Think Autism. Think Cure. WALK.

Today as our local chapters 1st annual Autism walk. There were over 700 people and there was over $20,000 raised! It was great! We had a wonderful time. We walked, we visited, we went to vendors and booths, and therapy centers. There were local vendors there with gluten free casein free foods and samples and recipes. There was a game room for the kids with prizes, door prizes, local radio station and TV station. We ran into tons of people that we knew and met so many more. At one point Ben starting getting really nervous and lost his track of communication and started flipping out. Next thing I new one of his speech pathologists was right there next to us with a PECS book for him to look at it. It calmed him right down. Later as we were walking through the mall we ran into his lead speech pathologist on the Autism team. Right there in the mall she got down to eye level and talked to him about his airplane. It was great! :) We came home with a bag full of fliers and pamplets and goodies and a stack of business cards, phone numbers, and email addresses. We are going to get Ben started on music listening therapy. He would use special headphones and listen to special cd's twice a day, each CD for 2 weeks at a time. He normally doesn't like things over his ears but as soon as we put the headphones on him and he started listening to the music he completely stopped and stood there calmly in the middle of a very crowded loud mall. It was ready to sign on the dotted line at that point! :) As we were roaming around the mall a man came running up to me calling my name. He looked familiar but i couldn't quite figure out why. His little boy is in Ben's class at preschool, and is autistic as well. Ben and the little boy (don't want to put his name online) recognized each other immediately and Ben even said his name. I was so excited that Ben knew who it was and what his name was! Another friend! We are going to set up some playdates with them, and a few other families as well! All in all it was an amazing day. I have never seen so many people and such chaos, and such love and acceptance and understanding. The whole family settled right in quickly and nobody felt out of place or embarressed. I noticed that the kids didn't even apologize for some of Ben's social no-no's and didn't feel the need to explain it to others. Everyone was comfy! AAAAAHHHHHH home! :)
And the money raised is amazing! For the first walk ever in a small community...WOW
Below is the link to our local news channel with a story and a video from the walk.
Walk for Autism 2008