The Last Farmer’s Market on Drake for 2016
The Farmer’s Market season ended in October. Nick and the AiA staff are so sad to see it go. What an Awesome time we had on September 24th under the gazebo! How good it was to enjoy the brisk fall morning with so many other Coloradans as they peruse local products.
Fresh food was good, especially the edible apples! 
Because they had beautiful flowers, Nick could get his long-time employee a get well bouquet!
The mushroom dudes from the “Mushroom Haus” impressed my job coach with roasted black garlic and mushrooms, all fresh, locally produced and family owned!
Check out what they have to offer on their website at the Mushroom Haus website!
Nick ran into his friend from the T.R. Paul Academy of Arts & Knowledge (TPAAK), Mr. Sam Kornfield and his family. If you are in the market for a charter school arts option in Ft. Collins, check out TPAAK’s offerings. 
Budding teachers Brittany and Greg dropped by for coffee and stopped to check out Nick’s speech offerings for young children, and to check out his first book, Helping in Action.
Fall Flowers of the market…
The dogs of the market….
The shoes of the market…
And the lovely gourds….
Thank you, Nan Zimmerman. Your market was fantastic and Nick and the AiA team so loved being a part of it this year!
Santa’s Little Hacker Helpers
Nick and the AiA team have discovered a most awesome “accessibility” group here in Colorado. In fact, so amazing is this group that they delivered Despicable Me Fart Blasters
to them for conversion therapy of a sort. The group is called Santa’s Little Hackers and you all need to know what they do! As you can see, the toy has a trigger. People with Nick’s abilities cannot manipulate that trigger.
The mom and dad of one young man, Max, decided that Max should have a way to play with toys despite his motor-coordination challenge. Mom asked dad to take a toy and wire a proper switch that Max could actually operate. Without the switch, max apparently could not play with the toy as other children do. This kind of play helps children develop eye-hand coordination, fine motor skills, and cognitive understanding of the the idea that when you push a button, something happens. Interestingly, this kind of play also helps those who use speech devices so they can operate the device and develop language as well. Here’s the video story of Max and his family, and how they came to be the Santa’s Little Hackers nonprofit: “Colorado-based Santa’s Little Hackers bringing smiles to the faces of kids with special needs”
Mission undertaken by Nick and the AiA team – we located some Fart Blasters and met up with Renee and Pasqual for the handoff, members of The “Santa’s Little Hackers” team preparing for the Saturday hack-a-thon to turn 1400 regular toys into adaptive toys.
We have not heard yet heard about the turn out at the Saturday event, but we do know that this non-profit is one of the sparks of inspiration that we consider Awesome in Action and we think they are a great option for December 6th Colorado Gives Day!! 
Awesome in Action, Co 