Thank You for a Successful Fundraiser!

We're so thrilled and touched at the wonderful outpouring of support we received at our Eat, Drink and Be Scary Ball this past weekend! The event was a huge success and we are so grateful to everyone who attended and made generous gifts for the special children at Sammy's House.

The venue was beautiful, everyone was dressed up in fun costumes, and the evening offered multiple ways to learn about and support Sammy's House. For many people, the live auction was the highlight of the evening. There were several exciting items to bid on, including a Spring Break vacation in Florida, tickets to a sold-out Taylor Swift concert, an Austin "stay-cation" at the W Hotel, a gourmet dinner, and perhaps most unique of all, a chance to ride in an ambulance, STAR Flight helicopter, and the Austin Police Chief's patrol car for a day.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped make the evening such a success, including our Board members, the event planning committee, all of our generous corporate sponsors, and all the attendees who pledged funding to support our programs for another year.

Check back here or the Sammy's House website in the near future to see pictures of the event. See you at next year's ball -- you won't want to miss it!

Roll Up Your Sleeves and Help Sammy's House This Thanksgiving!

If you've considered volunteering at Sammy's House but haven't found the right time or motivation, now's your chance! On Friday, November 18, we're participating in Service Austin, a city-wide volunteering effort sponsored by the Rotary Clubs of Austin that takes place each year the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Through the help of Service Austin volunteers, we will be making improvements to our classrooms by organizing and sorting toys, building indoor classroom gates to keep children out of unsafe areas, and installing a screen door in one of the classrooms to give the children access to fresh air and natural light in a windowless classroom. 

If you're interested in volunteering, go to the Service Austin website to sign up. We are project #45. Please bring your own toolkit as we are unable to provide tools for volunteers. Also be sure to wear comfortable clothes that you don't mind getting a little dirty. We ask that all volunteers be 16 or older.

Thanksgiving is a popular time of year to express our gratitude and appreciation by helping those less fortunate. Please consider supporting Sammy's House as your volunteering project for 2011.

GoodSearch: Another Way You Can Help Sammy's House

I recently heard about GoodSearch, which is a search engine owned by Yahoo that donates 50% of its advertising revenue to nonprofits. Whenever you use GoodSearch as your search engine, they make a donation to the charity you designate (it works out to be about 1 cent per search). The search results are identical to what you would get using Yahoo.

Even if you only use GoodSearch occasionally, it can add up to thousands of dollars over the course of a year -- which can make a big difference to a small nonprofit like Sammy's House. To put it in perspective, it would only take 120,000 searches to pay for 3 kids to attend our after-school program for an entire month. With enough people participating, 120,000 searches can go by in a flash!

To get started, just go to GoodSearch, click "Choose Your Cause" below the search bar, and type in "Sammy's House." You can then choose to register with the site, or not -- either way, your internet searches will count towards the Sammy's House donation total. The only benefit to registering is that you can track how much you personally have contributed to your designated nonprofit. If that doesn't matter to you, click "Continue without registering."

GoodSearch also partners with different retailers who have agreed to donate a certain percentage of your purchase to the nonprofit you select. One example of a big-name retailer that does this is Amazon, which donates 1.5% of most purchases to the nonprofit you pick (but only when you access Amazon from the GoodSearch website). Click here to get more information about the Amazon donations.

Lastly, if you'd like to make a direct donation to Sammy's House, go to our donation page. You'll see instructions there for making a donation via check or PayPal. Sammy's House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so all donations are tax-deductible.

Thanks for your support!

Eat, Drink and Be Scary Ball Benefiting Sammy's House

Do you love getting in the Halloween spirit?

Do you want to help Sammy's House fund its unique programs for another year?

Do you want to meet other Sammy's House supporters in a fun, spooktacular environment?

Then come to our Eat, Drink and Be Scary Ball this Saturday!

Saturday, October 22, 6:00 pm to 11:00 pm

AT&T Conference Center, 1900 University Avenue, Austin, TX 78705

The Halloween-themed fundraiser, presented by Pediatric Cardiology of Austin, will include dinner, drinks, live music, a costume contest, and live and silent auctions, with all proceeds going to Sammy's House.

Tickets are $75 each for the general public and $50 each for Sammy's House staff and families. Click here to buy tickets. Please indicate "Costume Ball 2011" in the "Description" line to ensure proper receipt.  Tickets purchased online will be available for pick-up at the event. You can also drop off a check at our center, located at 2415 Twin Oaks Dr. Austin, TX 78757.

We hope to see you there!

Welcome to the Sammy's House Blog!

Welcome to the blog of Sammy's House, a nonprofit in Austin, Texas that serves children with special needs! We're a small organization that's still in the process of cultivating our online presence, so this blog will look a little sparse for a while. It is our hope that this will eventually be another useful source of information for current and prospective families, existing and potential donors, and other community members who want to learn more about Sammy's House.

We currently serve about 300 children each year through our child development center, respite program, and therapeutic equipment loaning program. The children in our care have a wide variety of special needs, including cerebral palsy, chromosome anomalies (such as Down Syndrome), and developmental delays.

Our teachers lead classrooms of children grouped by developmental stage and provide care tailored to the unique needs of each child and their family. We pride ourselves on our low student-to-teacher ratios, personalized curricula, and the inclusiveness of our programs, in which typically developing children and children with special needs can grow and learn together. At Sammy's House, everyone is welcome and everyone belongs.

Our mission is to help children, families, and communities by:

• Providing high-quality, educational care for children with special medical and developmental needs,
• Supporting families through education, respite care, and community referrals, and 
• Educating the community about the value and capabilities of all persons. 

Please visit our website at www.sammyshouse.org for more information about us and to find out how you can help.

Thanks for reading this first entry in the Sammy's House blog!