March 8, 2010
Fourth graders from Ridgeview Elementary School in Liberty take the stage in "No Such Thing As Normal," Monday night at the Liberty Community Center.
In the first performance its kind, Liberty fourth graders took to the stage in the production “No Such Thing As Normal,” a musical about autism on Monday at the Liberty Community Center. The play was produced by VSA arts of Missouri and funded in part by CVS Caremark, The Jellybean Conspiracy, Autism Alliance of Greater Kansas City and the Missouri Arts Council.
Intended to be an entertaining lesson to peers about autism, the play is intertwined with information about the autism spectrum while the students tell the story of a not-so-typical school field trip to a history museum. Throughout the play, the main character searches for his friend Josh, who has autism. Click below to see photo gallery.
» READ MORE
March 5, 2010
By Toni Lapp
An estimated 1,000 people braved rain and sleet to participate in the Autism Alliance of Greater Kansas City's walk at Unity Village in 2009. The walk will not be held this year.
After years of facing sleet, snow, freezing rains and other elements wrought by Mother Nature, the Autism Alliance of Greater Kansas City will not be organizing a fundraising walk this year at Unity Village in April — Autism Awareness Month.
The event, which had been held since 2003, had drawn over a thousand participants in recent years despite wintry conditions that inevitably developed on walk day. A Unity Village staffer said they were all set to hold the walk this April and had talked with the Alliance about possibilities.
» READ MORE
September 6, 2009
By Toni Lapp
OK, I realize disparaging the boys in blue has become the newest pastime in Kansas City, but hey, sometimes they get it right. But more often, not.
Yesterday Royals Charities and KC Magazine cosponsored a 5K walk/run to benefit Autism Alliance of KC.
» READ MORE
April 22, 2009
By Toni Lapp
After years of operating independently of one another, the Autism Alliance of Greater Kansas City and the Autism Society of the Heartland (ASH) have announced their intention to merge.
The new organization will be called Autism Society of America – Heartland Alliance and will feature a joint board made up of representatives from the organizations’ respective boards.
The announcement was made by Robin Russell, a founding member of the Autism Alliance, at the 6th annual Autism Walk at Unity Village on April 18. Russell was among the group that launched the area’s first autism walk in 2003.
A merger had been rumored for months, and will likely be welcome news to the nonprofit sector. Both organizations are 501(c)3 nonprofits that are run by all-volunteer boards. Both have managed to organize major events that pull in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars.
» READ MORE
March 7, 2009
By Toni Lapp
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the 2009 Autism Conference, organized by the Autism Alliance of Greater KC and the Autism Society of America Heartland chapter.
Keynote speaker Peter Gerhardt’s comments in particular provided food for thought. He noted that he prefers not to use labels such as high-functioning and low-functioning, instead using terms describing how verbal an individual is. He made the point that some folks on the spectrum who can hardly utter a word have learned to lead productive lives, in some cases supporting themselves through microbusinesses (more on that for another day). Thus, he categorizes according to verbal skills, i.e., highly verbal or not verbal.
The labels tend to divide us as a group, Gerhardt asserted. We might agree on issues 90 percent of the time, yet instead focus on the 10 percent of issues that we are divided on.
» READ MORE
