January 17, 2025 • 25 mins
We spoke with President and Founder of Sun, Moon and Stars Christine Faressa about autism spectrum and Sun, Moon, and Stars.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning. Thank you for listening to Community Access. My
guest today is Christine for USA, President and founder of
Sun Moon and Stars.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning, Good morning Alison.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I know your story, but I can't wait for you
to share your story with people. Tell us a little
bit about Sun Moon and Stars. How did it come about?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Sure? So, right now we are a five on' one
C three nonprofit organization and basically what we do is
we provide opportunities for families with children on the autism
spectrum with fun events, activities, different programs, and the entire
time we're working on building a very positive, supportive community.
We are based out of Watertown, but we do have
families that come from all over the state of Connecticut
(00:39):
for our services. Where we started, we weren't a nonprofit
at first. We started out back in twenty sixteen as
a supper club. My son, Dominic, was diagnosed at about
age three and a half. And what we found, my
husband Mark and I found out that when we started
kind of going out to dinner and different things, he
struggled a bit. He struggled bit, and we struggled a bit,
(01:02):
you know. With that, so we said we can't be
the only ones doing this, so we saw something online.
It was something called autism Eats and it's another organization
doing really really good work in other parts of the country,
and I said, wow, that's a really great idea. So
we took that idea and tweaked it a little bit.
So we went to one of our local establishments in
Watertown at that point it was Anthony's Vakville is where
(01:23):
we started. And what we decided to do is to
have a judgment free place for families with children to
just come and have dinner with their family and friends.
You know. It was really about building community. We've been
doing it since then. Now we do it a Gale's
Depot Square farm Shop, and we do it about every
other month and we have a really great turnout. Gail
has been a wonderful partner to us. We have anywhere
(01:44):
between twenty to thirty families that join us and she
opens up for us, so it's really like a private
event for us. So that's where we started back when,
and then as we kind of moved along and started
talking to other families, we realized that there weren't a
lot of opportunity ease to do fun events. Everything around
the state was sensory friendly and you had to travel
(02:06):
for it, meaning Connecticut Science Center was great, you know,
right up here in Hartford they were great, Mystic Aquarium,
the Maritime Center. It was just very far and few between.
So we're like, we can do something different, So we
started different partnerships with March Farm and Bethlehem. We do
a pumpkin picking hay ride. We've been doing that every
year since twenty seventeen. We have a phenomenal partnership with
(02:27):
the Railroad Museum of New England. We started with the
autism Friendly Santa Express since twenty seventeen and that event
has grown from one coach car with sixty tickets sold
and now we have two time slots with over eight
hundred tickets sold. Wow, it's credible and we love them
so much that they're like, Chris, this is so wonderful.
And what I didn't realize is they're their only railroad
(02:51):
in New England and probably a good portion of the
country that is doing any type of sensory friendly, autism
friendly railroad experience, believe it or not. So now we
also work with them with an Easter Bunny train and
a pumpkin picking train too, So we do three events
with them every year. And honestly, we've just grown by
leaps and bounds by finding out what families want and need,
(03:12):
you know, And it's really what we like to do
is provide the support, but a lot of the fun events.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
And how old is Dominic now?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Dominic is going to be fourteen and a month and
a half.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Holy cow, I can't believe it. No, I know he's
a beautiful boy.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
What was it like finding out that you had a
child with autism?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
That's a mixed bag of emotions, to be quite honest,
and you know, everyone finds their own way and dealing
with a diagnosis and Mark and I we knew Dominic
was a little quirky. We didn't know how much he
really struggled, and it confirmed a few things, but it
also gave me a path. All right, now, what do
(03:52):
I need to do? How do we get him the
appropriate services? How do we get him what he needed?
And if anyone knows anything about me, I'm a doer.
I see a problem, how do I fix it? How
do I make things better? How do I make it right? So,
you know, that was it. It was hard because you
know you have a child and you always have these
expectations of what the future is going to look like.
(04:13):
So your child is your child, no matter what the
diagnosis or anything, So that doesn't matter. So now it's
like what we look at is how do we help
Dominic live his very best life? And what does that
mean for Dominica. Yes, and it's letting go of any
expectations we had about it and just focusing on what's
best for him.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
And I think none of us wants our children to suffer.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
No, no, not at all.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
So tell us about some of the programs and services
that you offer.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So we do a monthly support meeting for our families,
which we really love. We've had a few different places.
Right now we do it with Robin and Aty Bitty
Cookie and Watertown.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
So let me just stop for one second. I just
have to go back to Gail makes the best corn
beef for Saint Patrick. She coming up and she's just
a gift from God. I just want to go back
to these people that you mentioned. Absolutely, this could key
company nicest people in the whole world. I forget who
else you mentioned, but I know personally whoever we mentioned earlier.
They are just the nicest people with the best food.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
And Anthony's vocal.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Anthony's vocal, Yeah, the best pizza ever.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeap, so super super thin, super thin.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
People, so good. Yeah, so you were saying, I'm sorry, No,
not at all.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
So we do we run once a month the Support Group,
So we do that for parents. It's you know, kid free,
So we either have a speaker come in to provide
some resources or education, or we do some type of
mindfulness craft and we just chit chat. And what's nice
is we we bring some food in. We've been working
with the Watertoime Meat Center. Jessica's amazing, the food is phenomenal.
We have a really nice partnership with all the things.
(05:43):
So we're working with jess She's great, and then Robin
has all the sweets and treats. It's it's a wonderful
experience for our families to do. And really, what I
like about you know, we do a lot of different
events and activities, and the kids get to see each
other at a lot of these events, and you know,
I'll talk about that, but really at the support meeting
is where I like to see my parents bond and
(06:05):
form friendships outside of Sun, Moon and Stars. So when
I hear, Oh, so and so went to the movies.
So and so went, you know, maybe to the science
and or so and so just had to play date.
And the kids have formed friendships where they see each other. Oh,
I didn't know our kids are in class together. Isn't
it great? Now we have this connection. So really, for us,
everything and anything we do focuses on this idea of
(06:28):
connection and community and camaraderie, and which is kind of
our theme for this year and really the core of
who we are and what we do. You know, this
journey is hard, Any journey, any parental journey is hard,
and you know, we all have kind of different paths
that we're taking, but we're all kind of reaching the
same place. And how do we support one another as
we get there?
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And I think again, it's I've been where you are.
I got through it, and I'm good you will too.
Parents need to hear that from each other. They need
to see that your child is thriving. Their child can too. Absolutely,
I think there's nothing worse than feeling like your child
isn't living their best life, they don't have friends, or
they're sad, whatever it is. And you're making sure that
(07:09):
not only the child, but the parents as well. And
I've heard somebody say over the years, the parents are
the medicine. If the parents are good, the child is good.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
It helps. It helped. What we like to do is,
you know, we do a lot of events for the kids.
You know, a lot of events for the kids, but
we also like to do a few times a year
events for the parents, you know, we do. We try
and do some things for the dads. We're working on
that a little bit right now, but we do Mom's
Night Out, you know, twice a year. We try and
get together every once in a while. We with have
a group of us that we like to try and
(07:40):
get together here and there, and we really try and
build these relationships because at the end of the day,
we see each other often. You know. We want to
share and support the good and the bad. And for me,
I would rather if I'm having a hard day, I
don't want to post that all over social media, like
the whole sharanting thing, Like people put a lot out
there and everyone has their reasons for doing that. I
(08:02):
want my families to find a safe space where they
could either share in our support group or find their buddy,
find their person where I might need to have a
cry in the car because that's how bad of a
day I'm having. I'm gonna call so and so and
they're gonna just listen and be there for me. You know.
That's the beauty of what we do in the relationships
that we build.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
And we're gonna talk about all of your events. Some
of your events are just to detach completely, like just
to go and have a good time, to not think
about the family, whatever's happening in the world. Yes, so
let's talk about those. You have the supper Club coming
up on February twenty second, I do. We were talking
about Gail or Early Air.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Gale's amazing. So what I love about Gail is she
she employs special needs young adults and adults as well
in her in her farm shop, and it's just wonderful
to see the support whether it's Watertowne Transition Academy or
Easter sales or whatever it is. And some of those
families now come to our events too, which is nice.
(08:56):
Or I see some of the kids that I knew,
so it's nice to go in there and say hi
to this one, Hi to that one. So it really
is very sweet. She does a beautiful job, and she's
just so supportive of all the work that we do.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
And the food's great and it's so affordable, I know,
on top of it. So on the twenty second, if
somebody would like to attend that, what should they do?
Go to the website.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
They can go to our website. We have an events
area with a calendar, or our Facebook area. We have
an events area. None of our activities or events or
programs are walking, so you do have to register because
we really we need a headcount. We control capacity, and
it's kind of one of those things where with our
community there's always that fine line. You can't have an
event and have it be sensory friendly, kind of judgment
(09:36):
free if we're overflowing with all all these people, so
you have to kind of be mindful of how many
at any given time. So we do try and build
capacity where we can and try to offer That's why
we offer such a variety of different things, Allison. So
you know, as our kids are getting older, they're a
little bit more mindful of what they like to do,
you know. So you know, we run a lego club
(09:56):
once a month with our friends at Bricks and Minifix
and Synington and it's so much fun. The kids have
great We do a build and they get to make
little minifigs and they get to see their friends. Not
every kid might like that, but we also do paint
parties once a quarter, so some kids like to be
artsy and they can do you know, we do fun themes,
whether it's Harry Potter or Star Wars or Pixar or
like holiday themes. We just started a really great relationship
(10:19):
with the Strand Theater in Seymour, so we're doing sensory
friendly movies with them and we have the whole year
planned out for all kinds of fun things. So it
really depends on what the child likes. But they're gonna
always see a lot of the same kids. So that's
the more they can come to, the better it is
because they're gonna build those relationships with these kids. And
you know, we always say we provide opportunities, you know,
(10:41):
and my thing what I like to see. So say
you have a child newly diagnosed and you've never brought
them to a movie and you're afraid they're going to
have a really hard time and possibly be disruptive, because
that does happen, because it could be sensory overload. You know,
a lot of our families when their children have sensory sensitivities,
you know, they'll have earphones or different things, noise canceling earphones.
(11:02):
So what's nice is by offering this judgment free opportunity,
the kids are free to be themselves. You know, if
they're having you know, whether they're having a hard time,
they're being vocal, they're stimming, whatever it is, it's fine,
but it gives them an opportunity to try it. See
what it's like. This is the experience of going to
a movie, walking in, getting your ticket, buying popcorn, sitting down.
(11:23):
You know, if they have to move, it's fine, but
it kind of gives them a little bit of a
kind of a playbook then to go back. So if
they wanted to try going to AMC or regal theaters,
you know, they would, you know, continue the sensory considerations.
But now that they know what it's like to be
in a movie, So it's nice to have that kind
of a little bit of a launch pad as well.
So if families want to kind of do other things too,
(11:45):
which is nice.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
When my children were growing up and we'd be in
a restaurant or on an airplane and they'd start screaming
that's what infants do or toddlers or whatever, and you'd
get the dirty looks from people and the judgment. And
I'm like, really, I've never understood people who don't have
empathy for that their children.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
How about you just try and help, right, howbout you
just try and help? And I think today, you know,
we live in a world today where everyone is so
me focused. I don't want to be offended. You know,
it's all about me, my expectations, my needs, my wants,
my this, my that, and you know you have to
have a little empathy of those around you. Just you know,
(12:22):
if if anything, just take a pause and give a
little bit of grace. You know, maybe that child isn't
being a bread Maybe that child just having a hard time, right,
you know, maybe it's sensory over and maybe it's something else.
You know, maybe you know when I go out and
I see certain situations, because you can you kind of
have an eye a little bit get it. You know,
you get the eye like all right, well, you know,
you know you don't want to overstep, but you know you
(12:44):
need a hand. Do you need help? Do you need
something like do you need something? And sometimes just saying
that you don't want to intrude on someone's moment, but
sometimes just saying, you know, I got you, what do
you need? How can I help you? Especially if they
have more than one kid and they're having a moment. Yeah,
So no one gives grace anymore on it's it's sad person. Yes,
And you know, I've learned so much over the years.
You know, I'm my full time job. I'm twenty five
(13:07):
years in medical device sales. I deal with all kinds
of people all day long, and you know, deal with
doctors and staff in different things, and you have to
learn how to manage so many different personalities and running
a nonprofit now since twenty sixteen, you're dealing with a
lot of different personalities. And you know, We've had a
lot of situations over the years that I look back
and say, you know, I probably could have handled that
(13:27):
a little bit better, or you know, you you just
learned from every interaction. And you know what I've learned
in meeting all these families and meeting these kids and
understanding that every child that is special needs is so
unique and different, and autism is truly such a spectrum.
There really is no cookie cutter. They're all unique in
their own way and learning how to you know, now
(13:51):
that I know the kids a little better, I'm always
a kind of like mama. Hen you know, I know
when to push a little pull back, a little push,
but you know, you know to try and you know,
massage situation if someone's having a hard time. But at
the end of the day, it's building the respect with
the parents and understanding that we're all coming from a
place of trying to do the right thing and be
there for these kids and give them opportunities that they
(14:13):
may not have had prior as much as we can
right exactly.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Yeah, but you do have this amazing reputation you really
do in this community. It's such a blessing to see
all the work that you do constantly. You should hear
what they say behind your back, and that's a good
thing and in a really good way. That's what I'm saying.
And you're truly about the children and the parents. Let's
get back to all of the other events that are
(14:38):
coming up. The designer per s Bingle. I have seen
this all over Facebook. By the way, you have the
best crew if you go to sun mooninstars dot org.
You can see Christine there and everybody who's on the board.
You have surrounded yourself with the best people.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Thank you. I know that I have an amazing team
that helps me to do all the things. You know,
I always say like I'm the visionary to like do
the things, but I I have a really great team
of people that support the work we do. And honestly,
and my husband, I joke, he's the wind beneath my wings.
But your remark really is if not for him, my
poor husband who puts up with all of me doing
all the things all the time, and all on it
(15:15):
like it's we have such a tremendous team like approach
to how we raise dominic and how we do the
things and you know, everything that happens in the home
outside of the home, because I wear quite a few
different hats, and you know, he you know, we have
so much respect for each other and what we do
and how we support one another. And it's it's amazing
that you know, after oh my god, how many year
(15:35):
we've been together since nineteen eighty six, it's incredible how
long we've been together. But we really truly I have
a lot of great people that support the work we
do and I appreciate every single one of them.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
And they're a reflection of you. It starts at the head.
So all right, designer person thing, go Hawkridge Winery, tell
me all about it.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
So that is a Project puzzle Piece fundraiser. So back
in twenty twenty, we started something a Project puzzle Piece,
and it really was a way for us during April
is Autism Awareness a month, but we kind of say,
you know, we're past awareness, we're like inclusion and all
the things for autism, and it's a way for us
to do a small fundraiser in some way to give
back to the local community. Meaning you know, we know
(16:18):
special education, you know, being what I do on the
Board of Education. Now I'm a member of the Board
of ED and I know the cost associated with educating
all of the kids and what we do and how
we have to help and support every single child. We
wanted to find a way how do we help in
some way to phrase some of that. So our first
year we donated to Unified Sports. The second year we
(16:42):
donated to we have a scholarship program, Reaching for the Stars.
That was our initial funding of that program. Where we
award students going on for a degree in special education.
We award scholarships. So then we started. We did some programs,
We got some software for the district, We did sensory
backs for the Watertown Peace d We got a sign
for Jumping Jack's Playground that has to still be quote
(17:04):
unquote completely installed because I don't think they finished the
playground yet. But we try and do things. Autism Awareness
assemblies things to give back to the community. So this event,
we decided to do something fun and different. Well I
actually shouldn't say different, I should say popular. Designer purs
Bangos are so popular. Oh my gosh, women lose their minds,
but they do. They absolutely lose their fight. So our
friends at Hawkridge, who are amazing to work with, we
(17:24):
do so much with them and I love them all dearly.
Jeff McHugh is just a godsend. He is an amazing
human and he is just wonderful, especially for our community.
He's so supportive. So we're doing this great designer pers
bango and what we decided to do this year, And
I'm going to give a shout out to Horatio's hero
Sean Ardella, Horatio's bar. We started working together a couple
(17:47):
of years ago. He did a bike run for someone
in Stars, which was amazing. So we started kind of
helping each other where we could and supporting each other,
and he did something. This past year's bike run was
to fulfill teachers wish lists and I'm like, oh my god,
that so amazing. So when we're trying to decide where
are we going to put our money this year, you know,
I said, oh my god, why I'm not going to
(18:07):
reinvent the wheel, Let's do special education teachers wishless. So
that's what we're going to support. So our goal is
to we just opened it up, so tickets are on
sale now on our website and such, but we want
to fulfill at least ten teachers wishless up to two
hundred and fifty three hundred dollars. That's the goal. We're
hoping to raise enough money to do that. But we're
very excited. I mean, my god, it's women in purses
(18:29):
and the winery. How can you go wrong? So a
lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
They go there, they play bingo and then they could
possibly win a purse.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Absolutely, we're gonna do ten different games, so we have
ten purses that are gonna be up for bingo. You know,
if there's a tie, we have some you know, consolation
tie prizes and all that stuff. We're going to have
some chance drawing items that we're going to put together.
We are accepting donations for chance drawings FYI. So we'll
go to sun some want to do that, absolutely, someone
to stars reach out to us there. But it's gonna
(18:56):
be a great night. And the winery closes at six
o'clock Tuesday. It's April first, which is the first day
of autism. We're in a month, so it's close that
it will be open just for our event, which is awesome.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
So that's April first, and then you have your Mother's
Day event.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
That is huge. That is we always do a Mother's
Day event at the winderhere. We've been doing it for
the last few years, but this year we decided to
do something different. So instead of being up in the
Hawk's Nest with only like thirty to forty ladies, we're
gonna do it in the pavilion and we're having a
very well known author. Her name is Carrie Carrigello. She's
an author, advocate, blogger, very well known in the autism space.
She's an amazing woman. She's gonna come in. We're gonna
(19:31):
do a VIP meet and greet from four to five,
a more personalized experience, and then we're gonna go down
and walk downstairs to the pavilion and have a beautiful
buffet dinner from Watertome Meat Center, our friends that are
gonna do a fabulous unspread for us, and we're just
gonna have a great night. Again. It's building connection, community, camaraderie.
She's gonna do a talk and she's gonna take We're
gonna actually do questions ahead of time, so we're gonna
(19:54):
have a little drop box so people can put their
questions in and then she can just read the questions.
But we're so excited about this. We're hoping to have
at least one hundred to one hundred and twenty five
ladies join us.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
And this is May eighth. May eighth, Yes, is that
a Sunday on Mother's Day or no?
Speaker 2 (20:08):
It is It is a Thursday night.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I have to tell you about the Watertow Meat Center.
Best chicken salad ever. Oh yeah, they're parmesan potatoes. I
lie and say that I made those myself. I'm not
even kidding, the stuffed chicken breasts, all those things. But
I actually put the Sun Facebook One day, I went
in to get my grinder and the guy handed it
to me and he goes, I made it with love.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Oh my goodness, Oh my god. I know, like she
really has a nice culture and a great group of
folks that work there. My nephew works there now, Rocco,
So I love if I to see them. So it's
awesful too.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
So yeah, all these places that support Sun, Moon and Stars,
thank you so much for all you do. They're amazing. Okay,
So then we have the second annual Autism Awareness Night
at Quassi on June nineteenth.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
That is such a great night for the family. So
we did last year was a first one. George's phenomenal
at Quasi. He was wonderful to work with. And that's
an event so it's open just for us. It's a
private event for some Moon and Stars. We had about
six hundred folks join us last year. And what we
also did was we created almost like a resource fair,
so we had sponsors, low cost sponsors of different service
(21:19):
organizations and nonprofits that were partnered with work with. We
know who they are, so they sponsored rides, so they
had tables around the event and families got to interact,
learn new things, get new resources. In the entire time.
You know, it was sensory friendly, so there was no
loud music, no, none of that. So like the rides
didn't have the loud music or anything like that. The
(21:40):
train didn't have the whistle blowing. They got to go
on the rides as many times as they wanted. They
didn't have to wait in line. They got to meet
their friends. See, folks like my son was so cool.
I have some pictures of him with his little merry
band of friends. There's like ten of them all going
on the rides together, all going and I'm like, ah,
does that make your heart melt? Well? You know, circling
(22:02):
back one hot second to when he was diagnosed. You know,
one thing that always stuck with me, Alison, and really
the driving force of how this all started. Really truly,
the only thing market I knew about autism was these
kids had no friends. They weren't invited to birthday parties.
You know, that was my concern. I wanted to make
sure my son had friends, and we built a community
around him, and you know, selfishly doing that by default.
(22:25):
We built this incredible community for all these kids, and
really it brings a tear to my eye when I
think about the fact that they were just doing their thing,
like neurotypical kids, running around, going on all the rides
and just having a great time. And I had so
many families reach out to me afterwards saying how appreciative
they were for the event and how wonderful it was
that we were able to do like a little marketing
(22:47):
campaign where we took like they gave us a photo
and they gave us a little quote about what the
event meant. So we threw some pictures out there and
we'll revisit that for this one coming up. But it
really was extraordinary, and there were families that are introduced
to we do that never had been to a Sun,
Moon and Stars event and now since then have been
coming to our events and activities. It was just it's
(23:08):
hard to say, like some of our events it's like, Okay, yeah,
we're doing our thing, but some of our events are
just damn magical. You can feel it in the air.
You're like, this is why you know, running out of
profit is not a walk in the park. There's a
lot of work, especially when you wear a lot of hats,
but when you see that and you just feel the appreciation,
feel the joy, feel the happiness, you see the smiles,
(23:28):
that's what makes it all worthwhile. It's just extraordinary. Tickets
are not on sale for that yet. They're going to
be on sale, I want to say, and at least
I think two months we do it, because it's June,
so we'll probably do that March. I think March first
we have that schedule to go on sale. But it's
just extraordinary. And George is wonderful, he said to me.
He goes, Chris, we could have had two hundred more people.
I go, well, guy, it's capacity like I didn't want
(23:49):
to overwhelm it because then that defeats the purpose because
we don't want to have you know, kids wait in line,
so that is not a walk in. It's you know,
we want a headcount prior registration, so it's not too
for the families.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
So did you ever imagine that you'd be doing something
like this?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Yes, not at all.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
And now that you are, how do you feel about it?
Speaker 2 (24:11):
You know what's interesting is, you know, all throughout my
career I was always involved with like leadership training, leadership courses.
You know, I got my MBA and so on and
so forth. And I always felt that my path was
through my job, taking promotions of being a director. And
I realized that, you know what, I'm happy doing what
I'm doing in my job. I have my accounts, I
have my people, I know what I need to do.
(24:31):
I've been doing it for twenty years, and it's enough
for me to take care of that. And I realized
that all of that and everything I did was to
prepare me for this. Isn't that amazing. It's incredible where
your path is led and what doors open and closed. Truly,
I receive joy by helping others. It makes me happy
to see other people happy. It's it's just a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Absolutely everybody I interview something happened in their lives to
bring them to where they are now, and it's all good.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
It is. And now we're at a point where it
kind of grew with Dominic and now we're looking doing
events like with more young adults. So the first, you know,
we do like the movie theater, that's all ages. You'll
quasi as all share, the supper club is all ages.
But the core of what we do is usually been
the littles, the little kids. So now we're looking like
even we have a sports program, we do adaptive sports,
(25:22):
and I finally was watching we just started basketball, and
I'm like, yeah, we're gonna have to look into doing
more next year, having maybe two sessions because we have
littles and we have now kids going into high school.
So now we're kind of pivoting a bit into another area.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
I'm speaking with Christine faressa president and founder of Sun
Moon and Stars for these events and more. Even more
events are coming up. If you'd like to volunteer, make
a donation, go to sun mooninstars dot org. Thank you
so much for being here, for sharing your story and
for blessing people's lives.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Thank you, Alis and I really appreciate this opportunity to
share what we do. Thank you,
Good morning. Thank you for listening to Community Access. My
guest today is Christine for USA, President and founder of
Sun Moon and Stars.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Good morning, Good morning Alison.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I know your story, but I can't wait for you
to share your story with people. Tell us a little
bit about Sun Moon and Stars. How did it come about?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Sure? So, right now we are a five on' one
C three nonprofit organization and basically what we do is
we provide opportunities for families with children on the autism
spectrum with fun events, activities, different programs, and the entire
time we're working on building a very positive, supportive community.
We are based out of Watertown, but we do have
families that come from all over the state of Connecticut
(00:39):
for our services. Where we started, we weren't a nonprofit
at first. We started out back in twenty sixteen as
a supper club. My son, Dominic, was diagnosed at about
age three and a half. And what we found, my
husband Mark and I found out that when we started
kind of going out to dinner and different things, he
struggled a bit. He struggled bit, and we struggled a bit,
(01:02):
you know. With that, so we said we can't be
the only ones doing this, so we saw something online.
It was something called autism Eats and it's another organization
doing really really good work in other parts of the country,
and I said, wow, that's a really great idea. So
we took that idea and tweaked it a little bit.
So we went to one of our local establishments in
Watertown at that point it was Anthony's Vakville is where
(01:23):
we started. And what we decided to do is to
have a judgment free place for families with children to
just come and have dinner with their family and friends.
You know. It was really about building community. We've been
doing it since then. Now we do it a Gale's
Depot Square farm Shop, and we do it about every
other month and we have a really great turnout. Gail
has been a wonderful partner to us. We have anywhere
(01:44):
between twenty to thirty families that join us and she
opens up for us, so it's really like a private
event for us. So that's where we started back when,
and then as we kind of moved along and started
talking to other families, we realized that there weren't a
lot of opportunity ease to do fun events. Everything around
the state was sensory friendly and you had to travel
(02:06):
for it, meaning Connecticut Science Center was great, you know,
right up here in Hartford they were great, Mystic Aquarium,
the Maritime Center. It was just very far and few between.
So we're like, we can do something different, So we
started different partnerships with March Farm and Bethlehem. We do
a pumpkin picking hay ride. We've been doing that every
year since twenty seventeen. We have a phenomenal partnership with
(02:27):
the Railroad Museum of New England. We started with the
autism Friendly Santa Express since twenty seventeen and that event
has grown from one coach car with sixty tickets sold
and now we have two time slots with over eight
hundred tickets sold. Wow, it's credible and we love them
so much that they're like, Chris, this is so wonderful.
And what I didn't realize is they're their only railroad
(02:51):
in New England and probably a good portion of the
country that is doing any type of sensory friendly, autism
friendly railroad experience, believe it or not. So now we
also work with them with an Easter Bunny train and
a pumpkin picking train too, So we do three events
with them every year. And honestly, we've just grown by
leaps and bounds by finding out what families want and need,
(03:12):
you know, And it's really what we like to do
is provide the support, but a lot of the fun events.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
And how old is Dominic now?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Dominic is going to be fourteen and a month and
a half.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Holy cow, I can't believe it. No, I know he's
a beautiful boy.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
What was it like finding out that you had a
child with autism?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
That's a mixed bag of emotions, to be quite honest,
and you know, everyone finds their own way and dealing
with a diagnosis and Mark and I we knew Dominic
was a little quirky. We didn't know how much he
really struggled, and it confirmed a few things, but it
also gave me a path. All right, now, what do
(03:52):
I need to do? How do we get him the
appropriate services? How do we get him what he needed?
And if anyone knows anything about me, I'm a doer.
I see a problem, how do I fix it? How
do I make things better? How do I make it right? So,
you know, that was it. It was hard because you
know you have a child and you always have these
expectations of what the future is going to look like.
(04:13):
So your child is your child, no matter what the
diagnosis or anything, So that doesn't matter. So now it's
like what we look at is how do we help
Dominic live his very best life? And what does that
mean for Dominica. Yes, and it's letting go of any
expectations we had about it and just focusing on what's
best for him.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
And I think none of us wants our children to suffer.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
No, no, not at all.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
So tell us about some of the programs and services
that you offer.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
So we do a monthly support meeting for our families,
which we really love. We've had a few different places.
Right now we do it with Robin and Aty Bitty
Cookie and Watertown.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
So let me just stop for one second. I just
have to go back to Gail makes the best corn
beef for Saint Patrick. She coming up and she's just
a gift from God. I just want to go back
to these people that you mentioned. Absolutely, this could key
company nicest people in the whole world. I forget who
else you mentioned, but I know personally whoever we mentioned earlier.
They are just the nicest people with the best food.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
And Anthony's vocal.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Anthony's vocal, Yeah, the best pizza ever.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeap, so super super thin, super thin.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
People, so good. Yeah, so you were saying, I'm sorry, No,
not at all.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
So we do we run once a month the Support Group,
So we do that for parents. It's you know, kid free,
So we either have a speaker come in to provide
some resources or education, or we do some type of
mindfulness craft and we just chit chat. And what's nice
is we we bring some food in. We've been working
with the Watertoime Meat Center. Jessica's amazing, the food is phenomenal.
We have a really nice partnership with all the things.
(05:43):
So we're working with jess She's great, and then Robin
has all the sweets and treats. It's it's a wonderful
experience for our families to do. And really, what I
like about you know, we do a lot of different
events and activities, and the kids get to see each
other at a lot of these events, and you know,
I'll talk about that, but really at the support meeting
is where I like to see my parents bond and
(06:05):
form friendships outside of Sun, Moon and Stars. So when
I hear, Oh, so and so went to the movies.
So and so went, you know, maybe to the science
and or so and so just had to play date.
And the kids have formed friendships where they see each other. Oh,
I didn't know our kids are in class together. Isn't
it great? Now we have this connection. So really, for us,
everything and anything we do focuses on this idea of
(06:28):
connection and community and camaraderie, and which is kind of
our theme for this year and really the core of
who we are and what we do. You know, this
journey is hard, Any journey, any parental journey is hard,
and you know, we all have kind of different paths
that we're taking, but we're all kind of reaching the
same place. And how do we support one another as
we get there?
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And I think again, it's I've been where you are.
I got through it, and I'm good you will too.
Parents need to hear that from each other. They need
to see that your child is thriving. Their child can too. Absolutely,
I think there's nothing worse than feeling like your child
isn't living their best life, they don't have friends, or
they're sad, whatever it is. And you're making sure that
(07:09):
not only the child, but the parents as well. And
I've heard somebody say over the years, the parents are
the medicine. If the parents are good, the child is good.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
It helps. It helped. What we like to do is,
you know, we do a lot of events for the kids.
You know, a lot of events for the kids, but
we also like to do a few times a year
events for the parents, you know, we do. We try
and do some things for the dads. We're working on
that a little bit right now, but we do Mom's
Night Out, you know, twice a year. We try and
get together every once in a while. We with have
a group of us that we like to try and
(07:40):
get together here and there, and we really try and
build these relationships because at the end of the day,
we see each other often. You know. We want to
share and support the good and the bad. And for me,
I would rather if I'm having a hard day, I
don't want to post that all over social media, like
the whole sharanting thing, Like people put a lot out
there and everyone has their reasons for doing that. I
(08:02):
want my families to find a safe space where they
could either share in our support group or find their buddy,
find their person where I might need to have a
cry in the car because that's how bad of a
day I'm having. I'm gonna call so and so and
they're gonna just listen and be there for me. You know.
That's the beauty of what we do in the relationships
that we build.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
And we're gonna talk about all of your events. Some
of your events are just to detach completely, like just
to go and have a good time, to not think
about the family, whatever's happening in the world. Yes, so
let's talk about those. You have the supper Club coming
up on February twenty second, I do. We were talking
about Gail or Early Air.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Gale's amazing. So what I love about Gail is she
she employs special needs young adults and adults as well
in her in her farm shop, and it's just wonderful
to see the support whether it's Watertowne Transition Academy or
Easter sales or whatever it is. And some of those
families now come to our events too, which is nice.
(08:56):
Or I see some of the kids that I knew,
so it's nice to go in there and say hi
to this one, Hi to that one. So it really
is very sweet. She does a beautiful job, and she's
just so supportive of all the work that we do.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
And the food's great and it's so affordable, I know,
on top of it. So on the twenty second, if
somebody would like to attend that, what should they do?
Go to the website.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
They can go to our website. We have an events
area with a calendar, or our Facebook area. We have
an events area. None of our activities or events or
programs are walking, so you do have to register because
we really we need a headcount. We control capacity, and
it's kind of one of those things where with our
community there's always that fine line. You can't have an
event and have it be sensory friendly, kind of judgment
(09:36):
free if we're overflowing with all all these people, so
you have to kind of be mindful of how many
at any given time. So we do try and build
capacity where we can and try to offer That's why
we offer such a variety of different things, Allison. So
you know, as our kids are getting older, they're a
little bit more mindful of what they like to do,
you know. So you know, we run a lego club
(09:56):
once a month with our friends at Bricks and Minifix
and Synington and it's so much fun. The kids have
great We do a build and they get to make
little minifigs and they get to see their friends. Not
every kid might like that, but we also do paint
parties once a quarter, so some kids like to be
artsy and they can do you know, we do fun themes,
whether it's Harry Potter or Star Wars or Pixar or
like holiday themes. We just started a really great relationship
(10:19):
with the Strand Theater in Seymour, so we're doing sensory
friendly movies with them and we have the whole year
planned out for all kinds of fun things. So it
really depends on what the child likes. But they're gonna
always see a lot of the same kids. So that's
the more they can come to, the better it is
because they're gonna build those relationships with these kids. And
you know, we always say we provide opportunities, you know,
(10:41):
and my thing what I like to see. So say
you have a child newly diagnosed and you've never brought
them to a movie and you're afraid they're going to
have a really hard time and possibly be disruptive, because
that does happen, because it could be sensory overload. You know,
a lot of our families when their children have sensory sensitivities,
you know, they'll have earphones or different things, noise canceling earphones.
(11:02):
So what's nice is by offering this judgment free opportunity,
the kids are free to be themselves. You know, if
they're having you know, whether they're having a hard time,
they're being vocal, they're stimming, whatever it is, it's fine,
but it gives them an opportunity to try it. See
what it's like. This is the experience of going to
a movie, walking in, getting your ticket, buying popcorn, sitting down.
(11:23):
You know, if they have to move, it's fine, but
it kind of gives them a little bit of a
kind of a playbook then to go back. So if
they wanted to try going to AMC or regal theaters,
you know, they would, you know, continue the sensory considerations.
But now that they know what it's like to be
in a movie, So it's nice to have that kind
of a little bit of a launch pad as well.
So if families want to kind of do other things too,
(11:45):
which is nice.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
When my children were growing up and we'd be in
a restaurant or on an airplane and they'd start screaming
that's what infants do or toddlers or whatever, and you'd
get the dirty looks from people and the judgment. And
I'm like, really, I've never understood people who don't have
empathy for that their children.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
How about you just try and help, right, howbout you
just try and help? And I think today, you know,
we live in a world today where everyone is so
me focused. I don't want to be offended. You know,
it's all about me, my expectations, my needs, my wants,
my this, my that, and you know you have to
have a little empathy of those around you. Just you know,
(12:22):
if if anything, just take a pause and give a
little bit of grace. You know, maybe that child isn't
being a bread Maybe that child just having a hard time, right,
you know, maybe it's sensory over and maybe it's something else.
You know, maybe you know when I go out and
I see certain situations, because you can you kind of
have an eye a little bit get it. You know,
you get the eye like all right, well, you know,
you know you don't want to overstep, but you know you
(12:44):
need a hand. Do you need help? Do you need
something like do you need something? And sometimes just saying
that you don't want to intrude on someone's moment, but
sometimes just saying, you know, I got you, what do
you need? How can I help you? Especially if they
have more than one kid and they're having a moment. Yeah,
So no one gives grace anymore on it's it's sad person. Yes,
And you know, I've learned so much over the years.
You know, I'm my full time job. I'm twenty five
(13:07):
years in medical device sales. I deal with all kinds
of people all day long, and you know, deal with
doctors and staff in different things, and you have to
learn how to manage so many different personalities and running
a nonprofit now since twenty sixteen, you're dealing with a
lot of different personalities. And you know, We've had a
lot of situations over the years that I look back
and say, you know, I probably could have handled that
(13:27):
a little bit better, or you know, you you just
learned from every interaction. And you know what I've learned
in meeting all these families and meeting these kids and
understanding that every child that is special needs is so
unique and different, and autism is truly such a spectrum.
There really is no cookie cutter. They're all unique in
their own way and learning how to you know, now
(13:51):
that I know the kids a little better, I'm always
a kind of like mama. Hen you know, I know
when to push a little pull back, a little push,
but you know, you know to try and you know,
massage situation if someone's having a hard time. But at
the end of the day, it's building the respect with
the parents and understanding that we're all coming from a
place of trying to do the right thing and be
there for these kids and give them opportunities that they
(14:13):
may not have had prior as much as we can
right exactly.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Yeah, but you do have this amazing reputation you really
do in this community. It's such a blessing to see
all the work that you do constantly. You should hear
what they say behind your back, and that's a good
thing and in a really good way. That's what I'm saying.
And you're truly about the children and the parents. Let's
get back to all of the other events that are
(14:38):
coming up. The designer per s Bingle. I have seen
this all over Facebook. By the way, you have the
best crew if you go to sun mooninstars dot org.
You can see Christine there and everybody who's on the board.
You have surrounded yourself with the best people.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Thank you. I know that I have an amazing team
that helps me to do all the things. You know,
I always say like I'm the visionary to like do
the things, but I I have a really great team
of people that support the work we do. And honestly,
and my husband, I joke, he's the wind beneath my wings.
But your remark really is if not for him, my
poor husband who puts up with all of me doing
all the things all the time, and all on it
(15:15):
like it's we have such a tremendous team like approach
to how we raise dominic and how we do the
things and you know, everything that happens in the home
outside of the home, because I wear quite a few
different hats, and you know, he you know, we have
so much respect for each other and what we do
and how we support one another. And it's it's amazing
that you know, after oh my god, how many year
(15:35):
we've been together since nineteen eighty six, it's incredible how
long we've been together. But we really truly I have
a lot of great people that support the work we
do and I appreciate every single one of them.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
And they're a reflection of you. It starts at the head.
So all right, designer person thing, go Hawkridge Winery, tell
me all about it.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
So that is a Project puzzle Piece fundraiser. So back
in twenty twenty, we started something a Project puzzle Piece,
and it really was a way for us during April
is Autism Awareness a month, but we kind of say,
you know, we're past awareness, we're like inclusion and all
the things for autism, and it's a way for us
to do a small fundraiser in some way to give
back to the local community. Meaning you know, we know
(16:18):
special education, you know, being what I do on the
Board of Education. Now I'm a member of the Board
of ED and I know the cost associated with educating
all of the kids and what we do and how
we have to help and support every single child. We
wanted to find a way how do we help in
some way to phrase some of that. So our first
year we donated to Unified Sports. The second year we
(16:42):
donated to we have a scholarship program, Reaching for the Stars.
That was our initial funding of that program. Where we
award students going on for a degree in special education.
We award scholarships. So then we started. We did some programs,
We got some software for the district, We did sensory
backs for the Watertown Peace d We got a sign
for Jumping Jack's Playground that has to still be quote
(17:04):
unquote completely installed because I don't think they finished the
playground yet. But we try and do things. Autism Awareness
assemblies things to give back to the community. So this event,
we decided to do something fun and different. Well I
actually shouldn't say different, I should say popular. Designer purs
Bangos are so popular. Oh my gosh, women lose their minds,
but they do. They absolutely lose their fight. So our
friends at Hawkridge, who are amazing to work with, we
(17:24):
do so much with them and I love them all dearly.
Jeff McHugh is just a godsend. He is an amazing
human and he is just wonderful, especially for our community.
He's so supportive. So we're doing this great designer pers
bango and what we decided to do this year, And
I'm going to give a shout out to Horatio's hero
Sean Ardella, Horatio's bar. We started working together a couple
(17:47):
of years ago. He did a bike run for someone
in Stars, which was amazing. So we started kind of
helping each other where we could and supporting each other,
and he did something. This past year's bike run was
to fulfill teachers wish lists and I'm like, oh my god,
that so amazing. So when we're trying to decide where
are we going to put our money this year, you know,
I said, oh my god, why I'm not going to
(18:07):
reinvent the wheel, Let's do special education teachers wishless. So
that's what we're going to support. So our goal is
to we just opened it up, so tickets are on
sale now on our website and such, but we want
to fulfill at least ten teachers wishless up to two
hundred and fifty three hundred dollars. That's the goal. We're
hoping to raise enough money to do that. But we're
very excited. I mean, my god, it's women in purses
(18:29):
and the winery. How can you go wrong? So a
lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
They go there, they play bingo and then they could
possibly win a purse.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Absolutely, we're gonna do ten different games, so we have
ten purses that are gonna be up for bingo. You know,
if there's a tie, we have some you know, consolation
tie prizes and all that stuff. We're going to have
some chance drawing items that we're going to put together.
We are accepting donations for chance drawings FYI. So we'll
go to sun some want to do that, absolutely, someone
to stars reach out to us there. But it's gonna
(18:56):
be a great night. And the winery closes at six
o'clock Tuesday. It's April first, which is the first day
of autism. We're in a month, so it's close that
it will be open just for our event, which is awesome.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
So that's April first, and then you have your Mother's
Day event.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
That is huge. That is we always do a Mother's
Day event at the winderhere. We've been doing it for
the last few years, but this year we decided to
do something different. So instead of being up in the
Hawk's Nest with only like thirty to forty ladies, we're
gonna do it in the pavilion and we're having a
very well known author. Her name is Carrie Carrigello. She's
an author, advocate, blogger, very well known in the autism space.
She's an amazing woman. She's gonna come in. We're gonna
(19:31):
do a VIP meet and greet from four to five,
a more personalized experience, and then we're gonna go down
and walk downstairs to the pavilion and have a beautiful
buffet dinner from Watertome Meat Center, our friends that are
gonna do a fabulous unspread for us, and we're just
gonna have a great night. Again. It's building connection, community, camaraderie.
She's gonna do a talk and she's gonna take We're
gonna actually do questions ahead of time, so we're gonna
(19:54):
have a little drop box so people can put their
questions in and then she can just read the questions.
But we're so excited about this. We're hoping to have
at least one hundred to one hundred and twenty five
ladies join us.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
And this is May eighth. May eighth, Yes, is that
a Sunday on Mother's Day or no?
Speaker 2 (20:08):
It is It is a Thursday night.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I have to tell you about the Watertow Meat Center.
Best chicken salad ever. Oh yeah, they're parmesan potatoes. I
lie and say that I made those myself. I'm not
even kidding, the stuffed chicken breasts, all those things. But
I actually put the Sun Facebook One day, I went
in to get my grinder and the guy handed it
to me and he goes, I made it with love.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Oh my goodness, Oh my god. I know, like she
really has a nice culture and a great group of
folks that work there. My nephew works there now, Rocco,
So I love if I to see them. So it's
awesful too.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
So yeah, all these places that support Sun, Moon and Stars,
thank you so much for all you do. They're amazing. Okay,
So then we have the second annual Autism Awareness Night
at Quassi on June nineteenth.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
That is such a great night for the family. So
we did last year was a first one. George's phenomenal
at Quasi. He was wonderful to work with. And that's
an event so it's open just for us. It's a
private event for some Moon and Stars. We had about
six hundred folks join us last year. And what we
also did was we created almost like a resource fair,
so we had sponsors, low cost sponsors of different service
(21:19):
organizations and nonprofits that were partnered with work with. We
know who they are, so they sponsored rides, so they
had tables around the event and families got to interact,
learn new things, get new resources. In the entire time.
You know, it was sensory friendly, so there was no
loud music, no, none of that. So like the rides
didn't have the loud music or anything like that. The
(21:40):
train didn't have the whistle blowing. They got to go
on the rides as many times as they wanted. They
didn't have to wait in line. They got to meet
their friends. See, folks like my son was so cool.
I have some pictures of him with his little merry
band of friends. There's like ten of them all going
on the rides together, all going and I'm like, ah,
does that make your heart melt? Well? You know, circling
(22:02):
back one hot second to when he was diagnosed. You know,
one thing that always stuck with me, Alison, and really
the driving force of how this all started. Really truly,
the only thing market I knew about autism was these
kids had no friends. They weren't invited to birthday parties.
You know, that was my concern. I wanted to make
sure my son had friends, and we built a community
around him, and you know, selfishly doing that by default.
(22:25):
We built this incredible community for all these kids, and
really it brings a tear to my eye when I
think about the fact that they were just doing their thing,
like neurotypical kids, running around, going on all the rides
and just having a great time. And I had so
many families reach out to me afterwards saying how appreciative
they were for the event and how wonderful it was
that we were able to do like a little marketing
(22:47):
campaign where we took like they gave us a photo
and they gave us a little quote about what the
event meant. So we threw some pictures out there and
we'll revisit that for this one coming up. But it
really was extraordinary, and there were families that are introduced
to we do that never had been to a Sun,
Moon and Stars event and now since then have been
coming to our events and activities. It was just it's
(23:08):
hard to say, like some of our events it's like, Okay, yeah,
we're doing our thing, but some of our events are
just damn magical. You can feel it in the air.
You're like, this is why you know, running out of
profit is not a walk in the park. There's a
lot of work, especially when you wear a lot of hats,
but when you see that and you just feel the appreciation,
feel the joy, feel the happiness, you see the smiles,
(23:28):
that's what makes it all worthwhile. It's just extraordinary. Tickets
are not on sale for that yet. They're going to
be on sale, I want to say, and at least
I think two months we do it, because it's June,
so we'll probably do that March. I think March first
we have that schedule to go on sale. But it's
just extraordinary. And George is wonderful, he said to me.
He goes, Chris, we could have had two hundred more people.
I go, well, guy, it's capacity like I didn't want
(23:49):
to overwhelm it because then that defeats the purpose because
we don't want to have you know, kids wait in line,
so that is not a walk in. It's you know,
we want a headcount prior registration, so it's not too
for the families.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
So did you ever imagine that you'd be doing something
like this?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Yes, not at all.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
And now that you are, how do you feel about it?
Speaker 2 (24:11):
You know what's interesting is, you know, all throughout my
career I was always involved with like leadership training, leadership courses.
You know, I got my MBA and so on and
so forth. And I always felt that my path was
through my job, taking promotions of being a director. And
I realized that, you know what, I'm happy doing what
I'm doing in my job. I have my accounts, I
have my people, I know what I need to do.
(24:31):
I've been doing it for twenty years, and it's enough
for me to take care of that. And I realized
that all of that and everything I did was to
prepare me for this. Isn't that amazing. It's incredible where
your path is led and what doors open and closed. Truly,
I receive joy by helping others. It makes me happy
to see other people happy. It's it's just a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Absolutely everybody I interview something happened in their lives to
bring them to where they are now, and it's all good.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
It is. And now we're at a point where it
kind of grew with Dominic and now we're looking doing
events like with more young adults. So the first, you know,
we do like the movie theater, that's all ages. You'll
quasi as all share, the supper club is all ages.
But the core of what we do is usually been
the littles, the little kids. So now we're looking like
even we have a sports program, we do adaptive sports,
(25:22):
and I finally was watching we just started basketball, and
I'm like, yeah, we're gonna have to look into doing
more next year, having maybe two sessions because we have
littles and we have now kids going into high school.
So now we're kind of pivoting a bit into another area.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
I'm speaking with Christine faressa president and founder of Sun
Moon and Stars for these events and more. Even more
events are coming up. If you'd like to volunteer, make
a donation, go to sun mooninstars dot org. Thank you
so much for being here, for sharing your story and
for blessing people's lives.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Thank you, Alis and I really appreciate this opportunity to
share what we do. Thank you,
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