By Esteban Fernandez
For Times West Virginian
Fairmont — Kindergarteners at White Hall Elementary raised $1,600 this week for a nonprofit that provides autism support.
They did it by selling lemonade.
“It’s amazing,” Whitney Price, founder of Unpuzzled Parents Connect, said. “Even if they wouldn’t have raised any money for us, when you talk about creating a world of acceptance, it starts in grade school.”
Last year, Unpuzzled Parents Connect, which is based in Parkersburg, delivered free classroom inclusion kits to White Hall Elementary. Kindergarten teacher Gabrielle Jordan said the kits had a big impact on students. One year later, the children at White Hall Elementary decided to show reciprocity.
“When they told us, hey, ‘we were going to do a little fundraiser for you guys,’ we thought that was incredibly kind,” Price said. “We never would have imagined they would raise that much.”
The kindergarten project was one of several service projects at the school this semester. Jordan said after she and Rogers announced the project, students took to creating advertisements and posters for the fundraiser, as well as perfecting a lemonade combination that wasn’t too sweet or too bitter. Wednesday evening, the kids sold the lemonade from within White Hall Elementary to keep out of the rain.
The community came out in support, Jordan said.
Unpuzzled Parents Connect serves the state of West Virginia, and also Ohio, since the organization is headquartered on the border of the mid-Ohio valley. They connect families who are raising children on the autism spectrum with resources, inclusive events and sensory activities for kids. They also provide therapy and counseling for families. When they came to White Hall Elementary, they provided the school with over 200 books so every child could receive one. The kits they provide also teach children to accept and understand their peers with autism, and celebrate each other’s differences.
“We try to instill in the kids that it’s not about donating items or donating money and things like that,” Jordan said. “We try to show them that, the greatest impact we can have is not with the money, but with our compassion and our love and our kindness, the way we treat people, the things we do and time we take away from ourselves and give to others.”
Rogers, Jordan’s fellow kindergarten teacher, said any child regardless of disabilities or differences, will learn better when they feel safe and loved. Rogers said she tries to instill that sense of security into children as their first introduction to public school. This extends into ensuring children on the autism spectrum receive support as well.
“Just like some kids are nearsighted and they need glasses to be able to see the SMART board or the anchor charts in the classroom, that’s the support they need,” Rogers said. “The same way with an autistic child, may be overstimulated by noise in the classroom. For that child to find success, they may need to wear headphones to cancel out some of the noise.”
Price said West Virginia as a whole is one of the lowest in the nation for both resources and funding for the disability community. A report commissioned by the state legislature and issued by the RAND Corp. found the state under funds students with special education needs, and recommended more investment in that area. They also found the state has one of the highest shares of students with special education needs in the classroom.
“The reality is, with us being that far down the totem pole in the nation for funding, we’re not going to change that overnight,” Price said. “So what do we do about it? How do we use those resources we have to our advantage? And some of that is simply going out and educating people on autism and differences.”
Unpuzzled Parents Connect is trying to cover some of that deficit by connecting families to resources they didn’t know were out there. Price said some solutions are things that don’t cost a lot of money but make life easier for children on the spectrum. April is Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month, she said. Last year, the organization impacted 4,000 students with their classroom kits, this year they doubled that amount.
“The biggest and most important thing is they were having a conversation about children with autism and children with differences,” Price said. “Again, that’s how we go back to creating that vision and world of acceptance we want for our kids…as a parent to a child that’s autistic, that’s everything you want and more.”
Read more from Times West Virginian, here
