Autism Awareness Month: Build-a-Bear Autism Speaks Bear {Review + $25 Giveaway}

As most of you probably know, April is Autism Awareness month.

I don’t think there is anyone these days who hasn’t been touched in one way or another by Autism. When I was pregnant with Kylie I was part of a tight-knit group of awesome ladies all due in Dec 2006.  One of my friend’s son has moderate to severe Autism and is non-verbal. I also babysat a young boy 6 months older than my son for a year,  who was later diagnosed with Autism.

Autism Awareness month is all about teaching those who are not closely tied to it, whether you personally know someone or not, you are sure to come across someone at some point who is effected.

My friend Tera stated this pretty clearly back at the beginning of this month:

At 2 years and 9 months old, my only son, Aiden, was diagnosed with moderate to severe autism at the Nisonger Center at OSU. Today he is 6 years old. He is non verbal and pretty significantly developmentally delayed. While Jon and I embrace the beauty that is Aiden, we still grieve the loss of our typical son. He struggles internally with rigidity and obsessive behaviors. It’s hard for him to be still; he has a constant need for movement. It takes him longer to understand and process things that we say. Sometimes while we’re out in public we do great but often times we struggle. If you see us or someone like us struggling, be kind. Be aware.

When I was given the opportunity to work with Build a Bear this month I had the Autism Speaks Build a Bear sent to her for the review.   You can see her son with it here!

The autism speaks build a bear not only supports an organization near and dear to my family, but is also soft & cuddly and the perfect blue to represent autism speaks.

My son took the bear (named autism) out on the trampoline and had a lot of fun bouncing with it.

Adorable puzzle pieces on the paws this bear is perfect for children to build to help raise the awareness that is desperately needed. Children on the higher end of the spectrum will enjoy having a bear dedicated to them.

Build a Bear is donating $1 of every sale of the Autism Speaks Build a Bear to Autism Speaks!  These blue bears are adorable too!

For each of the tiny size Autism Speaks tees, they are donating $.50 to Autism Speaks throughout the month of April AND no matter what bear or item you are purchasing at Build a Bear you have the option to donate throughout the entire month.

Build a Bear is kindly offering up a $25 Build a Bear Gift Card to one lucky reader too!! Head over and enter the giveaway here.