by Santiago De La Torre –

1st Annual Grant A Gift 5k Walk for Autism

When walking through Town Square awaiting the autism walk with my son, I tried to capture a perspective of each struggle and each story- I often find these events a time to share similar stories for encouragement and support.

It’s not just the immediate family helping their child through the laborious battle of autism but grandparents, siblings, cousins, friends and so on. It affects 1 in 110 children and treatments are not covered by insurance.

Some of the treatments include speech therapy and behavioral treatments such as (Applied Behavioral Analysis). Raising awareness is important as most of these non-profit organizations do but funding and early intervention is essential for these families.

Many families need a parent to stay home with the child to provide the adequate supervision- for some couples it’s too much and statistics show that 80 percent of marriages end up in divorce.

As the event progresses I hear, actress Meaghan Martin, from the television hit series “Ten Things I Hate About You” mention that her brother has autism. Mark and Mercedes from Mix 94.1 cut the ribbon with the lead team- Team Austin.

This team walked for Austin and in memory of his sister Monica who tragically died in a car accident last month. Monica was 19 years old and did her effort in taking care of her brother and promoting autism awareness. There was a mother that I spoke with after the race- a single mother. Not only did her son Taylor have autism but was physically challenged due to a bad hip. This didn’t stop a determined mother from inspiring her son to finish.

My son Joel did fine on the sunny and beautiful day, finishing his 3 miles with the cheers of onlookers, his mother directed his attention to stay on course. His sister behind him talking to a school friend whom she found out has a brother with autism as well. Joel is now 11 and since his diagnosis at the age of 3, the reminder of what determination and love can do is the ultimate lesson displayed at these events, a truly inspiring lesson for everyone.

© 2010, Santiago. All rights reserved.

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