Be My Voice presents ‘This Is Me, a Neuro Diverse Celebration’ on World Autism Day.
The initiative, sparked by Joshua Sandy (15) who is living with autism, will focus on uniqueness.
Joshua is an entrepreneur, born on World Autism Day (2 April) and diagnosed with autism at age two.
It will also be Joshua’s 16th birthday and one year of his cookies campaign “Be my voice one cookie at a time”.
“Be My Voice Cookies and the community bakeoffs have been a tremendous success. We hosted 35 community bake-offs in various communities, with +-22 000 cookies in 2022,” Sandy Pekeur-Sandy, mother of Joshua, says.
She explains that this year they are getting bigger and will have a few surprises up their sleeve on 2 April.
The theme for this year is “This is me, a Neurodiverse Celebration”.
The phrase “this is me” means everyone is unique in their way, and that is why we are celebrating neurodiversity.
“Meaning whether it is autism, down syndrome or any special needs that need to be celebrated, we are doing that,” says Pekeur-Sandy.
The Joshua Sandy Institute
According to Pekeur-Sandy this year’s difference is that the Nosh for Josh has been running under the NPO ‘SA Society of Hope’, and they have been running for eight to nine years.
She says they never saw the opportunity for Nosh for Josh to have his own NPO until last year.
“We decided this year, on Joshua’s 16th birthday, to have his own NPC registered as the Joshua Sandy Institute for Diversity and Inclusion and at the same time the institute will be about education, coaching, well-being, skills development, economic growth, and we are signing with Nedbank to let all the kids part of the campaign have their own savings account,” Pekeur-Sandy says.
“Blue Ribbon bread is also donating 250 pieces of bread as we are making 2 500+ sandwiches on the day and distributing it to special needs organisations, schools and different organisations.”
On 2 April the spotlight will be on 400 special needs youth and 400 facilitators/caregivers participating in a carnival bake-off celebration. A total of 10 000 cookies will be pre-baked for the event.
Neuro-diverse youth
“For most of the neuro-diverse youth it will be the first time they will be leaving their homes to attend an event, so we will be doing the red-carpet entrance where they will be applauded upon arrival and escorted by sea cadets,” Pekeur-Sandy says.
Public purchase of cookies will be on 2 April, after the event. There will be a stall for the cookies to be purchased.
Collections start at 12:00 at Sun Exhibit, GrandWest.
The cost per cookie is R5. This contribution goes towards community bake-off ingredients and events.
Contact Sandy on 072 504 5384 to order cookies.
