Say Hello…

Saying hello is good for everyone.

There is even such a thing as World Hello Day. Celebrated each year on November 21, it provides everyday folk with an opportunity to express their concern for world peace. Participants greet 10 people or more as an expression of the importance of personal communication in preserving peace. Saying hello is a pretty good starting point for understanding each other better. Besides (without sounding like a complete hippy) if it gives off some good vibes, and is likely to make you feel better, then it’s probably worth doing more often. We probably all need a bit of reminding to say hello though…

A person saying hello can lead to many things.
At the very least – you might get a smile or nod, an acknowledgement that you have been seen.
At best – it can result in a conversation, a laugh or connection that may even lead to something more.

However, you may not wish to connect with every person out there so we thought it might make it easier for everyone involved if we put Say Hello on a t-shirt, to identify the wearer as someone you really should say hello to.

Put a Say Hello tee on a person who has difficulty communicating or is non-verbal and it’s even more useful. For one, people might be encouraged to take the first step and acknowledge them by saying hello. Society in general finds it pretty hard to accept and value the contribution of the intellectually impaired among us, and, being a parent of a child with an intellectual and physical disability, you spend a lot of time speaking and advocating for your child. You’re a kind of shock-absorber in a way, taking the hits and trying to smooth out the ride and you need to have a pretty thick skin. If a message as simple as Say Hello put on a Tee can be received and translated into a make-your-day (as opposed to ruin it) interaction then it’s worth a try I reckon..

We accept and love our Frankie the way he is, and can really relate to this idea of radical acceptance. I guess there’s not much of an alternative really, but we are thankful to him in many ways for challenging us, and taking us there. As well as the not so helpful encounters we get when out and about with Frankie, we also get the gems. They’re the people who really notice and engage with him and manage to see past his disability to the awesome little buddha that he is.

People with Angelman Syndrome tend to have a happy disposition and a pretty heavy fan-base around them because of their sweetness. If you said hello you would no doubt get a big smile, and then some. If you said hello to Timmy, you would probably get a hug too. You might even see that he has a lot to offer.

We would like to think that if people gave themselves an opportunity to challenge their assumptions about people living with intellectual disability it would be a good thing, for everyone.
You can only really do that by getting to know someone better and saying hello is a pretty good starting point. It also happens to be on a whole bunch of Tees that I need to sell, so you should probably purchase one.

Anyone can wear a Say Hello Tee.
Friendly teenage girls seem to like them too.
You can wear it however you like, tight or loose, grey or green we don’t discriminate.

Tees SOLD OUT