BRATTLEBORO — The BLUE Project wants to spread the word about autism.
On Saturday, April 11, at the River Garden and Latchis Theatre in Brattleboro, Health Care and Rehabilitation Services (HCRS) is presenting a free family-friendly event to promote autism awareness.
The BLUE Project will feature an assortment of activities designed for children and teens with autism and their families.
“HCRS has an annual golf tournament that raises money for autism awareness,” says Michelle Emery, HCRS therapeutic activities coordinator. “With the money raised from that event, this year we have initiated a day-long series of activities for people on the autism spectrum and their families.
“We also want to educate the community about the resources and services in our area. We are calling the day The BLUE Project, because blue has been a special color associated with autism, rather like pink for breast cancer or red for AIDS.”
Activities will include a Vermont wildlife display from the Vermont Museum, performances by Grammy-award winning musician, entertainer, singer-songwriter and storyteller Tom Chapin, and a tap show from the Theater Adventure Program of the New England Youth Theatre.
There will also be face painting, arts and crafts, a raffle, and food catered by Tristan Toleno. Multiple vendors will be onboard with activities for both children and adults, along with information about autism. Radio personality Fish from WKVT-FM will be the master of ceremonies for the day.
Registration begins at 11 a.m. Families can participate in hands-on activities and tour educational vendors from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m., the Theater Adventure Program will perform at 12:30 p.m., and a sensory-friendly concert by Chapin will be held at 1 p.m. at the Latchis Theatre.
Participants may register at The River Garden from 11 a.m. until 12:30 p.m., to receive free tickets to the show.
“We are asking for a people to donate a non-perishable food item for the Brattleboro Area Drop in Center, and you get free popcorn for the Latchis concerts,” says Emery.
The BLUE Project has also invited vendors to provide information appropriate for people on the autism spectrum, as well as their friends and families.
“And the vendors will give away freebies,” says Emery. “For instance, Against the Grain will be teaching how to decorate cookies. To encourage people to visit these vendors, we created a passport that each booth will stamp. When it is filled, you can drop your passport in a raffle box so that you might win a prize.”
Among its prizes, The BLUE Project will be raffling off an iPad, as well as gift certificates from New England Adaptive Equipment, which produces custom-made weighted blankets, vests, comforters, and sheets to assist individuals with autism and other sensory issues.
The highlight of the day will be the hour-long concert by Chapin.
In a career that spans five decades, 23 albums, and three Grammy Awards, Chapin has pursued parallel careers as a contemporary folk artist and pioneer in the field of children's music. He has acted on Broadway and worked in films, television, and radio.
Chapin grew up in a musical family and first began performing as a teenager in the early 1960s in Greenwich Village, alongside his brothers Harry (of “Cats in the Cradle” fame) and Steve. In 1971, he began a five-year run as host of the Emmy Award-winning ABC-TV children's series “Make a Wish.”
Tom Chapin launched a solo career in 1976 with Life is Like That, the first in a series of albums that established him as a storyteller and entertainer, with a talent for engaging the hearts, minds and imaginations of young listeners with witty, life-affirming original songs.
He also serves as the narrator of a series of children's books, three of which have won Grammy Awards in the Best Spoken Word Album for Children category.
Chapin's concert for The BLUE Project is for all ages and ability levels, but addresses the unique needs of those who experience sensory overload at traditional concerts. An environment is created where children on the autism spectrum or with learning disabilities can feel at ease and fit in. The volume is turned down, the lights are turned up, and standing and dancing are encouraged.
Entertainment is only one facet of the mission of The BLUE Project. The other is education, providing information about the realities and misconceptions of autism.
To further this goal, one booth on Saturday will be manned by Jim Olson, director of the BEL Center of Southern Vermont, which provides a variety of skills-based social and emotional services to youth and their families in the Brattleboro area.
“I suppose I am providing a clinical presence at the event, and to give basic information about the autism spectrum,” says Olson.
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication, and restricted and repetitive behavior.
As more and more people are being diagnosed on the autism spectrum, people who fall under this rubric can range greatly, from persons with minor social difficulties to those who are nonverbal with severe learning disabilities. This disparity causes problems.
“Labeling is sensitive,” says Olson. “Recently psychologists consider Asperger's Syndrome no longer as a separate disorder but under the the label of autism. Consequently, many high functioning people are now considered autistic, a term that can be unsettling for some.
“All people with autism struggle in the social arena, but in very different degrees and ways,” continues Olson. “In higher levels people may suffer anxiety. At the other end of the spectrum, we find people with low levels of cognitive function, with IQ as low as 50 or 60.”
Olson writes at the BEL Center website (www.belcentervt.org): “We recognize that trying to capture a broad range of individuals under this one label is impossible. Our goal is to work with individuals; labels aside. We will work with the full array of strengths and challenges that present themselves with a clear goal of increasing that individual's access to the fullest life experience possible.”
Olson told The Commons, “I refer to the people I work with however they like to be called. If they prefer Asperger's, I still use that term.”
Olson explains that autism is a complicated diagnosis to make, which is done by psychologists after a significant amount of testing. Diagnosis rates for the autism spectrum may be increasing, but it is unclear if more people now have autism or if health care workers have become more sensitive in diagnosing the disorder.
Scientists still are unsure what causes autism, but increasingly the answer seems to be biological rather than social.
“Long ago, people blamed the mother for autism,” says Olson. “Other theories had it that the disorder was the result of vaccinations or diets. But now most researchers believe that a person is born with autism. Much recent evidence has indicated that the disease is passed down genetically.”
While HCRS hopes the The BLUE Project will begin to clear up many misunderstandings about autism, people on the autism spectrum belong to only one of the many communities for which HCRS provides services.