World Autism Day in Olympia, WA

World Autism Day at the capitol in Olympia, WA was a complete success for me personally and I’m pretty sure for the other attendees of our Autism Day rally. The United Nations declared April 2nd as Autism Awareness Day in 2007 in order to bring the world’s attention to autism and to encourage early diagnosis and intervention.

The day for us began well enough even though the weather did not appear to be cooperating. I was more than adequately prepared for the day with bagels for breakfast on the trip down, Morgan’s fully charged iPod, my fully charged video iPod with a brand newly downloaded action/adventure movie for Morgan to watch during the boring parts, earplugs in case both iPods malfunctioned, GPS for the trip down and video camera to record the event for posterity. First rule of autism - be prepared/over prepared for all possibilities. It's better to be over prepared and early than underprepared and late.

We arrived an hour early as I seriously over estimated how long it would take to drive down and find the capitol. This was perfect as it gave us more than enough time to take a stroll down to the water front at Olympia Park. Morgan was thrilled as he is he always is involving with anything involving parks and water. He skipped ahead, following my directions and kept his promises the whole way. The Gods were indeed smiling upon us.







The days events were actually 15 - 20 minutes late starting, which appears to be par for the course, even for events serving or concerning autism. I'm perplexed why this occurs as often as it does, as the organizers are usually people who themselves have children with autism. It's hard enough to maintain composure while strategizing around your child's particular sensitivities, be it sound, light, crowds or boredom, without also having to force him to endure for what surely appears to be an endless amount of inactivity. Note to organizers - remember who you are working so hard for and to accomodate them, the beneficiaries - not the speech makers and organizers.



The event was hosted by Miss Lewis County - Hannah Ash - who chose 'Embracing Autism ' as her platform and has worked with our kids and did a graceful job as emcee. Arzu Forough - my comrade, hero and founder of Washington Autism Advocacy was honored for her tireless work on insurance coverage for ASD in our state. Legislators were honored for their work on behalf of our kids as well, but none were as moving as the kids that were chosen to speak for themselves. I can only hope that if I continue to work and advocate for my own son that he too will be able to stand and speak for himself with the same level of passion and eloquence.

Overall, I was pleased with the rally and humbled by the tireless work of the children present in the audience and at the podium. I was also inspired and proud of mom, Olympic power lifter and resident of the Pacific NW, Melanie Roach who spoke of her toughest challenge yet - raising a child with autism. Truly puts it into perspective - she stated that training for the Olympics was no comparison.



Even though we had to leave early - 1 1/2 hours was just about my son's limit on speeches - I did video a portion of the day. Please excuse the quality as I am not a cinematographer and we were in the rotunda of the capital which distorted the sound quality and while many school tours were going on at the same time.