This post is sponsored by Custom Ink. I was compensated by Custom Ink to write this post. All opinions, children and video background noise are my own.
Almost every autism parent will tell you their child has a “thing.” A television show, a character, a favorite item– something they’ve been hooked on for years. I know kids who love elevators or garbage trucks, kids who’ve been carrying the same stuffed animal for ten years and kids who could tell you the inner workings of their city’s sewage system.
Ashlyn has had a couple different “things” over the years. She used to read me her yearbook, over and over again. She’s also an expert at the school bussing system. But every time she has money, for as long as I can remember, she has always bought a bag or a t-shirt. Events with free t-shirts? Even better. If we could only find some kind of bus riding event that gave out commemorative t-shirts she would be in her glory. 
The last few years she’s been playing around with making her own shirts. If she has a cause or an event she loves she wants a shirt to tell the world about it. We distract her from the merchandise table at Special Olympic events like you distract your kids when passing by those pop up carnivals that silently appear to induce whining on long car rides.
We’ve been playing around with Custom Ink to let Ashlyn design shirts to commemorate some of her favorite things that don’t provide t-shirts and found the coolest new option. Since she loves donating to her favorite causes but doesn’t have the funds to do so Custom Ink lets her create a shirt and raise money! In a super short amount of time she created a shirt design and is now on her way to fundraising for Special Olympics. 
Ashlyn and I came up with what she wanted her shirt to express and in no time at all we had a design. 
She had big plans to show you how she made her shirt but sometimes autism and video-creation just don’t cooperate so her little brother offered to step in. Sawyer came up with his own design so volunteered to show you around Custom Ink’s fundraising program when his sister wasn’t up for it.
I am amazed at how easy it was to create a shirt that looks like it was professionally designed. There are even options to put in a ribbon dedicated to your cause. When we searched “autism” all kinds of signature autism symbols came up. It was so easy to incorporate them into Ashlyn’s design. 
Creating the fundraiser portion of things was super simple too. 
Ashlyn was determined to fundraise for Special Olympics because it’s the one organization that she has been involved with from childhood through adulthood. In fact, it’s probably the one element of her life that has kept her busiest as an adult.
Once we created her shirt it was easy to add a little background as to why she chose to fundraise for Special Olympics. 
We then selected them by searching Custom Ink’s fundraiser database and set our sale price. 
Once we looked over everything one last time her t-shirt sale went live. You can purchase them here.
If you know or love someone who stims this is the perfect shirt for them. The fundraiser is going on now through mid August. Just click to purchase a shirt and donations will be made to Special Olympics once we hit the minimum number of shirts needed to be sold. (If we don’t hit the minimum all t-shirt order money is refunded to original purchasers.)
Quick autism education: Stimming is short for self-stimulation. We all do it– bouncing one foot, tapping a pencil over and over, twirling our hair. People with autism tend to stim more often and/or in a pronouced fashion. You can often recognize stimming due to autism by behaviors such a flapping hands, jumping repeatedly, spinning or waving their fingers in front of their face. There is nothing wrong with openly swimming as long as no one is getting hurt. It’s a way for someone to express their feelings. I try not to stop Ashlyn unless she’s in danger of losing part of her chair (spinning in computer chairs is her favorite).
The Custom Ink shirt making has caught on fast over here. McKenna is using Custom Ink to encourage people to stop eating animal products, Parker wants to just create shirt after shirt after shirt and Sawyer is thinking he should raise money so he can buy more LEGOs. I might have to find that boy a cause to dedicate himself to other than his own toy fund.
Keep Custom Ink in mind next time you need team shirts for a fundraising walk or class shirts for your child’s school. The process was so easy and the fundraising option was literally just a few extra clicks!
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