By Brooklyn Dean
Sunshine and smiles filled downtown Defiance on Saturday, September 12, as local residents, college volunteers, sponsors and families gathered to celebrate, learn and show support for Buckeye’s Roofing and Exteriors Autism Awareness event. This event was designed to provide the community with a mixture of neurodiversity, inclusion, and acceptance through multiple fun activities for all ages.
Activities included bounce houses, games, a dedicated sensory room, face paint, food trucks, raffles, a clothing tent and more! Volunteers helped hand out raffle tickets despite the horrible math skills, they engaged in conversation with everyone and even jumped into a pink panther costume to have fun, entertain and engage with our friends who showed up!
Autism awareness is not just for those with autism and the families of autistic individuals, but for society to understand that much of what they know about autism comes from a false narrative; learn about individual experiences with autism through observation or interactions; and to accept individual differences for the autistic communities support system, internalized beliefs that individuals may have about themselves and their success in the world.
Roofing for a Purpose’s tagline, ‘See the Able, Not the Label,’ captures the full personalities, potentials, and talents of individuals with autism, instead of being blinded with the medical diagnosis of autism. This tagline also encourages everyone to stop and listen to self-advocates. Their needs, perspectives, and experience with autism are valued over those with outside assumptions that lack understanding.
According to the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, “Autism is a developmental disability that affects how we experience the world around us and it has always existed, in every community.” Autistic individuals show creativity and sensitivity differently, compassion and interests differently and they present themselves differently to the world ASAN explained. Sure, people with Autism can have personal struggles, but we all do.
“See the Able, Not the Label!”
All photos courtesy of Brooklyn Dean