Launching a Successful Campaign
What Brings you here?Perhaps you're a parent of a child with Angelman Syndrome or a sibling, neighbor, troop leader, teacher, therapist, Aunt, Uncle, or Grandparent of an Angel - regardless of your relationship, we want to share some ideas on how you might go about having your own SpeakOut4AS event. No venue is too small and each event will take on it's own interpretation.
Click to see our Kids4Good club interpretation of our upcoming SpeakOut4AS event on December 2nd. A warm-up to a very powerful event!
The Silence Continues...
We're simply providing some thought starters below.
The timeline below is based on our Inaugural event, being led by the Kids4Good group. This will be an event where children in two schools, upwards of 1,000 students, will all be asked to pledge silence during their lunch period in an effort to create awareness about Angelman Syndrome.
Read through how we plan to go about running our event and just promise that in return you'll share details of your event so that we can showcase everyone's efforts.
If one scout troop conducts their own SpeakOut4AS event that could be just that many more children who've learned about your particular Angel and Angelman Syndrome and it will in turn be that many more children who have a better understanding of what it truly means to be accepting of others.
A suggested timeline to execute your SpeakOut4AS event:
Six Weeks to Two Months in Advance
Get Busy - Time to start planning your SpeakOut4AS event with your school groups or community organizations. Once you apply for a kit, we will provide you with some sample documents for you to use and that you can have customized to fit your particular event. If you have a person with Angelman Syndrome in your community, you may want to showcase him or her for your event, your Angel Ambassador. Here is a picture book that was used to showcase our Angel Ambassador, Ainlsey, The All About Ainsley Book. Set a date for your event! Select a location - gym, lunchroom, etc.
Once approved for a SpeakOut kit, a sample Overview Document will be sent to you. This document is helpful in describing how our event came to be and who we hope to benefit with this event.
Consider approaching your Principal, group leader or sponsor about involving your whole school or group in the event and helping to raise awareness about not only Angelman Syndrome, but all disorders where speech may be affected.
Have some fun and raise some funds for a cure! A Pledge Form can be part of your event. Consider having a competition between grade levels, quietest class, etc. Try to have some prizes for top fundraisers by class or within your group. A sample Pledge Form will be included in your kit.
Our Approach for K-2 Grades:
We know this campaign's impact stands to be powerful regardless of the size of your group or the age of the participants. Our K through 2 building will be asking the children in each class to remain silent for five minutes to begin to realize what silence really means and what their words mean to them. They'll spend the days up to the event discussing scenarios of what it might feel like to be nonverbal. The teachers will share The All About Ainsley Book with their classes on the day of the event.
Final weeks up to event and those just wanting to jump in and give this a go in the spirit of creating awareness for AS - You Can Do It!
We would recommend you send out the Overview Document and the Pledge Form about two weeks in advance of your SpeakOut4AS event.
We've created a few other pieces that you can pick-up and use for your event or you can create your own. These are messages you could post around your school or community, making people aware of your upcoming SpeakOut4AS event.
Check out a few of our messaging pieces - Lips Teaser, Event graphic with alternate copy, etc. Also Stickers. for Participants and SpeakOut or SO Stix template for anyone wanting to create these for their participants. Other things to consider - secure volunteers for the event day.
And don't forget the power of the press - remember, awareness First! Reach out to local papers, news stations, radio, etc.
Any funds raised through these SpeakOut4AS events will go directly toward finding the cure for AS through the Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics (FAST). For more information about AS or FAST visit: www.CureAngelman.org. We hope you'll consider holding your own SpeakOut4AS event to demonstrate that we can all raise awareness without saying a word. For more details on holding a SpeakOut4AS event visit: www.Kids4Good.org or www.SpeakOut4AS.org.
We're hoping that these events could become something which schools and organizations would consider holding every year during the first week of December. If you want to have your own event at another time, that's great too - we hope you'll share your success stories with us. The Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics (FAST) holds their annual Gala each year the first weekend in December. The thought, long term, is that the SpeakOut4AS events would happen in advance of the annual Gala and could be celebrated at the Gala.
Funds Raised from this campaign will go to the Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics for research towards a cure.