How to Help
Donate
Where does your money go when you give to the Orchid Club?
Raising a child with special needs can weigh heavy on a family’s resources – your contribution will help to lighten the load.
Orchid Club activities and events are intended to bring families together for support, resources, community, connection and stress reduction; which we believe leads to healthier families and happier children.
Your financial donation will make activities and resources for bettering our community a possibility for our families. Music classes, exercise groups, meeting space, instructor fees, community events and organizational expenses will all be covered by donated funds. Accounting sheets are available upon request and tax-deductible receipts are always issued including end of year statements.
Volunteer
Do you want to participate in other ways?
The Orchid Club’s vision to support families as they raise children with special needs means that we are always on the lookout for activities or events that support our parents, reduce their stress and build their community. This means we are always open to activities, classes, groups or other community resources that typically either cost money or become emotionally taxing due to the nature of the medical or health concerns of our participants.
- Can you teach yoga, meditation, journaling/painting/artistic expression, exercise/sports or some other stress relieving activity? Can you provide massage, acupuncture or some other healing service to support overall health and wellbeing? Volunteer to teach a class or provide a service at a discounted or free rate to help promote self-care and vitality and reduce stress in our parents!
- Do you work in law or financial planning fields? Donate consultation or education to our families as they navigate the different needs and options of managing increased medical expenses, long term financial planning and the possible need for long term care.
- Do you have a medical background? Talk with us about our developing child care certification program to provide respite and child care to children with medically fragile or significant social/emotional needs and volunteer for respite or childcare services.
- What about photography or event planning? Taking a child with disabilities to have a photo taken with Santa or the Easter Bunny is complicated for our families for a lot of different reasons. We would love to host a community event sponsored by the Orchid Club with a Santa who is comfortable holding children with medical needs and a photographer with a special touch to make this simple event a possibility for our families.
- Do you have access to a meeting room or activity space that is open with comfy floors that will accommodate young families and sometimes equipment that doesn’t cost? We are always looking for places to meet that are easily accessible as well as semi private and won’t cost our Club a lot of extra funds. When families meet they are having support group, play dates, yoga classes for parents or music or other activities for kiddos.
Do you have experience with a particular disability? We are looking for parents who are willing to facilitate activities for diagnosis specific groups for those that are interested. We have had many families asking about activities for older children, preemies, children on the Autism spectrum etc. We are excited to provide support for those interested in generating additional meetings, outings and activities beyond what we are already offering but we need parents to help! We would also love to gather a data base of referral resources amongst parents for example: Was your child born with cleft palate and you survived the surgeries and therapies and now are moving into a more typical life? Would you be open to a phone call from a new mom whose baby was just diagnosed?
