Skye McNeill had envisioned for most of her teenage years starting a safe, social networking site where children with special-needs could safely meet and interact with children similar to themselves.
She knew, from personal experience, that children, especially those who are somewhat different or isolated for one reason of another, often had difficulties in making at least one true friend.
McNeill grew up watching her brother Zane, who has a speech impediment, struggle to make friends throughout most of his school career.
Realizing not only what he was missing, but also just how unfair and unjustifiable this was, McNeill began to formulate a plan to start a networking site that would help other children in similar predicaments to find friends safely and more easily.
In recent months, her nearly lifelong dream became reality with the successful start up of SkyeTime, “a safe, social networking site for any child that wants a friend.”
Though SkyeTime was originally designed to focus solely on children with special needs, it was almost immediately adapted to focus on all children at the requests of parents that attended informative sign up meetings that SkyeTime was hosting.
SkyeTime is a secure site where personally verified members can connect with one another and chat, post pictures and so forth without being bothered by false profiles or spam. Additionally, SkyeTime also hosts monthly activities so that members can meet face-to-face and can also get to McNeill on a personal basis.
McNeill, at 24, is a graduate of Cal State San Marcos and has a bachelor’s degree in education. She is the daughter of Patrick McNeill, owner of the popular neighborhood sports bar Skybox, and Lori McNeill, a longtime local teacher.
She and her fiancé, James, currently reside in Austin, Texas, though they are regular visitors to Southern California. They are the proud parents of a beautiful and ever-smiling daughter named Ashlyn.
Though SkyeTime is currently based solely in Southern California, McNeill hopes to expand in the near future to other areas as well. Sign up meetings are regularly
scheduled so that more members can sign up. Also in works right now is a letter writing campaign to The Ellen DeGeneres Show started by McNeill and her friends, family and supporters to try to persuade DeGeneres to feature SkyeTime on an upcoming episode.
On May 10, McNeill will be making an appearance at the City of Temecula’s Bully Free Zone Conference at City Hall. She hopes to make a big impact with her
appearance and message on that day and is hoping that local parents will
attend.
This event will take place at the Conference Center at 41000 Main Street in the City of Temecula from 5:30-7:30 p.m. for anyone that wishes to attend.
For more information on SkyeTime please visit http://www.skyetime.com/.
