Let’s Take ACCtion Challenge donation (Submitted photo)Let’s Take ACCtion Challenge donation (Submitted photo)
Chatham

Annual fundraising challenge raises over $2.3K for Children's Treatment Centre

A local woman who created a fundraising campaign close to her heart continues to give back to the Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent.

Four years ago, Kaitlyn Smoke began the “Let’s Take AACtion” challenge to raise awareness and funds for Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC) awareness month.

Since then, the challenge has grown to include more participants year after year.

This year, Smoke and her team of six raised and donated $2,375 to the Speech Department at the Children’s Treatment Centre. Several students from St. Anne Catholic School in Blenheim also took part in the challenge.

"During the month of October, each participant spent 24 hours without using verbal speech and instead using an AAC application to communicate with others," centre officials said through a media release. "The goal of this challenge was to experience communicating with AAC in your everyday life and in your community to understand the obstacles."

All participants shared their experiences using an AAC device on Smoke's Facebook page “Let’s Take AACtion”, where community members can learn, ask questions and interact.

Smoke's older sister uses AAC and she wanted to find a way to give people a better understanding and become more mindful of ways to promote inclusivity in the community for these individuals.

Many children in the centre's Speech Department learn and develop their abilities with AAC devices to communicate with others. To date, Smoke's campaign has raised over $6,575.

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