This Saturday, I see the fruition of months of hard work--the Big Country Walk for Autism.
When I moved to Abilene in the summer of 2014 (can’t believe it has been nearly two years already!), my sister’s husband Jud suggested a friend to me, saying she was a part of an autism group here in town.
Back in Lubbock, I had this...geez, for some reason I am getting emotional about this. Sorry. I had this amazing group of friends, a mothers of special needs children group from my church. We had started going to Monterey Church of Christ because of their special needs ministry. Once a month we would get together to have dinner or go to concerts, just talk and socialize, support one another. I miss them a lot, and it was hard to leave because I had found this place where I belonged.
Jud is invaluable because no matter what you need, he has a contact and can help you find it. He is basically an information broker, the guard at the gate of cities in Cyrodiil that can point you toward guilds and quests (video game reference, don’t worry about it). He sent me a friend suggestion of Stephanie, who added me and invited me to the support group at a coffee shop toward the end of the month.
Sign of our times that many important life moments happened in a coffee shop for me.
That meeting was for a non-profit organization called REACH for a Difference. Over the next couple of years, I got progressively more involved with the group, attending meetings and volunteering to help as time would allow.
I am pretty passionate about community service. I don’t have a lot to offer--we don’t have an disposable income, I am not particularly skilled in any usable area, and time is a precious commodity I rarely find myself in excess of. What I do have is the heart for service, my hands to give. Michael worries I will overextend myself, take on too much. A valid concern admittedly, but I don’t want to look back on my life as a litany of self-celebration and selfishness.
REACH was founded in 2009 with a mission statement of bringing resources, education, advocacy, community, and hope to families and individuals affected by autism in Abilene and surrounding areas. Since they were founded, they have been responsible for community events such as Sensory Santa and Autism Restaurant Night Out, as well as bringing Caroline’s Carts to Abilene stores.
Caroline’s carts are special grocery buggies that hold children with disabilities; it comes with a five point harness, brakes, and split hand bar. Grocery shopping can be surprisingly difficult. Gabriel has gotten stuck in the seat portion of the cart before; I had to have the manager of Walgreens help me remove him, which was a decidedly unfun experience. I could place him in the bucket portion, where he can toss out the things he doesn’t think I should get or take bites of he wants with much more ease (-sigh-). This cart makes shopping considerably easier, and taking Gabriel to the store more of a reality.
Sensory Santa was a wonderful, wonderful event that I wish I had written a blog post about. Michael was Santa, and he was so good with the kids. There was a trolley ride to this gorgeous outdoor venue strung with lights, and a little platform that held Santa. The kids could come up to him as they were comfortable, sit with him or next to him on a bench. A professional photographer took the most poignant candid pictures.
I will have to make sure this year to blog about it, though I am not sure I can capture the magic. This coming from a mother that could never do meet-Santa before with her children because Gabriel would not be able to tolerate the sensations of it all.
At the end of the year, REACH voted me on to join the Board of Directors.
In previous years, AutismSpeaks hosted Walk Now in Abilene as a fundraiser. There was a committee here that handled the planning and organization, and AutismSpeaks would pay for certain aspects and show up the day for the event from wherever they are nationally located. There seems to be a divide--some love AutismSpeaks for the work they have done raising awareness, their research, and the resources they provide parents. Others dislike the language they use and their efforts to find a cure, saying that autism doesn’t need a cure because it is not a disease.
Regardless of how anyone felt about AutismSpeaks, they pulled out of our region this year. Abilene is a small community and was not bringing in quite the funds of larger areas. I believe they are also making a push toward digital walks, where you use pedometers to track distance and get sponsors to donate per mileage, as opposed to an actual formal event.
REACH was approached by the committee that had planned the walk in the past and asked if we would like to host it this year.
It is sort of an enormous undertaking, and we were given around five months in which to do it. Of course, they didn’t just dump all of it on us and ditch--we retained the committee which had members representing (I believe) 15 different organizations from Abilene.
I love the whole concept of the walk because it is local money, local agencies, helping local families affected by autism--a community coming together for a cause. Before when AutismSpeaks hosted the event, they took the money donated and it went into the national organization’s funding. None of it came back to specifically help anyone here.
Their goals are future-oriented; research, causation, cures. Speaking as a mother with a child on the spectrum...that isn’t what I really want or need right now. Noble goals sure, but that is not going to help me or my family survive another day. Maybe my views are too short sighted, but I think that is why we need both groups--one to help in the now, and one to look out for the future. REACH is the now.
With REACH at the helm, 98% of the proceeds will be utilized to help families and individuals right here in the Big Country area.
We call it the Big Country Walk for Autism because it isn’t just going to Abilene--the Big Country comprises of 19 counties in the surrounding area.
The remaining 2% will go to the national Organization for Autism Research. They are so great; they send free literature to families and schools. You should check them out:
I got involved with the walk committee I guess in January. That sounds about right. I jumped on as registration coordinator--I am in charge of writing up forms and overseeing the registration process, from participant’s releases to team formation, things of that nature. It just felt like a good fit for me. I have also taken on a secondary role as volunteer coordinator until the day of the walk when I will hand it off to someone else. Sara (the president of REACH, and my very dear friend) would argue this, but I best describe myself as the grunt, the go-to. Anything really that needs to be done, whether it is writing “I made a difference” on hundreds of wristbands or email correspondence with every single person in Abilene, I am your girl.
That is our slogan for the walk this year, by the way. “I made a difference.” It is written on the back of our t-shirts and on the wristbands we wear because every single person that participates is making a difference. The money raised might not be much on a national scale, but here in our small community, it can do so much good, so much more than what AutismSpeaks can make of it.
I polled the support group of families affected by ASD, as well as a separate survey for committee members, and a third at a roundtable discussion. We then took the composite scores of the three surveys and that is how we decided where funds raised from the walk would be allocated.
It will go toward helping pay for therapies that insurance doesn’t cover. Go into classrooms to pay for resources the school district can’t afford. To events that bring the community and autistic individuals together in a common, safe place. Respite for overworked, unpaid, exhausted caregivers. It will go to the areas that families--parents, siblings, grandparents, guardians, individuals--are hurting the most, and need relief.
The Walk is this Saturday; registration starts at 9 am, the walk from 10 am to 1 pm. There will be resource vendors with child-friendly activities at every table, emergency personnel and a “boo-boo station”, many food trucks, the Wylie Belles presentation, ROTC presentation of arms, costumed characters (including Gabriel’s minion friend up there).
It is more than just a fundraising event, however.
When your baby is little and you are a stay-at-home mom...no one tells you how crushingly isolating it is. How you will never be alone, but never be more lonely; how you will wish the mailman will stay a few extra minutes to chat, or you'll consider letting the travelling salesman in so you can have adult conversation, just for a little while.
When I think of how to describe what it is like to have an autistic child, that is what I think of. It is such a solitary journey. So many days, you feel like you are the only person in the world that is going through this.
This walk is about coming out and saying: You are not alone. I am here with you. I will stand by you; I will walk with you.
You don’t have to go on this journey alone.
--Andie
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