| | My Fundraising Goal:
$10,000.00 | | | Money Raised to Date:
$37,250.00 |  |
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| Join me in supporting Autism Speaks
| Welcome to my personal page for Autism Speaks. I'm happily married to my wife, Christina, of 18 years and we have two wonderful children, our daughter Avery (10) and son Trevor (5). Trevor has recently been diagnosed with Asperger's disorder. Asperger's is a high functioning form of autism. As an avid runner/triathlete, I've applied for and been selected to run the New York City Marathon for Autism Speaks to support efforts to raise awareness of all forms of autism which includes Asperger‘s and PDD-NOS. The race is November 1st and I’m asking for your support.
Early on, Christina and I became aware that Trevor was struggling with his speech development, social interactions and group situations. At the age of 3, his church based pre-school teacher suggested that we should have Trevor evaluated by the AEA for needs. Through working with the AEA, we agreed on an Individual Education Plan (IEP) for Trevor focused on speech and behavior. We also found that he qualified for participation in the public pre-school program focused on his needs. We felt lucky thinking that all this would prepare him for kindergarten in two years. He made progress through the first year and we felt pretty good about things. Going into the second year, he seemed to step back a little and we grew concerned about whether something else was going on. After numerous doctor’s visits, Trevor was finally diagnosed with Asperger’s in February of this year. With this diagnosis, it changed Trevor’s needs. Behavior wasn’t the issue, it was neurocognitive. We needed to help Trevor deal with anxiety and processing so he could cope with certain situations and learn in a positive way.
Today, we feel we are in a good position for Trevor to start Kindergarten but it hasn’t been an easy road since getting the diagnosis. The problem became how do you help him now that he has been diagnosed. Asperger’s in one child may be very different from the next. Fortunately, Christina is a stay home mother and she would restructure her days to take on the full time job of educating herself on Asperger’s. For example, we found that to console Trevor when he was upset, we needed to be quiet and hold him facing out. She reached out to everyone to find support. She would find parts of the answer in different people until she assembled a team of people to cover all the aspects of Trevor’s needs. He has a Speech Pathologist, Occupational Therapist, Pediatric MD, Physcologist, special needs teachers and even a self educated mother of an Asperger‘s child that comes to our home to work with him once a week. In addition, the entire school system knows who Trevor is and what his needs are. Christina, with the help of this team, wrote a manual on how to work with and understand Trevor. It covers everything from what is Asperger‘s to what he means with certain phrases to how you console him. Everyone involved has been super and has played a key role in Trevor’s future.
While Christina and I have both been very involved with Trevor’s team, if Christina hadn’t had the flexibility to work through all of this, Trevor would probably be in a different place today. We probably wouldn’t even have a diagnosis. This isn’t the way it should be. Children deserve every opportunity to achieve their full potential. I had that opportunity, why shouldn‘t they? To give children with autism this chance, we need to educate the community and teachers on autistic disorders. Early detection is important to getting these children the help that they need.
Running the New York City marathon is a great platform for me to bring attention to autism. I’ve wanted to run this race and have also been looking for the right way to support autism. The NYC marathon’s partnership with Autism Speaks is the perfect way for me to accomplish these two things that I am passionate about. All I’m asking for is your support in creating awareness of the disorders on the autism spectrum. Autism Speaks does this through research, government advocacy and local/national awareness campaigns. I’d like to tell as many people as possible about our story to help create this awareness so please pass this web-site on to others. I’d also like to raise funds to help support these goals. I am required to raise a minimum of $2,600 which we plan to personally fund. With your support, I’m hoping to double or triple this amount. The $2,600 is an easy check for us to write because we feel fortunate to have received all the support we have and just want to give back to help others. We just want the other children, moms and dads to have the same hope for the future as we do for Trevor. With your support of Autism Speaks, we can make this difference.
Thanks for your support,
Steve
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