Midale local Katie Emde is no stranger to being in the news. Since her oldest son Avery was diagnosed with autism, she has been an advocate for better autism programming and supports in the province as recently as earlier this year. She has also raised thousands of dollars for families in the province to try help with the costs associated with autism and create that supportive community.

Now that Avery has some things that are needed to help his daily life, the community that Katie and her husband Landon have helped build is supporting the Emde family right back through a GoFundMe page asking for $40,000, and Katie couldn't be happier.

"We actually had another mom that we were really quite close and became friends with through having children with autism who originally had started the page a little while back and wanted to raise some funds and not only that but spread awareness about autism and the challenges that come along with it, and we got everyone involved."

The page was started by Dallas Gilliss and so far has raised over $1700 in the last month. The money will be used for a number of things that the 9-year-old Avery needs such as chiro spinal adjustments, speech therapy, a mobile lift for bathing, a behavioral therapist, water therapy, and home supports.

Her other son Jackson is just four years old and, while undiagnosed, is showing signs of Autism himself and looks like he may need many of those same supports and more.

"When you have a child that is on the spectrum, you feel really isolated and kind of alone, and it's a really hard path to go on. When we had started our Autism journey with our oldest son Avery, we didn't really have people to connect to so we created our page (on Facebook as 'A Journey for Avery') on social media, and just from there it really expanded."

Through sharing their stories of trials and success with Autism, the Emde family was able to grow a community of parents who are raising their children with similar challenges.

"It is literally Autism that bonds us together because even if you don't have a child on the spectrum, you know someone who does. There's something about wanting to know what happens in someone else's life and what their hard parts are and what their wins are."

If the $40,000 is reached on the GoFundMe page, Katie has promised to shave the hair off of her head to have a little fun and challenge the public, and friends of hers have even stepped up to do the same to stand together with her in support.

After spending so much time at the forefront and trying to help others get the supports they need, Emde said her reaction when she saw that a page had been set up to help her family was a bit of a different feeling.

"It really is weird to be completely honest only because we struggled so much when Avery was younger and felt so alone and then we made this and built this huge community of families, to have somebody to turn around and say 'your kids matter, your family matters, and we want to help you', it's a lot. I'm not a crier and I cried. It's just not something that you're ready for and it just shows how connected we are to everybody and I never knew we could possibly have that."

There is no end date set on the GoFundMe page, but donations of any kind would go towards helping a great family that has been returning the favour long before it was done for them. Katie wanted to send out a large thank you to her husband Landon, her family, and everyone else who has helped build the community that now stands to help the Autism community.