What Is a Bubby's Buddy?

This is my good looking, and charasmatic cousin, David Charles.  Not many people call him by this name.  We call him Bubby.  That's the name his twin sister Shannon bestowed upon him when she was learning to talk. 

Chillin' and relaxin' in 2009

This is Bubby's family: him mom Mary Kaye, his dad David, and his sisters, Lauren and Shannon.  By all intents and purposes, Mary Kaye is my aunt, but we are more like sisters.  We grew up together (like, literally, we grew up in the same house).  There is only a 10 year age difference between the two of -- in fact, 10 years and 13 days. 

Any one that has been within in ear shot of me knows that I am part of a group called Bubby's Buddies.  The name speaks for itself.  We are a mix of family and friends that work hard throughout the year to help raise awareness and money for autism research.  You see, Bubby was diagnosed with autism when he was three.  I believe that autism doesn't make him different or special.  It simply makes him into the person that you see today.

Who are Bubby's Buddies? 

It's our youngest member....

It's Bubby's Aunt and Uncle....

It's Bubby's cousins (including his favorite!)

It's another little member with a lot of style

It's his cousins who like to goof around

It's a group of adults that run to get their picture taken with Vadar

It's a pretty baby with her Grandpop

It's a group of friends

It's a fantastic group of musicians that DONATE their time to our events.

It's our kids division wing eating champion

These pictures are just a sample of who makes up this group.  I could fill up pages and pages with pictures of family members, friends, and businesses that have supported us since 2007.

What started out as an idea we kicked around while drinking in the back yard has grown into a small roots campaign.  We have all done something in our own way -- we held annual Beef-and-Beers, hosted bowling events, organized 5K Fun Runs, held wing eating contests, hosted happy hours....even turned a birthday party into a fundraising event.  My monkey spent a day selling tattoos and silly bands in her school when she was in first grade, and raised $115!

And we do it all for this guy......

Bubby and his mom