South Bay Youths donated $10,000 to Morgan Autism Center
SAN JOSE, CALIF. – This week, youths from Little Grass Foundation visited Morgan Autism Center and donated $10,000 for programs such as sports facilities and physical education programs for students with autism. Additionally, the two organizations are exploring opportunities for long-term collaboration.
Little Grass Foundation is a South Bay-based youth volunteer organization founded by a group of high school students in nearly 2022. With hundreds of volunteer hours contributed by teenage coaches, the organization has provided more than 450 children from diverse cultural backgrounds the opportunity to participate in multiple sports activities including basketball, soccer, volleyball, and dance. Programs also include other enrichment activities, such as robotics and chess. “Our goal is to help children in our community to discover and experience sports and other enrichment programs from an early age for better physical and mental health development,” said Ivan Zhang, President and Founder of the Little Grass Foundation. ‘The collaboration with Morgan Autism Center will allow our youths to learn about ways to help those with special needs in our community.”
Little Grass Foundation’s “ A Little Help from Little Grass” program was created originally to encourage the campers to assist their families and community with small tasks, such as washing dishes and doing laundry, in return for money that is later contributed to the fundraising. The amounts are small, but more importantly, the campers learned how to give back to their communities in addition to holding themselves accountable. For over a year and a half, this fundraising program and 30 sports camps have raised over $10,000 dollars. “I’m so excited that this fundraising program was so successful, and we were able to give back to our community in this way! I have always loved helping others, so creating this program was extremely rewarding.” Nicole Cheong, Media Editor and Fundraising Event Designer, exclaimed.
To use this fund responsibly and meaningfully, Ivan Zhang and Justin Chen, Soccer Head Coach, reached out to Haley Sepulveda, Development Management of Morgan Autism Center. As an accredited organization by the California Department of Education, Morgan Autism Center has been providing a thoroughly planned out education to individuals across the autism spectrum since 1969. It offers programs that cater to both students and adults who have significant autism symptoms. The unique and individualized special education activities have helped students with autism acquire knowledge and skills that ultimately assist them to function successfully in daily life.
After engaging in discussions and developing an interest in the mission of Little Grass Foundation, Josh Drake, Executive Director of Morgan Autism Center, and Hailey Barker, Program Director, invited members from Little Grass Foundation for a tour of their center and learn more about their reverse mainstreaming program, which can help their students to not only learn valuable skills but also to engage further with their communities. During that tour, Josh and Hailey patiently showcased the various classrooms in their center, gave the members and parents an insight to how they teach students with special needs, and discussed a lot over the future volunteer opportunities.
“We would like to express our sincere gratitude towards our campers, parents, and coaches,” said Justin Chen, “working together, we are making a difference in our community. We look forward to the new opportunity to help our community through the collaboration with Morgan Autism Center.”
To learn more about Little Grass Foundation, visit https://www.littlegrassfoundation.org. To stay updated about our future endeavors, follow @littlegrassfoundation on Instagram and Linkedin!
To learn more about Morgan Autism Center, visit https://morgancenter.org/
