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| Puzzle piece created by the daughter of a dear friend |
This week I replaced my porch lights once again with blue
bulbs in honor of World Autism Awareness Day. I “Lit It Up Blue” to shine a
light on autism. But this year, wanting to go a step (OK several steps)
further, I made a plan to Light It Up Blue at the kids’ elementary school as
well.
I got permission to do an Autism Awareness display in the
lobby. I was thinking strings of blue lights, an informational bulletin board
and maybe an art project with puzzle pieces for the kids to decorate. But when I sat down
with the person in charge of lobby displays, she didn't think my idea of asking
the teachers to do an art project would fly. It’s close to standardized test
time. Preparations are under way and teachers simply don’t have time
for anything extra this time of year. She suggested sending home puzzle
pieces for each of the school’s more than 500 students in
their weekly “boomerang folder” with an informational sheet on autism attached.
I thought it was genius. The kids could participate if they chose to without
burdening the teachers and I could get an autism fact sheet in the hands of a
lot of parents. But I hadn’t really planned on personally cutting out more
than 500 puzzle pieces (and I wasn't entirely sure it was even possible in the time I had available). I told her I’d think about it overnight, but who was I
kidding? Of course I was going to do it
I made a plea for volunteers and gave out puzzle pieces to
cut in packs of 25 to everyone who offered to help. And then I started cutting.
Over four days, I cut puzzle pieces pretty much non-stop. I not only cut them while I watched TV, I cut while the girls
roller-skated at Lucy’s birthday party, while the kids and I waited for dinner at our favorite local restaurant and while I got my hair colored. Truth be told, the act of cutting the puzzle
pieces, in itself, raised awareness—at least in my little corner of the world—with
all the explaining I did to the friendly strangers curious enough to ask what the hell I was doing. By the
end of the weekend I had personally cut more than 400 puzzle pieces, Maggie had
cut nearly 100 (I knew she would...once she had given up on trying to save me from myself) and my rag-tag group of the
all-time coolest volunteers on the planet had cut 250. It was enough to put one in the hands of every
kid at school and still have enough left over for the preschoolers and the
extended-care kids to do a project with them.
I put up the display along with a few puzzle pieces
decorated by the Crandler kids and my intrepid volunteers and waited for decorated
puzzle pieces to come in and fill up the rest of the board. The more that came
in, the better it looked. My sweet friend, Sandra, who has personally stapled
dozens of these sublimely unique puzzle pieces to the bulletin board, said it’s
the wall that love built. And I couldn’t agree more.
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| Ben's puzzle piece |
Tonight Ben finally completed his puzzle piece for the Light It Up Blue display in the lobby at school. He took one of my blank puzzle
pieces, turned it upside down and drew a face of a man with buck-teeth and a
pencil-thin mustache. Under the buck-teeth he wrote the word Dictionary and
under that he wrote the first 24 words in his pocket dictionary. Under that, he
divided the round part of the puzzle piece vertically and drew mirror images of
mountains which he labeled “Mt. Rainier” and “Mt. St. Helens”. And all around
the outside of the puzzle piece he wrote "LIGHT IT UP" over and over again. It’s completely random, a bit
peculiar and altogether wonderful. Just like him. I wouldn't have it any other
way.
It’s Autism Awareness month and the Crandlers are shining a
light on autism. You can too. Ask me how.
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| Maggie's puzzle piece representing her corner of Ben's world. I especially love that Lego Guy & Scary Clown are among his army of supporters, friends & protectors on this piece. |
For more information about autism:
To donate to Autism Speaks on behalf of Team Heagler: Click here to donate to Autism Speaks on behalf of Team Heagler
I always say this. I try to steer away from being redundant because it begins to appear fake when I say it. BUT, I must say it again...YOU are MY hero. It is no surprise that raising an autistic child is difficult. It does not really matter where they fall in the spectrum. I have several close friends who are currently battling this task. I have noticed that every single one of my friends who are raising a child like Ben give tirelessly to their respective community to raise awareness. However, because I have a view directly into your world via Facebook, I am honored to be a part of most of your efforts in YOUR community. It inspires me. It makes me realize that you never stop. It makes me proud to be your friend. It makes me stop and take a moment to once again appreciate my two children. It is a wonderful thing what you do for Ben. However, it is AMAZING what you do for autistic children all over the world! You are the voice. YOU are the inspiration for every single mom out there trying to raise a child with autism. No one could ever truly understand what you face every single day. Ben's puzzle piece made me cry. I am not sure why. I think it just touched me that as different as all the pieces probably are, his speaks the loudest. YOU are really amazing and Ben is the luckiest kid on the planet (Lucy, too) because he has the loudest voice in his corner....his mom.
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