Reaching Out to the Community
Burkhart Center Sponsors "Hands for Hope Walk" to Raise Autism Awareness
By: Jeremy Schwartz
The Burkhart Center will host the 3rd annual “Hands for Hope” walk at Coronado High School in order to raise awareness about autism.
The Burkhart Center for Autism Education and Research, a five-year-old program located in the College of Education at Texas Tech, will host the event on Sunday, April 13 in an attempt to erase some common misconceptions ab
out autism.
Attendees are invited to come walk around the Willie McCool Track and enjoy several entertaining activities that will be offered on the field inside.
According to the Center’s Web site, the event will also help families, dealing with autism, find resources that they may not know are available.
Robin H. Lock, Ph.D., an associate professor of special education, said that the event transpired from Stacy Poteet, a mother of a 10-year-old child with autism, after she heard of a similar event taking place in Abilene, Texas. This year, she said the Center is expecting between 500 and 600 people.
“We are always looking for ways to highlight the Center so that parents and teachers will know about our services,” Lock said, “and we all thought that Stacy’s initial idea for the walk was a great way to get the word out.”
Stacy Poteet, who works at the Burkhart Center, said this walk has been a dream of hers for a long time and she is extremely grateful that the Center has supported the event and its production.
“One great service the Burkhart Center is providing are shoe tags with emergency contact information and emergency decals for homes,” Poteet said. “We are hoping to educate first responders, such as fire fighters, law enforcement personnel and EMS, in how to approach people with Autism Spectrum Disorder in case of an emergency.”
Carol Layton, an associate professor of special education at Tech, said that these identifiers are crucial for the safety of people with autism.
“First responders need to know the differences in the way someone with autism may react in an emergency,” Layton said. “Preparation may save a life when seconds make a difference.”
According to the Burkhart Center Web site, the overall goal of the Center is to build the knowledge of faculty, students, and parents regarding interactions with students who are autistic and disseminating the knowledge and skills to educators and parents on the South Plains.
Robin Lock, who is also a co-director for the Burkhart Center, said she hopes that all attendees will have a good time, pick up available resource materials and recognize the Center as a place that partners with the community to improve the quality of life for people with ASD.
“We are always looking for ways to expand the community’s awareness of the needs of individuals with ASD,” Lock said. “We feel like this walk is a great opportunity to showcase both needs and strengths of individuals with ASD and their families.”
According to the Center’s Web site, the “Hands for Hope” walk, spanning from 2-4 p.m., will include games, face paintings, jumping castles, resource folders for new families, and the first response seminar.
The funds raised from the walk will go toward a capital campaign to build a permanent facility as well as a residential village for adults with ASD.
For more information about the Burkhart Center or the “Hands for Hope” walk, you can visit their Web site at http://www.educ.ttu.edu/edsp/burkhartproject/.