Another piece of the puzzle
By AUBRIE GEORGE
The Cherry Hill Sun
9/11/2009

A mother from Moorestown and a toy store in Cherry Hill are teaming up to promote awareness of childhood disabilities.

Susan Ambrose, a Moorestown resident whose 7-year-old son Anthony has cerebral palsy, created the product – a ribbon-shaped floor puzzle comprised of 36 pieces that can be put together to make up the colorful autism awareness ribbon, and The Learning Express is carrying it.

Both are aiming to promote autism awareness and to raise money for the disability. Chris and Kevin Mignatti, brothers who own The Learning Express’ Cherry Hill locale, said the puzzle is a good chance for them to reach out to a number of their customers who have children with autism.

“It’s nice for us to be able to support this cause,” Chris said. “We’ve had several customers come into the store who have children with autism, so if we weren’t aware of it before, we are now.”

The autism awareness puzzle is the first venture under Ambrose’s company – Puzzles for Cures – which was created to help raise funds and awareness for specific childhood disabilities. A portion of the proceeds that the puzzle sales incur is donated to the Autism Society of America.

The Mignatti brothers said getting involved with this cause was a great way to help out in the community.

“One of our missions is to get give back to the community and get involved with charitable organizations,” Kevin said. “So this was almost a no-brainer.

To further their charitable mission, the brothers are not making any profit off of the puzzle they sell in their store and are donating all of the money made to Ambrose’s organization.

Regional Partner for The Learning Express, Steve Kessel, said Ambrose’s autism awareness puzzle is something The Learning Express is looking to expand on throughout the company.

“We’re really excited about the cause,” Kessel said. “We’d like to help out and raise money for the cause. The Mignatti brothers are really interested in helping out in the community, and we’re really interested in taking this to the next level.”

When creating the puzzle, Ambrose had in mind a tool that schools, therapy facilities and parent groups could use in order to raise money for therapies, professional seminars and activities for children with autism, while simultaneously raising awareness in the community, she said.

“We hope our puzzle can help raise funds and broaden awareness while providing children with a fine motor activity that is fun,” Ambrose said.

Ambrose came up with the idea for a puzzle and approached her father, a woodworker for almost 40 years, who created the first prototype that launched the product.

With permission from the Autism Society of America to use the patented awareness ribbon, Ambrose began selling the puzzle at various autism walks and fund-raising events.

It was then that the idea evolved into making a floor puzzle that could be sold at various toys stores and learning and therapy facilities in order to spread awareness about autism as well as offer a product to help develop fine motor skills.

“Just to see the boxes on shelves is autism awareness,” Ambrose said.

Ambrose approached the children’s toy manufacturing company Melissa & Doug with the idea, they agreed to manufacture the toy and Ambrose hit the pavement to ask local stores to carry her puzzle.

Each puzzle is packaged in a brightly colored box with a side label that lays out various facts about autism in order to increase awareness and understanding of the disease.

“Having autism is not a visible thing,” Ambrose said. “It’s almost like if it’s visible it’s acceptable, but with autism other kids are wondering ‘why is that kid different?’”

With success of her first puzzle on the horizon, Ambrose isn’t stopping there.

“I want to do a whole line of puzzles to raise awareness for different childhood disabilities,” She said. “Of course I want to hit them all – juvenile diabetes, cerebral palsy – all of them.”

Each product will also raise money and promote awareness for each particular disability as well.

“I just think this whole world needs to pay attention,” Ambrose said. “My goal is to have a whole line of puzzles for different things I would like people to be aware of. I can’t change the world, but if I can make people are aware of something – that’s the best I can do – as a mom.”

The Learning Express is located at 929 Haddonfield Rd. More information about the store can be obtained by visiting their Web site, www.cherryhill.learningexpress-toys.com.

Residents interested in using the autism awareness ribbon floor puzzle to raise money for their own group can contact Susan Ambrose at 220-0404.