For those of you who live locally, I wanted to let you know about a special night devoted to Autism Awareness by the Harrisburg Senators (for you non-Harrisburg area residents, that’s our local baseball team).
This event will take place on Saturday, July 25th at Metro Bank Park on City Island, with the gates opening at 5:30 pm and the game scheduled to begin at 7:00 pm. The team will be wearing specially designed puzzle piece baseball caps which will be auctioned off with the proceeds benefiting the Greater Harrisburg Area Chapter of the Autism Society of America.
Keystone Autism Services has joined with the ASA to support this event and will be there providing information on autism and on the various supports and services available to individuals. KAS has recently launched an amazing pilot program to provide support services to adults on the autism spectrum, called the Adult Community Autism Program. I’ll share more on this later, as it is an incredible step forward for the state of Pennsylvania and for the adults in our region who are living with autism.
In addition to promoting awareness for autism, there will also be a family picnic and wiffle ball game before the Senators play and the opportunity for the kids and siblings to run the bases after the game! Food can be brought into the park for children on special diets as well. More information and registration info is available at autismharrisburg.org.
Thank you to everyone who left get well wishes on my last post about having contracted scarlet fever. After a few days of resting and antibiotics, I am on my way to feeling better. I was even able to log a couple of hours of work from home today, although getting myself up and into the office was beyond what I could do!
I finally got the pictures from our ASA Christmas party downloaded and wanted to share a few. Our local chapter (Greater Harrisburg Area Autism Society of America) does several large family events throughout the year, and this is one of the best. Santa brings a gift for each child (including siblings), and it is always a fun time of catching up with other families and enjoying the holiday season.
Here’s Michael with the Head Elf:
Smiling big for Santa and Mrs. Claus:
Opening his Speed Racer Legos that he “didn’t know he wanted” – i.e. they weren’t on his Christmas list but he loved them:
And trying out karaoke for the first time with a rousing rendition of Jingle Bells:
Obviously not everyone who attends a big event like this enjoys being around lots of people with its activity and noise, but the volunteers and board members work hard to find a way for everyone to participate and enjoy the afternoon, and no one has to worry about other people judging their child’s ways of expressing either happiness or displeasure. We have all learned to expect the unexpected, and sometimes the unexpected is that everyone has a great time!
