Hiking for Autism

We are still overwhelmed by the enormous financial support that Louisa raised for the counselling center with her Charity Hike. Once again, many thanks to all the donors and supporters.

Thanks to your support, people with autism or their relatives are supported daily, free of charge and without barriers, by the counselling center of ads. It is important to us that everybody receives important information for various life situations in order to be able to make informed decisions that improve their quality of life - like i.e. the new ’Autism-Card’ for encounters with authorities with security and control tasks (police, public transportation, and so on).

Counselling is one of ads’ most urgent tasks, along with raising awareness, further training and lobbying. Without financial support from donors like yourself, we would not be able to maintain these important services - your help is enormously valuable and directly benefits people with autism and their families.

Thank you!
Your ADS Team

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful summer with family and friends. For us it’s the last day of the summer holidays today and school (and with it hopefully some normal routine) will resume tomorrow!

Meanwhile, the money has been transferred to ADS and they have been incredibly grateful for all the generous support!

So now we are working through all the pledge rewards and with Victoria’s help we will be sending everything as soon as possible.

Also not to forget, even though I rather do :) Victoria has picked an embarrassing picture for Stretch goal #5 and this will be posted on my FB and Instagram today for 1 week (cringe) :p

Wishing you all a good start to the week. Louisa and Victoria

The campaign has concluded yesterday and we reached more than CHF 10’000 or 1000% of our original goal! Thanks to you all! You have absolutely blown my expectations and your generosity has touched me deeply!

So what’s next?

The money will be transferred directly from wemakeit to the bank account of ads (Autismus Deutsche Schweiz) in about 14 days. We will ask the foundation if they already have an idea what they might do with your contributions and report back with an update :)

We’ve already done stretch goal #2 (swim in a mountain lake), stretch goal #3 (cake-in-my-face) and stretch goal #4 (box of comics for foster home). Thanks to hitting the last 10k-stretch goal I’ll now need to find some embarrassing pictures of myself for Victoria to choose from and to post on my social media sites. I’ll let you know once that happens :p

Meanwhile we are working on the various ’rewards’ some of you have selected. I will soon record the 9 thank-you videos and Victoria is drawing her 19 pictures; one at the time whenever she is in the mood so it might take a little while :) but I plan to have completed all pledges by end of August.

I hope you have a phantastic summer holiday (winter for our Australian backers :D )! Thanks again!

Louisa and Victoria

We did it! We reached the impossible 10k!! :D I cannot tell you how touched I am by all the love you guys have shown me and ads! We thank you with all our hearts! Thank you!

Here it is, the moment everyone was waiting for (apart from me!): a Victoria sponge cake thrown by my sister Vikki into my face! I can’t believe how delighted my lovely family is! :)

I can only upload one video/update, so instead of spamming you with 4 additional updates here is the link to my YouTube Channel with all the videos we recorded during the hike:

I did it! The Hike (and the swim) are done - let’s all together get the other goal of 10k as well. Only CHF364 to go!! :D

It was an incredible hike! and very special to be hiking with my daughter Victoria and ADS on my mind. I love my daughter with all my heart and want to give her every chance to live her life the best way she can. Like thousands of people in Switzerland, ADS can really make a difference and with all the supports and awareness we are one step closer!

Thank you, x

Yippee!! The 5th lake done!! But before I can say it’s finished; we need to head down to the bottom and I think I can see a tiny little café for a well-earned drink.

At an altitude of 2174 meters above sea level, Lake Baschalva lies below a steep slope of the Pizol massif. The mountain lake is located in the municipality of Vilters-Wangs. The Baschalvasee is located on an intermediate ground, from where one can look over the Rhine valley in clear weather.

Very happy that climb is done and it is well worth it!

Schwarzsee is a mountain lake in the St. Gallen community of Vilters-Wangs. It is surrounded by Schwarzkopf, Schwarzseehörnern and Schwarzhörnern at an altitude of 2371 meters above sea level. The Prechtbach flows out of the mountain lake.

The reception up here is terrible and I can’t always send out my updates when they happen.. especially with the videos.. might have to upload them when I am back later today…

(A dip in freezing water and I did it!!!) Having some well-earned snacks before another steep climb up to the 4th lake.

The Schottensee is located on the territory of the municipality of Mels in the canton of St. Gallen. The mountain lake is located at an altitude of 2332 meters above sea level in the Pizol area. From the crystal-clear, greenish shining lake, the Gafarrabach flows downhill into the Weisstannental.

We made it!! Jeez, that was hard work but well worth it. One of the most stunning views and lakes!

The greenish shimmering Wildsee is located in the Pizol area at 2435 meters above sea level below the Wildseeluggen. In an alpine mountain landscape, the mountain lake can be found a few hundred meters north of the Pizol glacier and the summit.

1st lake of the 5 lakes and it’s beautiful!

Lake Wangs is located in the St.Gallen communities of Bad Ragaz and Vilters-Wangs. The small mountain lake is not far from the mountain station of the Pizol lifts and the Pizol hut at an altitude of 2205 meters above sea level.

On to the next lake and the climb looks very steep!!

At home it’s pouring down but here, in Pizol, it’s chilly but at least dry! I will update when we reach our first lake :D

We are so close to the unthinkable goal of 10k!! So no time to delay, we’re off!!

The hike is getting closer!! After a very emotional night last night as my sister’s flight was cancelled (she was already sitting in the plane for an hour!) and after a frantic booking of the last seat available, she will now come tomorrow, landing in Geneva (instead of Zurich).

We will now do the hike on Saturday - unless her flight is cancelled again tomorrow, then I will make the change and hike tomorrow alone.

Thanks again for all your support! We almost reached the ultimate goal of 10k! Please forward the campaign to friends and family for a final push! :D

You guys astonish and humble me! 96 amazing people have already given an insane amount of CHF 8’410! Thank you all so much! Only 4 more and we have 100 backers! I wonder who it will be :D

Today in 1 week the big hike will start and with it my dreaded swim in a freezing mountain lake and shortly afterwards we will bake and record the ’cake-in-my-face’ stretch goal :p

Meanwhile, Victoria has packed most of her beloved Donald Duck books in a big box which Nik just dropped off at ’Kinder- und Jugendheim Lutisbach’ in Oberägeri. This small children’s foster home takes care of up to 22 kids in specific and socially difficult circumstances! Most of the kids will have to stay in Lutisbach during the summer holidays so hopefully the books will give them some welcome distraction!

https://kinderheim-lutisbach.ch/de/

Wowzy!!! You guys! We just hit our 7.5k stretch goal!!! Thanks to all of you and one very generous donor who ’filled in’ the remaining amount! I’m very emotional with all the support everyone has given us and ads! Spreading the awareness really does make a difference!

With 20 days to go we will put the last stretch goal - as I can’t even believe I am saying this - to 10k gosh!! Of course if we don’t hit this we still have well over exceeded my original 1k goal so no matter what all proceeds will go to ads.

New/last 10k Stretch Goal:

Much to my dread and my wonderful husband’s idea (again!!), I will post an embarrassing profile picture of myself on Facebook/Instagram/wemakeit for at least 1 week! And to make it extra scary, Victoria will be the one picking the picture she thinks is the most funny and I will have no say! :D

Omg you guys are insane!! I was hoping to reach my 1st goal but to hit the 3rd stretch goal is truly incredible. Thank you so much to everyone who has donated and spreading the word to their family and friends. It’s amazing how many messages I am getting, of support and also from people who are personally affected by Autism!

Spreading awareness is really important too and this crowd funder is not only to raising money for ADS but also for people to talk about Autism. Even my 7 year old daughter’s class mates are asking what Autism is, which is fantastic!!

New 7.5k Stretch Goal:

Victoria is very excited about everything that’s happening and wanted to help! She has very kindly (and to our genuine surprise) offered to give away a box full of her beloved Donald Duck Comic books to other kids in need. We will find a special needs school or foster/care home for children in our area to donate them to.

I am very proud of her for wanting to do her part in this amazing journey! Let’s see if we do it :D

We don’t know how to put into words how grateful we are for your incredible support! We never thought we could reach CHF 1’000; now – and thanks to one especially generous donation – we have more than doubled our initial goal! Absolutely insane!

New 5k Stretch Goal:

On Victoria’s very first birthday she had a ’Victoria Sponge Cake’. So, for Victoria’s 10 year anniversary and to celebrate you amazing guys, I thought we would bake another one. But instead of eating it, my sister Vikki would (gently) throw it into my face :D I’m already dreading this but it’s for a good cause, right? :p

I cannot believe it!! Thank you so much for everyone who has donated so far! I am very touched by everyone’s generous offer. Victoria will be so proud when I tell her.

My next goal now is to reach the 2k mark!! If we reach this as much as I hate the cold water, I will swim one of the lakes. So please donate and tell friends, this money really does make a difference to this charity and will be able to raise more awareness campaigns and events!

Thank you so much!!