We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christine Faressa a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Christine, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

Thank you so very much for this opportunity to share my story. It really began with family and a need.

Our son, Domenic, was diagnosed with autism at age 3. At that time, my husband, Mark, and I knew nothing about autism except these children had no friends, were not invited to birthday parties and frequently were bullied.

Clearly, there was a lot we didn’t know. So, while researching we also realized that we had a very hard time going out to dinner. Domenic experienced sensory overload and simply would not sit still. Mark and I knew we couldn’t be the only family struggling to enjoy something many took for granted.

With the help of long-time friend, Abbi Nelson, we came up with the idea of a Supper Club as a judgement-free place for families with autistic children to enjoy a meal out. Our kids are the light of our lives … our Sun, Moon & Stars and the name came to fruition.

The Sun, Moon & Stars Supper Club was so well received, we quickly realized so much more could be done. Any events and activities that were labeled, ‘Sensory Friendly”, were quite far away with nothing in our immediate area. So, this created a great opportunity for us to partner with local businesses.

Our first ‘event’ partnership was with March Farm to offer a pumpkin picking hayride. We then looked into Christmas activities and worked with the New England Railroad Museum to offer the Autism Friendly Santa Express. We started with 5 to 6 families and now have 35 to 40 families join us at our larger events.

And we have grown so much since with many activities, events and programs for autism families. The Watertown Stars is our adaptive sports program offering soccer, basketball and running. The StarFish Swim Club is our water safety program. Our monthly programs include a parent support group, art club and lego club along with peer social and music groups. Fun events include paint parties, trampoline park events and more. Our goal is happy families and smiling faces each and every time.

The beauty of Sun, Moon & Stars is that it has built a community around our families. My son is always excited to see his friends at our many activities. Domenic will always ask if his friends will be there and that is absolutely priceless.

From where we started with his initial diagnosis and our concerns to where we are now is simply extraordinary.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I do wear quite a few hats … wife, mother, sales professional, nonprofit founder, board of education member, mentor. It is a balancing act, which should be considered an extreme sport.

And I often joke that coffee is the lifeblood that keeps it all together. But truly, it’s my husband that does. Coffee may be the lifeblood but he is certainly the backbone that keeps me balanced so that I can do ‘all the things’ as we like to say.

I have served as an Advocacy Ambassador for Autism Speaks along with volunteering for dozens of committees. Currently, I am serving on the Watertown Schools Board of Education.

I have a master’s degree in business administration and a financial management certificate for non-profits. My career is in sales and marketing with almost 3 decades in medical device sales as an Executive Territory Manager.

What sets me apart … persistence is probably my strongest attribute. I will always find a way to get the job or task at hand done. Helping others and connecting people brings me joy and my hope is that it shines through everything I do.

I am most proud of our son, Domenic. He is without a doubt my greatest achievement. I am in awe of his strength and perseverance. Our mission is to help him live his best life possible.

Truly blessed that through out nonprofit work, we can help make a difference in the life of not only our son, but in the lives of other families with autistic children.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Taking the leap from Supper Club/Support Group to Non-Profit …

Water Safety is an incredible concern in the autism community. Children with autism spectrum disorder are 160 times more likely to experience nonfatal and fatal drowning than their typically developing peers (RED CROSS). My son had been taking lessons for quite some time at local facility and my husband and I were not particularly pleased with their level of service. I kept thinking that we could this better. Well, to do it better, we had to find a location and develop our own program. All of which, took time and money.

At this point, we were not yet a 501c3, simply a support group and supper club that ran a few events. So, in late 2018, we had to explore the leap to nonprofit and work on developing an adaptive, water safety program. First step was to incorporate and be approved as a 501c3., which is a LOT different that simply running a support group, etc. Second step, develop a swim program, hire instructors and find a facility. All of which took more than six months, to develop and build with many ups and downs along the way. Finally, the StarFish Swim Club was born.

We have created wonderful partnerships with SwimAngelFish and Watertown Parks & Recreation Department to pull it all together. Since then, we have graduated more than 20 autistic children from our Swim Program with 12 in the program now and many more on our wait list.

It took a need to make that leap into the nonprofit space. It was a great need and even larger leap but we have never looked back.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

An incredible life lesson that my mother had taught me as simply this … “Christine, no one is going to give you anything in this life, you have to work for it.” As an immigrant to this country at a very young age, that was her experience and her reality. Taking this to heart, I completed my college degree while working two and three jobs. I was always searching for ways to be more productive and get ahead. Even completing my MBA while 7 months pregnant and working full time. It was always about my efforts, drive and determination.

This work ethic followed me into Sun, Moon & Stars. We have an amazing board and each person brings something unique to the table but delegating was incredibly difficult. How do you duplicate yourself? You simply cannot, but you can learn to let go and allow others to play to their own strengths. It has made a huge difference in my time management and has allowed me to further network, collaborate and build partnerships.

I was also very protective of what we had built for our autism community but I had to re-shape my thinking. There are so many other amazing people doing great things for autism families. It is not just about what Sun, Moon & Stars is doing, that is only one small part of how we are helping our community. I decided to reach out to other local nonprofits and autism moms that are like-minded and making an impactful difference. We now run a quarterly dinner meeting for “autism moms that make it happen’. We laugh, share and work together to support one another in incredible ways. Our collective network and reach has grown with the idea that we are ‘better together’ by sharing, caring and collaborating.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sunmoonandstars.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunmoonandstarsinc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SunMoonAndStarsInc/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-faressa-mba-a133bb29/

Image Credits
Mark Faressa (husband) Domenic Faressa (Son)