ANCHOR OF HOPE FOUNDATION
Serving Families Facing Developmental Disability
10th Anniversary Celebration of Hope
Missed our 10th Anniversary Celebration of Hope Dinner? Get the recap here.
We are so thankful for 10 amazing years serving families affected by autism and other developmental disabilities! The community came out and showed their amazing support on November 9th. That night we were able to reminisce about the lives changed in the past 10 years with stories, trivia, and video. ​
Here is a little “thank you” from those whose lives have already been touched by the amazing support of our community:
We had the amazing experience of hearing from our Chief Inspirational Officer, Jacob Harbin, who was able to give his first keynote speech via technology. For those that do not know, Jacob is non-verbal and was diagnosed with autism at age 3. His older brother, Josh Harbin, wrote a song 15 years ago called “Brown Eyed Boy” to help him process what his family was going through with the diagnosis of Jacob. This song was used at the Anchor of Hope kick-off dinner, 10 years ago, to share the “why” behind Steve and Debbie starting Anchor of Hope.
In preparing to celebrate 10 years of hope, Jacob’s sister, Juli Reynolds, decided to update and re-record the song for the 10th Anniversary Dinner. She and her mom adjusted some lyrics and added new verses to express the difficult journey it has taken to get them to where they are now, as well as highlight the joy of being able to introduce Jacob’s voice to the world.
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Jacob’s speech was not your typical speech. Since Jacob uses a letter board to communicate, and it takes a long time for him to be able to get his words out, he wrote the speech using the letter board. He asked his dad record himself reading the speech for him. Then we took the speech and added the words and pictures for the video. Here is Jacob's voice:
Following the speech, Jacob was able to come up on stage with his parents, Steve and Debbie. When his mom asked him what he thought of the way we put the speech together, he spelled out, “Good job!”
As thankful as we are for an amazing 10 years, we are so excited for the next 10! We have a goal of changing 100 lives next year. In order to do that, we are seeking 100 monthly partners. We currently have 18 monthly partners, so we need your help! Would you like to join us?