I hate to do this but it's been eating me up inside.
While I am pleased that more and more people are looking to support autism awareness each year, I have to urge GCers to please steer clear of
Autism Speaks. AS views autistic children as diseased, rather than different, and directs their research and rhetoric accordingly. Very little of the money raised by the organization goes to actually supporting autistic people and their families. (According to the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), it's 4%.)
This essay,
What's Wrong with Autism Speaks?, covers many of the issues and has links to other, similar posts by autistic people. More information is also available in this
Psychology Today post and this
letter from ASAN. It pains me that one of our NPC organizations is aligned with this very controversial organization.