As parents of a child with autism, there was no acceptance and antibiotic cure. There was a long process of understanding. First, there were questions that we shrugged off with denial - "why does he not ask for food?", "its strange that he will let anyone hold him". Then there were meetings with a specialists… "Look, he can turn on the light switch", "See, he does know his name". Opinions from specialists varied greatly. Some would tell us what we wanted to here; others would tell you what you feared. After years of struggle, the "tough love" moment came when reality out weighed denial. Denial was not gone, it was just on the ropes and sucker punched us for years with every "normal behavior". But now we knew and once you know you have to do something!! You have to do everything!!
And this is where we will start our mission for "Hike4autism". It is our mission to support bring the communities together to support autistic people and their families. It is our goal to raise money to support programs that will educate, INCLUDE, and support the autistic community and their families. While we are raising money we hope to enjoy the outdoors with our neighbors and connect our communities.
We know first hand that there are very few recreational sport programs or after school activities for an autistic child. Autism is lonely. Whenever possible, time after school should not be spent an iPad or YouTube. We will support programs that include, and interact love our families and we will help. There are already programs that exist to include people on the spectrum. It is our goal to fund them and make them bigger, more effective and accessible to everyone!
