself as bad or defective. and i'm glad now, hearing all of the autism steryotypes in the media, which are false. i was given the best oppunties for everything.
regarding chartiy donation, i wouldn't do it becuase of all the frauds alot of them are doing, and some have alterior motives, but that's a whole diffrent story.
Many people really do not know an adult with autism. They hear about kids with autism, the most extreme cases and think it is terrible.
I feel like laughing when my mother talks about my cousin's daughter who has an Asperger's diagnosis like "oh, it is so terrible... She is having so much trouble in school... She always wants to watch the same DVD." and the kid just sucked her parents into buying her a pet. There is this huge pity feaswt going on in my family. My mom is so stupid she does not even know that I have Asperger's and so did my grandmother.
I wished I could have earned that sort of money as a thirteen year old! Growing up on a farm meant LOTS of chores, for which I received the grand sum of fifty cents a week (if mum remembered to give it to me and so long as I'd done everything I was supposed to.) Wow, kids today can earn a fortune!
Alison
Or more likely, she genuinely believes CAN can cure her cousin and thought she was doing a good act.
Now I really don't like curbieism, but saying it was emotional blackmail without proof, is not right. :evil:
I said maybe it was, and what else would it be? Do you know many 13 year olds who give $1000/£2000 cash to charities?
Wouldn't there be some emotional impetus involved?
Err you mean $1,000 USD/£526 GBP even, USD < GBP in value.