Community asked to help child celebrate

PORT ST LUCIE ? A new organization is helping to fight bullying at the same time as helping youths roll into their birthdays. The new group is called the Cherab Foundation, and they are working with another organization called crowdFunnit to lend a hand to Tricia Morales in her efforts to "strike" out alienation and bullying, particularly for children with special needs.

Ms. Morales and the organization are hosting a bowling birthday party and community celebration for her son, William, on Sunday, Aug. 20 from 1 to 3 p.m. at SuperPlayUSA with support from Duffy's Sports Grill, at 1600 N.W. Courtyard Circle in Port St Lucie. They have invited people at no admission to attend the party and discounted party passes will be available to all children that attend for $10 ? usually $18 ? from SuperPlayUSA that include two hours of bowling, shoe rental, equipment use, party food from Duffy's, pizza and drinks, an arcade swipe card and birthday cake from Magnolia Cakes & Confections as part of the deal.

"We do outreach for individuals with communication impairment and a very common one would be autism," said Lisa Geng, president of the Cherab Foundation. "I don't know the family personal, but through the non-profit I've noticed there is an underlying number of parents who have special-needs children who have expressed anxiety and people come for support because they're upset that their children are never invited to a birthday party or they have a birthday party and no one shows up or that their child is being bullied."

The initial idea was to help celebrate William's birthday with the initiative of the nonprofit Cherab Foundation, which "is dedicated to improving the lives of those who are bullied and alienated, fostering acceptance, compassion and friendship through open-invite birthday parties."

William, who has autism, will be turning 13 years old. Not only is William friendless, but he is bullied, according to a press release.

The young man's mother perceived that he seemingly had no friends and is routinely mistreated by his peers, according to his family. William would like to be a member of the military someday, and so the Navy Seal Museum in Fort Pierce has invited them to visit for free that day of the party.

The PSL Police Athletic League program and ACEing Autism, are also partnering in the celebration and people are encouraged to bring mail for William to open, because that is one of his great joys. If interested, people can mail birthday cards to William at William's Birthday C/o Officer Richard Wilson Port St Lucie Police Athletic League (PAL) 2101 SE Tiffany Ave Port St Lucie, FL 34952.

"I started this idea with one parent in the group, and we made a Facebook page to get people to show up at a park and it went viral," Ms. Geng said. "It was all over the news, even internationally, and from there I decided that we needed to do something a little bit more controlled so we went and got first-responders in there also. I didn't think it was fair for one child to get thousands of dollars, and it's really not about the money.

"It's about a child having a birthday party and people showing that they care and are compassionate. So now we set the goal for $275 for each party and we already hit that goal with William's party."

For more information, visit www.crowdfunnit.org/william-morales-13th-birthday- party-invitation/ or www.gofundme.com/william-morales-birthday-party or find the event on Facebook.