In my Special Event Planning class, I helped with the planning of the Austism Speaks: Walk Now for Austism Event. After volunteering, I wrote a paper for class explaining what the event was and how I had assisted with it. Here is a portion of the paper:

For this assignment, I helped with the planning of Autism Speaks' Walk Now for Autism event. This is the inagural Tennessee walk. It will be held Saturday, September 13, 2008 at the Nashville Superspeedway. I assisted in the preparation of this event by attending meetings, helping with Autism Speaks tables, and creating a facebook account for the event.

The goal of this walk is to heighten awareness and raise money for autism research. The targeted audience is everyone! We were constantly told that our main goal was simply to spread awareness to anyone we could.

Everyone will be affected by autism in one way or another, so it is important to increase awareness in as many people as possible, and not just a few select groups.

Autism Speaks is having this walk to increase awareness about autism and raise money for autism research. I believe this event has three objectives: 1) to gain more visibility, 2) to help family's struggling with autism, and 3) to ultimately find a cure for autism.

Helping with this event really showed me how easy it is to take things for granted. It also showed me that we all need to be compassionate to others, because we never know when we might be in the same position.