On April 24, 2021, Els for Autism Foundation hosted more than 300 runners and walkers in the second annual Roots & Ruts Off-Road 5K to celebrate Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month.

The race route went through the North Jupiter Flatwoods, along a certified autism-friendly trail. Participants of all ages and abilities started the race in waves based on their average mile time, which kept the race sensory friendly.

Amanda Gunter, who placed first in the 45 to 54 age category said, “The race was very well organized and so much fun! We are lucky to have The Els Center of Excellence as part of the Jupiter community. This event helps the rest of the community appreciate the wonderful resources we have right in our backyard.”

This year’s race was especially significant to Els for Autism, as it took place at the tail-end of Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month, a month-long initiative to raise awareness, acceptance, and inclusion of people with autism spectrum disorder.

By Merrick Egber

John Elder Robison – Author, ‘Look Me In The Eye: My Life with Asperger’s’

“I don’t want to be a genius or a freak or something on display. I wish for empathy and compassion from those around me, and I appreciate sincerity, clarity, and logicality in other people. I believe most people—autistic or not—share this wish. And now, with my newfound insight, I’m on the way to achieving that goal. I hope you’ll keep those thoughts in mind the next time you meet someone who looks or acts a little strange.”

Dr. Temple Grandin – Professor of Animal Husbandry, Colorado State University.

“I am different, not less”

Dan Akroyd – Famous Actor ‘Ghostbusters’ ‘Blues Brothers’

“I also have Asperger’s but I can manage it. It wasn’t diagnosed until the early Eighties when my wife persuaded me to see a doctor. One of my symptoms included my obsession with ghosts and law enforcement — I carry around a police badge with me, for example. I became obsessed by Hans Holzer, the greatest ghost hunter ever. That’s when the idea of my film Ghostbusters was born.”

Dr. Stephen Shore – Special Education Professor, Adelphi University, Advisory Board Member

“If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.”

Naoki Higashida – Author ‘The Reason I Jump’

“Everybody has a heart that can be touched by something.”

Dr. Kerry Magro – National Speaker, Advisory Board Member

“Autism can’t define me,  I define autism.”

Kayla Cromer – Actress, “Everything’s Gonna Be Okay”

“Being on the spectrum and having other learning differences, I am used to working harder and have a great drive to succeed. I interpret things differently, which helps with analyzing scripts, engulfing myself into roles, to achieve realism. [It] also drives me to make strong choices.”

Haley Moss – Attorney, Autism Spectrum Award Winner 2019, Advisory Board Member

I might hit developmental and societal milestones in a different order than my peers, but I am able to accomplish these small victories on my own time.

Ron Sandison – Professor of Theology at Destiny School of Ministry. Advisory Board Member. 

“Help people with autism to be included in social activities. By doing this people learn that individuals with autism are like everyone else and desire to have friendships.”

Paul Morris – Assistant, New York Medical College of Human Resources – Advisory Board Member

“I think that it is not only autistic people who need to learn. The people who don’t have autism must learn to understand us and be tolerant”

Andrew Blitman – Tutor and Mentor, Firewalls Centers – Advisory Board Member

“Streams of words

Flow as drops on paper

From the fountain pen,

Their source.

Communication is easy when written,

But when spoken it often feels forced.”

Sue Abramowski – Human Services Professional – Advisory Board Member

“At the end of the day, despite our differences, my [Neurotypical] brother and I complement each other. He serves as a sounding board for when I need to vent, and I do the same for him. He gives me financial pointers, and I give him advice on what to do next when he is contemplating options in a given situation.”

Rachel Barcellona – Pageant Professional – Autism Spectrum Award Winner 2017 – Advisory Board Member

“Everyone has a mountain to climb and autism has not been my mountain, it has been my opportunity for victory.”

Merrick Egber – Administrative Assistant, Els for Autism Foundation – Chair of the Advisory Board

“I used to think, when I was first diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome – a form of autism, about what I can’t do, rather than what I can do, which was a mistake in thinking”

Tony Hernandez Pumajero – Collaborator, Despierta Orlando – Univision TV, Advisory Board Member

“My focus is to continue to advocate on behalf of people with autism, especially adults, for better programs and services that will help them achieve a more independent and greater life. Regardless of the function level, every person with autism has an important role to play as the agents of change that the World truly needs”

Adam Jones – Barn Attendant at Madison Fields – Part of the Madison House Autism Foundation, Autism Spectrum Award Winner 2018 – Advisory Board Member

“When people pursue their interests, especially those that are on the autism spectrum, they have a better chance at succeeding in life.”

Mike DiMauro – UberEats Driver, Advisory Board Member

“We  need to have kindness in this world, we need to have peace in this world, and we need to have forgiveness in this world”

Jim Hogan – Principal Innovation Strategist – Google, Autism Spectrum Award Winner 2020 – Advisory Board Member

“my activism is not about ending Autism, it is about ending cruelty – with a focus on the horrendous cruelty of bullying”

Susan Boyle – Famous Singer – ‘I Dreamed a Dream’, ‘Wild Horses’ 

“There are enough people in the world who are going to write you off. You don’t need to do that to yourself.”

Dan Harmon – Famous Showrunner –  ‘Community’, ‘Rick & Morty’

“We float around and we run across each other and we learn about ourselves, and we make mistakes and we do great things. We hurt others, we hurt ourselves, we make others happy and we please ourselves. We can and should forgive ourselves and each other for that.”

Sir Anthony Hopkins – Famous Actor – ‘Silence of the Lambs’, ‘The Father’

“My philosophy is: It’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am, and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier.”

Daryl Hannah – Famous Actress – ‘Splash’, ‘Bladerunner’

“Life is too short to stress the small things anymore.”

Stephen Wiltshire – Famous Landscape Sketch Artist

“Do the best you can and never stop”

Gloria Mendoza – SAP S/4HANA Technical Quality Manager – 2016 Els for Autism Spectrum Award Winner

“You should see some of the videos I had when I was a child, I was not very socially skilled with the other kids, not showing interests with other people, displaying some of the challenging behaviors that a child, on the autism spectrum, would have.”

Joshua ‘Deersey’ Deer – Assistant Equipment Manager at Lone Star Brahmas/NA3HL Texas Brahmas – 2015 Els for Autism Spectrum Award Winner

“For every tournament, any PGA Tournament Jordan, Ernie and Ryan play in, I always look up bible verses related to golf, and I set them up as character goals,” Deer says, “to help them with their character, and to help them stay positive.”

Hannah Gadsby – Comedian ‘Nannette’ ‘Douglas’

“when I was diagnosed, it just gave me permission to be kinder to myself, to not always take responsibility for being a bit clumsy around other people, and allow me to start to tell people, “I’m clumsy, but I [don’t] mean to be.” And being more open about, “I need you to tell me what I did wrong, and then we can move on from there.”

Dani Bowman – Head of DaniMation Studios – an Animation Company

“Anything Is possible! If I can do it, so can you!”

Xavier DeGroat – Head, Xavier DeGroat Autism Foundation

“I got doubted when I was a kid. ‘You’re never going to meet the Dalai Lama [and] you’re never going to do this or that. That’s the exact kind of thing I don’t appreciate in people.”

Dr. Mary Doherty – consultant anaesthetist, Our Ladies’ Hospital.

“It was only when my son was diagnosed as autistic that everything finally made sense: my unconventional lifestyle and career path, my sequential interests which are unusual in their variety and intensity, my sensory preferences and my absolute need for solitude. Finally understanding that my experience of the world is different from that of non-autistic people allows me to understand my needs and ensure they are met, and at this point I love being autistic and no longer struggle with mental health issues.”

By Merrick Egber

In celebration of Autism Awareness Month in 2017, I wrote a thought-provoking and revelatory three-part series about the history of autism. For this month’s blog post, I decided to summarize what I learned in writing that series.

The first person to coin the term ‘autism,’ which comes from the Greek word ‘autos’ or self – was a Swiss psychiatrist named Dr. Eugen Bleuler (photo featured above) in 1911. He saw a series of symptoms in a subset of what he saw as schizophrenic patients – schizophrenia was another term he coined – that were all related enough to create a new diagnosis. His impression of ‘autism’ was that it left the patient “entirely withdrawn, oblivious to the people around them, and completely self-absorbed.”

When autism became separate from schizophrenia is a debated topic. Some would say it was Soviet neurologist – Grunya Sukhareva – in 1927, still others would point to the much more prominent example of Dr. Leo Kanner, an Austrian child psychiatrist who had a practice in Baltimore, Maryland. There he would welcome an individual from Forrest, Mississippi known as Donald Grey Triplett or “Client No.1” who was the first individual formally diagnosed with autism, though it was called “infantile autism” by Dr. Kanner. Dr. Kanner noticed that Mr. Triplett did not share any of the characteristics of what was considered ‘schizophrenia’ and instead exhibited many unusual traits that he had never seen before but were understood to be autistic.

Around the same time, another Austrian psychiatrist, known as Dr. Hans Asperger was making breakthroughs in the research he conducted on individuals who shared many of the same traits as Donald Grey Triplett. He spent more time with his patients through their stages of living and even opened a school for his specialized clients. It was over a decade after his death in which the variant known to him, and my variant, would be characterized as “Asperger’s Syndrome.” His reputation, however, has been marred by his questionable associations with the Nazis, which I’ve discussed with my co-host Dr. Nate Shanok on the Fore! Autism Podcast – officialized by our Foundation  on the latest episode and one of our favorites.

In the 1960s, one of the foremost theories of why autism existed came in the form of a discredited professor of the University of Chicago named Bruno Bettelheim. Mr. Bettelheim postulated the “Refrigerator Mother theory” which supposed that autism was caused by the lack of proper treatment and care by the mother to the child. While this has fallen by the wayside of mainstream scientific consensus, there are still people, and parts of the world, which believe this theory still holds weight.

It was only after the deaths of Dr. Kanner and Dr. Asperger, in the early ‘80s, when autism would become known as it is now. Movies like “Rain Man,” while an antiquated understanding of what autism is, have helped cement the idea of who a person with autism is in the popular consciousness, and people like Dr. Temple Grandin have helped to show how complex our lives really are. Organizations have sprung up, like ours, dedicated to helping us tell our stories, and to help us live the lives we really want to live, one day at a time.