Thursday, January 31, 2013

Spreading the (Fragile X) word at an autism event


Last Saturday, a few of us from the Fragile X of Minnesota group manned a booth at an autism activities exhibit here in the south metro, to spread awareness about Fragile X and its connection to autism.

I've attended this event for the past several years but this is the first time we've had a Fragile X booth there. And this year wasn't as busy as I've seen it.  At no time was there ever anything you could call a "crowd."

But, we did get to talk to lots of people about Fragile X.  I had 25 copies of handouts of tips especially for educators working with children with Fragile X, and only came back home with two of them.  23 people who work with kids with special needs were interested enough in Fragile X to read up on it.  Others who'd never heard of it, now have.
 


Directly across from our booth was the booth for disability services for our county, and they came over to see our information, too.  They took a brochure and we chatted extensively.  Zack and AJ's preschool teacher and their current teacher are two of the organizers of this event.

My group of Minnesota moms and a dad and a grandma and a couple of sisters had a great time volunteering there, meeting people, passing on our vast knowledge, showing off our pictures.  When there wasn't anyone there to talk to about Fragile X, we chatted amongst ourselves.

We have such amazing moms, dads, sisters, brothers, grandparents, and friends of people with Fragile X in Minnesota.  Over and over, I'm touched and thrilled by their enthusiasm and their loving, giving hearts.

I'll tell you this.  Fragile X, as a whole, is devastating, but it has brought the most wonderful people into my life.  This picture is just a few of them.

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