When Heather Reed contacted North Texas Kids to let us know that she had won an iPad and a $1,000 for her son’s school all due to reading about the Red Ribbon Week contest in our weekly newsletter, we were floored and excited at the same time. Not only was Heather nice enough to take the time to write to us and let us know this great bit of news, but she wrote about her experience too. You can read Heather’s post below.

By Heather Reed

My son has a developmental delay and characteristics of autism and anything that helps him learn is a treasured tool.  Ever since my special needs son’s teacher and speech therapist showed me how well he responded to the learning apps on an iPad, I knew I had to get one for our family.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough money in the bank for a pricey purchase like that.  Enter North Texas Kids and National Family Partnership!  I was browsing my email’s inbox one day and opened the North Texas Kid’s weekly newsletter.  There, in flashing neon (ok, not really), was a giveaway that National Family Partnership put on to raise awareness about drug resistance education.  The prize, an iPad2 for the winning family, and $1000 for an elementary school of the winner’s choosing.  I knew I had to enter!

To enter the contest, families had to decorate their front porch, fence, or mailbox using the 2011 theme, “It’s Up To Me To Be Drug Free,” take a picture, and submit it online for a chance to win.  After that, people were able to view the pictures on National Family Partnership’s website and vote on their favorites.  Because I really wanted this tool for my child’s therapy at home, and to say thank you to Lacy Elementary, (a school that’s worked with my little guy to get him the services he needs), I enthusiastically posted about the contest on Facebook, asked my friends and families for votes, emailed the school and let them know about the contest (they included it in their weekly newsletter), and even emailed City Hall!

After two weeks, the voting ended, and two weeks later, I found out we won!  My son loves the iPad and has already been playing educational games.  We are working on getting him to communicate with us and the iPad is such an incredible tool.  I wanted to send a very big THANK YOU to North Texas Kids, National Family Partnership, Lacy Elementary School, Princeton Independent School District, the entire community of Princeton, and all of my family and friends!  I am lucky to live in a community that supports each other and am lucky to have wonderful family and friends who want the best for us.  You have all helped to make a dream of mine come true, thank you!

If you enjoyed Heather’s post as much as we did, you can see more of her work on Trekaroo.