We have some news to share!  Our family was recently asked to put together a video about our special daughter Grace Culliton, and her art, to be shown at an upcoming event in Stratford that Temple Grandin is speaking at. The event in Stratford is being held on March 16th (2011), and has been sold out for weeks, with around 900 people expected. The event organizers told us that if they had known it was going to generate that much interest, they would have booked the Stratford Festival Theatre, because they could have easily filled it!  
 
The 11 minute video about Grace and her art has been called "Brushes with Grace", and has just been put up on YouTube. The video describes our family's journey with Grace, along with some of the milestones of her artistic achievements, with images of her art that provide insight into the world of autism. We worked with a Canadian documentary film maker on this project. We even had Grace herself do a very small voiceover at the end of the video.  
 
In the video, there are a couple of pictures of "the Lion" marker drawing that you (Jeanette) bought from us in the year 2000, at the time that Grace was the poster girl for the Geneva Centre Symposium. The Lion image appears a bit in the introduction of the video, but is also seen as part of the Poster at 6:61, and then full screen at 9:39.  I thought you might like to see your art now represented in film!  (Jeanette: It is such a joyous drawing and I treasure it and smile every time I look at it!  I've thought of you often over the years with gratitude for the wisdom, compassion and encouragement you have given to us, and so many others. We hope your health is good these days, for you and your brother, and that the future looks bright.
 
You can click on this video link to see "Brushes with Grace", and then please help us by passing it on!
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYUefl6p61Q
 
You can also link it as one of your "favourites" on Facebook. It would be fun for Grace to see a lot of "hits" on this YouTube video. We hope Grace's story inspires others to see beyond the surface of things, to better understand autism, and to appreciate the ability within disability.
 

“Good News” Correspondent Janet Culliton