My wife and I have moved back to our home county of Boone County, WV, after a 28-year absence. During those nearly three decades our only child, Jonathan, was born and just before his second birth was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. After battling unsuccessfully the local government school system and the State Department of Special Education for a Free and Appropriate Public Education provided for by the federal Department of Education, and spending more than $55,000 on attorney fees, and several years in and out of court on behalf of our little, special-needs boy, she and I formed a "mom-and-pop" non-profit Prodigal Autism Treatment and Recovery Center (PATAR) to help other affected children and their families to navigate "the system," avoid useless and costly legal battles with government schools and agencies that have little to no real desire to help disabled kids (even though these entities are legally required to do so), and to spend their hard-earned dollars on real, and immediate, and successful thereapies that do work. She and I NEVER accepted any money for our services on behalf of an affected child. (Services she and I provided ranged from an hour-long telephone call, a luncheon meeting which she and I ALWAYS picked up the tab for), or a car trip to the far reaches of our state---on my own "dime"--to represent a child and an uninformed, financially strapped, and greatly outnumbered (by antagonistic "public" school teachers, aides, staff, lawyers, special-ed directors, school pyschologists and nurses, and even county superintendants; once Jonathan and his mother and I were OUTNUMBERED 21 to 3 in our efforts to secure for our little boy a free and appropriate public education he should have been afforded under Federal education law). Ironically, during a 2-hour meeting (which was also attended by that county's special-ed director and county superintendent) I was able to win for two twin 6-year-old boys with autism, and their single mom, MORE services and benefits that I was able ever to secure for my son! But on the 6-hour drive back home I rejoiced that two little fellers were going to get the help they needed and that their single mom couldn't every afford. My son is now 25 years old, doing just fine because his mother and I--without ANY county, state, or federal help--privately paid more than $300,000, over a 7-year period, for Jonathan's therapy, medications, and other services that SHOULD have been provided by the federal government and by State and local agencies. Now, back in Boone County, WV, I learned that NO programs of ANY type--not even Special Olympics--are available. A distressed mom in a local Goodwill store, with her special-needs adult daughter, saw me with Jonathan, approached me, and asked if I could do anything at all "to get something started in Boone County to help her daughter and the hundreds of other special-needs and disabled children and adults in our southern West Virginia, very economically distressed, and wholly rural County. And, so, this is why I humbly turn to GiveSendGo and its many supporters all across this great Nation and around the world to help us fill in a tremendous and growing NEED for our local folks. Even $1 will help. I've often said, down through the years, as I have donated money to this cause and for this need, that if EVERYONE who passed by a donation bucket would simply give a $1 bill just about ANY need could me met quickly. Say an average of 250 customers go in and out of our local Kroger grocery store every day. And if 225 of those customers gave $1. And the next day 200 new customers gave $1. Third day, 200 MORE new customers give $1 on their way in or out to shop. In ONE WEEK'S TIME a potential $1,400 to $2,000 could be collected for a non-profit cause! Then move on to the local drug store, auto parts store, hardware store, pharmacy, restaurants, and so forth. One day each. THOUSANDS more collected. And it wouldn't take long to reach the goal of $5,000. I'm crippled and can't do this work. My wife has poor health and couldn't do this. Either way, one of us would have to always be home with Jonathan. And finding volunteers to do this work, in this day and time of busyness and self-centeredness would be virtually impossible. So I come to you. You exceptional people who support campaigns on GiveSendGo. You that are the Biblical "salt of the earth" as my Dad used to say. You very special--and, unfortunately, very few--that are the "REMNANT" that can STILL be found to always do the right thing. I certainly don't ask any one person to fully fund this campaign. Nor would I even dare to challenge five people to each give $1,000. Way too much to ask for working folks. And I wouldn't even ask 100 to donate $50 or even a thousand people to give $5. But I would humbly ask that 5,000 of the very best men and women might consider giving $1. And for that, I--and the untold hundreds of future recipeints of y'all's generosity, here in Boone County, WV--would be very grateful. Thank you for ready this very long story and thank you for considering donating. And may a very real God bless each of you in a very real way. Sincerely and Respectfully, Mark Davis, Jonathan's dad, chief advocate, and very best friend in the whole wide world.