Hello all,

I am proposing an idea that I had to raise some money for my daughter who was just diagnosed as having AUTISM. My name is Dustin Efird, for those of you who do not know me, and my daughter is two year old Ashlynn Efird. I was a stay at home dad and part of your organization for about a year and a half until I had to go back to work and my wife stays at home with the children now. I really miss being at home with my daughter and wish that I could stay at home but I can not especially now that my daughter was just diagnosed as Autistic. I have to keep my job so that my daughter will have insurance, as autism is an uninsurable condition, and pay for therapies for her to get better. The problem is that her therapies will cost us 110'000.00 for a year worth of therapy plus her pediatrician, and DAN specialist that we will have to go to, her special allergy free food and medicine. All of this, minus some of the medicine and some of the pediatric doctor’s visits, is considered "alternative medicine" and is not covered by insurance. This label of alternative is beside the fact that the government has endorsed this therapy for children with autism and recommends at least 25 hours of ABA therapy BUT will not pay for any of it through the states early intervention programs. ABA therapy is the leading therapy at “recovering” children with autism to a normal life. An intensive 1:1 program of at least 40 hours a week for two years has in many cases led to children being included into regular education classrooms, indistinguishable for their peers. I can only hope that one day Ashlynn might be included in a regular education classroom and the research findings from ABA trials give me that hope. How do I pay for a program that is so expensive and yet so vital for my daughter? So I had an idea…

I was doing some research online about fundraising and saw that a group of men in Vermont who raised 500,000.00 for a local charity, and another group of women in south Carolina who raised 180,000.00 for Aiken council on aging. In the U.K. 100 women made 26’000.00 euro for posing in a calendar for an austic girl named Rosie. Again and again I found large amounts of money being raised for charity’s by simple making ‘naked’ calendars of their members for charity. Yes I did just say “naked” but before you picture playgirl we are talking about modest naked and not exposing anything other than what you might show at a beach. I thought a “naked” calendar of the Chicago Stay At Home Dads Group might bring in some money that I could then put into my daughters special needs trust fund that can only be used for ABA therapy and related doctors visits. I will also donate a portion of all the money raised to a research lab that is studying the autism gene for a cure the symptoms. This could be a great opportunity to raise some money for a great kid and to get your group in the news as a group that helps and supports a former member. All that I ask of you is that you help me by posing “nude” in my calendar and possibly help me sell as many calendars as possible by 2009. I will arrange for all the accommodations and photographers and pay for it all up front BUT of course I would love any and all input from the collective whole on the project, this can include some great ideas for posses and or locations. All of this should be done modestly really playing up the idea of stay at home dads, such as a photo of naked cooking or running bath water, ect. See these sites for some funny examples of photo’s that I thought we would use as a guide for our calendar.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northeast/guides/halloffame/arts/images/fron-choir-naked-400x255.jpg,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/graphics/2006/12/05/calendar.jpg

http://www.chanceforrosie.org.uk/full_monty_girls/calendar.php

I would like to get this calendar together and in production by Sept. or Oct. so that I can be selling them as soon as October for the New Year. I am open to any and all ideas that anybody has to help my adventure and would love to count on all of the support of the Chicago stay at home dads group.

Thanks in advance for considering my crazy fund raising idea and please e-mail me at design@dustinefird.com if you have questions or comments.