Dial The Wild
Dial The Wild Podcast is an ongoing discussion with like-minded individuals who have a desire to engage the primal nature within themselves. Topics ranging from Music, Sports, Hunting, Archery, Jeeping, MMA, Comedy, Fishing, etc. what ever dials-in your wild!
Dial The Wild
Ericha Durr - Advocating Autism Awareness
As I recount the highs and lows of a weekend filled with the thrum of live music and the trials of home improvement, while navigating the chaos of a sore leg, you'll find yourself immersed in the raw authenticity of my everyday life. The backdrop of barking dogs and the whirl of kids in motion may usually be trimmed from our episodes, but today, they're front and center, integral to the tapestry of our storytelling. Joining me are Jes, Seth, and Erica, who bring a dose of hilarity and a touch of nostalgia, regaling us with anecdotes from our shared history.
Shifting to a topic close to my heart, Erica passionately speaks about the upcoming Autism Acceptance Walk fundraiser, an initiative that seeks to enrich special education with necessary resources like sensory toys and gym equipment. Our conversation traverses the landscape of parenting a child with autism, highlighting the essential role of structure, noise-cancellation, and unwavering boundaries, while not shying away from the harsh realities of underfunded school systems and the overwhelming need for support from healthcare professionals.
Acceptance Walk, participate in community camaraderie, and potentially discover a new-found love for metal shows, just like one of our guests. We reminisce about our high school sports days, the standout athletes who left their mark, and draw parallels to today's competitive spirit. The episode closes with an emphasis on the collective effort to establish a sensory gym for children with special needs, the gratitude for community generosity, and a reminder of the positive impact your support can have at the upcoming walk event. So plug in, be inspired, and take a step with us towards making a significant difference.
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We'll be right back, okay. So going to that was awesome, and then sunday really sucked because I couldn't move and I still put up drywall my leg up to here. To like here hurt pretty bad my shoulders, fine, yeah, and my hip, oh my gosh. I don't know what I did you're old. I think I threw my hip I think I threw my hip out just going to step anymore well it was, for it was for good reasons that I had to this trans-last God Wars show. Well, it was God Wars show in general.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you can't not dance at hate division.
Speaker 2:Oh, so good, I take it Carly's here Is it working. It's not a Dial the Wild podcast without a dog barking in the background or a kid screaming there you go. Well, they're not running, so that helps.
Speaker 1:I know that you're humans.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the thing is like. Every once in a while I hear they're running up and down the hallways upstairs like okay, time out these are my children. I do a pretty good job of editing most of it out, but Whatever, do you know, seth?
Speaker 3:I don't remember what they said.
Speaker 1:Have you met Seth Erica?
Speaker 2:I'm Seth. You guys are like I'm.
Speaker 1:Seth.
Speaker 2:Did you?
Speaker 1:even know he was alive. He's the last one.
Speaker 2:I'm the little one. Good Lord, if we had all four of us in here with Jackie, the stories we could all tell. Oh my, God. Oh my God, we could all.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, oh my god, that would be phil would be worse, because I could tell every stupid thing we should do it like some kind of like some kind of like fun game like halls versus browns, bushnell something, bushnell trivia or something I'll make it short, but that would be so my favorite phil story right now is we were sitting in rico's and marietta and he's in there, you're bartending, we're all hanging outietta and he's in there, you're bartending, we're all hanging out and stuff.
Speaker 2:And he was talking about like being somewhere after curfew and before he even got home, like Merv is on your front porch and he's out there talking to Bruce. He's like oh yeah, your boy's out there running around again and stuff. And then Phil in all seriousness looks at me. He goes I still to this day don't know why merv knew it was me, how he knew it is like phil, are you serious? He's like what? What do you mean? I was like you, you were jumping, you were jumping fences and shit. You and doug martin were the only two people in town who can, can do that, who can do that?
Speaker 2:And he just looks at me and goes, yeah, I guess that's right. Yeah, that never.
Speaker 3:Never dawned on him.
Speaker 2:Never dawned on you Saw my face. Still is running again Like everybody knows what that looks like High hurdling 300 meters that way towards his house.
Speaker 1:But yeah, could never figure. It never figure. And he was never even out of breath. Half the time he was just like like 300 meter hurdles and then he was just like right, trying to nonchalantly sneak into the house there's on his front step, just oh well that was later welcome to another dial, the wild podcast at.
Speaker 2:I probably shouldn't talk about that. No, I'll save that one for us. Welcome to another Dial, the Wild podcast. I am sitting here with Jess, of course, return guest. We got Seth, who's back? I'm back, I don't know why, but he keeps coming back. Here I am, and we have Erica.
Speaker 3:What's up? How you doing today. I'm good.
Speaker 2:How are you? I am doing fantabulous. So here we are sitting here doing a podcast and then one day I get this message hey, would you mind doing a podcast, Because I got this thing I wanted. I was like that's what my podcast is for. That would be amazing.
Speaker 2:The things you could do with podcasting. So with our work through all the wild production, shows and stuff, it's been pretty handy that we've been able to promote shows and promote people and experiences and everything else and you have a pretty genuine experience yourself being a mom and working and doing the things that you do.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:So what is it that we're going to discuss today?
Speaker 3:We are going to discuss the autism acceptance walk.
Speaker 2:Okay, this is our second year doing it. Okay.
Speaker 3:It's going to be next month, at the end of April.
Speaker 2:Okay, it's going to be here in Bushnell. Right, it is. It's going to be next month at the end of April.
Speaker 3:Okay, it's going to be here in Bushnell. Right it is.
Speaker 2:It's going to be here in Bushnell Um and what is the goal of the autism acceptance walk?
Speaker 3:So basically, what we do is raise funds to buy things for the special education classrooms that are located in the elementary school and the junior high school. Um specifically it's a West illinois special education co-op. Um last year we had like a small goal where we just bought small sensory type toys okay and things like that that they needed, and items and stuff. Um, I wasn't really sure what to expect so, so I started small with that and we actually ended up raising over $3,000 last year.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness and was able to get everything on the list, plus more.
Speaker 3:So we got a bigger goal this year and are actually trying to get equipment for the sensory gym that's in the school. There's a lot of things that I feel are missing. Just knowing my son and seeing it myself and I know you know, being in this small area it's not really things that they'd be able to just go out and buy with the budget that they have and everything that they need.
Speaker 2:Well, and if anybody is saying like, well, there's tax dollars and stuff it's just like okay, go talk to your grade school teacher and ask her how much money she actually spends on her class, because that's not all tax dollars like they actually, out of their own pocket, will go and spend money to make their classes and stuff more exciting right you know. And so when you're talking about sensory equipment, sensory toys, sensory stuff like that, like go ahead and explain what you mean by the category of sensory.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, for instance, one of the items that we have is called a jungle jumparoo, which is kind of like a I would say like a trampoline, but it's very contained and small to be able to be inside and in a room and like, just like, 10 minutes of jumping on, that is, 33 minutes of running for them.
Speaker 3:So, it helps with energy and stuff like that they have. I actually spoke with the teachers and the head people, with the departments and, like I said, I visited the gyms and stuff and talked to them about some of the things that they wanted. There's also like a sensory panel that displays lights and sounds and stuff and reacts off of people's voices, so it kind of teaches kids to talk and use their voices and that that, you know, causes a reaction.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow, so that was something that we're trying to get in to the classrooms too.
Speaker 2:What did you have? Is it similar to like a smart board? Yeah, but it's big yeah, for everyone.
Speaker 3:And then that's another thing.
Speaker 2:We have a projection system which is like an interactive game, where they can actually touch the screen, but it's huge where it can project anywhere, so that's wonderful, yeah so it's a combination of, like the area co-op and our local school trying to figure out what they need and within the co-op and the schools do you have, like professionals, paraprofessionals that you can talk to, you know, with kids in this avenue that you can bounce ideas off of? Is that kind of the goal of the co-op?
Speaker 3:Right, because the co-op isn't just Bushnell kids, it's actually all around the area in McDonough County and they all get bused to these schools every morning. So yeah, there's a lot of of. Everybody has a para in the classroom, and so there's usually, I think, like eight paras in the classroom at least, and then you know the main teacher.
Speaker 2:so, um, everybody's hands on. Yeah, everybody knows what works, what doesn't work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and they've they. They all participated in the walk. Last year the that classroom did all the the paras and the teacher did, and actually this year Bushnell School decided to sponsor all the teachers at the elementary school that wanted to participate in the walk, so they're going to sponsor them for their t-shirts and stuff this year.
Speaker 2:So I'm hoping we'll have even more people participating this year and how many schools are within this co-op in the area that you can think of offhand?
Speaker 3:um, I know there are several kids that come from macomb and colchester area. Um, there's some that I believe, in blandonsville. Um, so I'm not really sure all of the different school districts that are involved. Yeah.
Speaker 2:We, we have a, we have a cousin who has autism and in he spent, I want to say, his high school years at West Prairie and Colchester and I know that they did pretty well with him there and that um sharing just like any other uh group, think of any kind the sharing and wealth of information that you can bounce back and forth off of each other is huge, especially when it comes to topics like this and I'm not going to call it an issue but, like you know, bringing awareness to what it is we can do to to help these kids be um comfortable taken care of comfortable.
Speaker 2:Uh, it's not just you know. You think of. You think of what special education was in some schools growing up, and it was glorified babysitting, you know they weren't, they weren't working with the kids, they weren't um teaching them anything. I'm not talking about our local school district, by any means whatsoever.
Speaker 1:Not at all.
Speaker 2:But you can see where some of them you know.
Speaker 3:And inclusion, too, is a big thing.
Speaker 2:Mental health in this country really did not have much awareness. You know before 20, 30 years ago. You know before 20, 30 years ago it seemed like, whether it was veterans or autism or just folks struggling with anxiety from day to day, we were always told, just to you know, suck it up, shut up, deal with it, blah, blah, blah. And now we're starting to learn as a society that, like, we're all different, right we all have our own flavors.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Something that works for one person doesn't necessarily work for the next, and to bring awareness to something so powerful that would actually help a child grow and grow up at the same time is huge, and so we really appreciate you doing this for the community.
Speaker 2:Absolutely appreciate you doing this for the community, absolutely, and you, if you know, can divulge on on your experience with having a child with autism and right, and maybe some of the struggles that you've dealt with. You know, whether it be personally or at school, or you know just what. What do you, I don't want to say deal with, but what is your experience on a daily basis with you know?
Speaker 2:inspired you to right it inspired you to do this and and then each day, um advocate, advocate for it. Absolutely. Thank you for filling in the words I needed well, it's definitely my kids.
Speaker 3:Well, because a lot of people don't know. Three of my kids are autistic okay um denim is the one that is nonverbal and he's the one that's in the um special education classroom. My other two are actually in the general education classrooms. Um, so he's honestly a big reason as why I jumped into that. I've been doing this for a while.
Speaker 3:Um, a lot of you can see the picture on the flyer that picture is actually a painting of him that's on the side of the school in Florida that school I actually helped fight to get a sensory gem put in the school because the teacher had a sensory gem that she created in her closet in her room just to help the kids because she was such an awesome teacher, she was the best teacher, and they just didn't, they didn't give it to him. So it was a big.
Speaker 2:you know, in in the school a lot of parents don't care enough to well, a lot of kids don't don't have the struggles that you have on the daily with you, know their use of their kids, not listening to them. But, like you, are starting to learn that, like your children aren't listening to you either, but for different reasons right, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 3:So, um, that was you know what made me realize hey, you know, I can actually get things done doing it myself. You know, instead of just accepting that, oh, he just don't have, you know the things that he needs, when you know he, they not just him, you know all the kids, yeah, they're not alone finally, you can actually put something in here that would help so many children in the future actually realize that you know for years to come.
Speaker 1:You don't have to feel this, this rigid, in a normal setting where they're expected to just sit and be quiet and look forward and behave every directional rule that there is. There is another option for well and to piggyback off that it's.
Speaker 2:It's not sending your children to school as glorified babysitters, but that there's actually a way that we can work with these kids that have these needs, that, like, there's actually a way to um connect with them, communicate with them, give them things they can do throughout today so they can actually develop their you know, cognitive senses, rather than just put them on a bus and send them to school, you know, and then have to deal with it later. And coming from a person who knows.
Speaker 1:Because you're a mother, you know you're not a scientist and nothing against scientists and labs and you're doing your research, or like coming fresh out of school, or something you live every single day learning about your children, and you're actually finding things that work with them and for them, and you're doing this for all of us. So this is definitely something worth giving your time and money to. People like yeah, please.
Speaker 3:A lot of people don't realize like it's a lot of work having a kid with autism and then the doctors they don't help you, they just oh. Your kid has autism and Google's gonna be your best friend and that you know you gotta figure out what works.
Speaker 2:So what does your experience look like on a daily basis?
Speaker 3:with? Uh, we eat the same food every single day, sure? Um, he wears headphones for noise. That's all day he sleeps in them. The only time he takes them off is is to bathe. Um, every now and then he'll take them off when he's in his room, when he's feeling comfortable and like in his own, as long as his brother and sister aren't bothering him, and stuff. Um, we do have you know, when he doesn't get something that he wants, he is very vocal and loud. Um, that's something that is worked on on a daily basis. Um, I've put in a lot of work with denim.
Speaker 3:Uh, he actually had aba therapy down in florida, which is unfortunately something he's not able to get here in illinois at this time um, but it it done wonders, like I couldn't even go into a grocery store and him not have like a screaming meltdown issue because we just had to get a car that he wanted. Or you know which I kind of created when I, you know, bought him cars all the time. But you know at which I kind of created when I, you know, bought him cars all the time. But, you know, at a certain point you got to, you know, and then with the other kids, now I got to buy everybody else toys and you know, so it's like okay, we got to stop it.
Speaker 3:And with kids with autism they learn differently, so at first he's like you know hey before me throwing a fit worked, so I must not be doing it enough.
Speaker 3:Let me ramp it up a little bit. So then that's when they just start going crazy. So, um, but it's important to stick with it. And and people, I, if I give any advice for any parent that has a child with autism, I would say, like, stick with your boundaries. And what no means no and yes, you know, stick with all that, because they you know all the grays that we know, like they just don't understand any of that stuff, right so, and we, sorry, go ahead no, it's fine.
Speaker 3:I I feel like, uh, you know, he's just come a long way. He didn't say his first word until he was six years old so he, he's, he's come a long way, that's so great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it sounds a lot like our cousin michael. He's right, non-verbal. As far as I know, he hasn't he doesn't say a lot um words and the just the horror stories of what they had to deal with growing up um trying to get him on a school bus, the him being frustrated and and decking somebody or you know just my son's done that at school getting frustrated, hitting people, you know, and it it.
Speaker 1:They get overwhelmed and then, right, you gotta, and to not have something to help them or any understanding about them is unfair to everybody involved, you know. So this is such a big deal to be able to have these stimulation. Yeah, what would we call these gyms to help kids in every town? And I mean, this is the hub, right, it seems like this is, in our local area, the place that we need to be focused on most in helping children. So, um, do you have the dates?
Speaker 3:uh, again for this location um, the walk is on saturday, april 27th, and we're going to start at four and, like I said, it is in bushnell. We're going to line up at the high school, starting at 3 30. There is a registration fee of 15, but that just covers your t-shirt. Um, those have to be turned in by april 22nd so I can get the orders in on time, so the shirts come in on time, you are able to participate in the walk without paying the registration fee. That is strictly if you want a shirt. There are a lot of people from last year that said hey, you know, we want to do shirts this year, so we took a vote and that's why we went ahead and did the shirts this year. So, with it being the first year, I don't you, you know, know how that's going to be and I don't want people to get turned off from coming out and helping support us just because you know there is a fee, so I want people to know that you know you can participate and help collect donations and things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wear your own shirt, if you want, yeah if you don't have any money but you want to support folks with autism, you can still come and walk Right.
Speaker 1:Still come on out.
Speaker 2:You know, show your support.
Speaker 1:April 27th yes, four o'clock.
Speaker 3:Yes, and we're hoping for great weather.
Speaker 2:It looks like it's supposed to be and we've talked a bit about like some of the negative sides to a child having this, but like what a lot of people don't see when they hear the word autism is like just the beautiful mind these kids actually like. I remember just growing up with michael and this kid's two or three years old. He's separating blocks by color or number or just crazy genius stuff that he would do with his toys, just he just and with his love.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when he wanted to love on you, you were the only person in the world you know, and it was just so much like he's still max on carly loves her to death, loves carly, and so I you know like I can only imagine the amount of you know your mother, right so it's like you get the end of both spectrums people in florida must really really love him as well to paint his face on the side of their school.
Speaker 1:They actually did, but they, they all loved him, his teachers and and all them wonderful yeah we were really lucky to get them, so well, it seems like this town is really lucky to have you to be able to grow something like this for their children. Thank you. So if we're to want a shirt, how would we be able to contact you or get like a registration form or something on that? Okay?
Speaker 3:So I actually have a website set up for that. Um, it is www and it's dtd, which is denim's initials, denim tater. So it's dtd. Autism acceptance walk dot com. Um. If you click on projects, you can find the registration form and then there are options to send payment for the T-shirt. There's also a link that you can click on to get a donation sheet.
Speaker 2:So if you want to go around and get donations from your neighbors, family, friends, coworkers, and those are turned in the day of the walk, co-workers, um, and those are turned in the day of the walk and anybody with any questions can um shoot over a message to dtw, uh, whether it be on the podcast, uh facebook, instagram, uh the email, and I'll shoot all questions, anything straight to erica so she can get you taken care of set up. Absolutely, this is a great cause. I'm excited about this, but what little people know is Erica? Little people.
Speaker 1:What little people do Not this kind of podcast?
Speaker 2:All right my mind went to a really bad place what little people know what little people know important punctuation. So when they were filming the wizard of oz okay, no, I'm done erica was an athlete right here at our bpc high school and elementary. She was all you pretty hall kids were freaking amazing athletes really good athletes for sure, so she's played basketball, ran track what is the softball thing. Softball was your gig, wasn't it? Yeah, softball, yeah. Where were you playing when they were with uh avon, or was that before?
Speaker 2:no, it was before okay, yeah wow, you had the og bpc shirts nice I still have my track jersey, sorry mccance's sorry, they probably bought in three different. Yeah, just a no big deal At one point.
Speaker 1:They were like oh my gosh, everybody just steals our jerseys anyway. We're just going to buy new ones every year and make you guys buy them with lollipops and suckers because we're the track team.
Speaker 3:I think.
Speaker 2:I took mine. Sorry, don't tag them. Did you run track for senior year At the start of it? Yeah, he ran it At the start of it.
Speaker 1:No, Did you quit track for senior year? I quit track for senior year. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2:He didn't want to do it anymore, mom was like I mean, Mom made him Just another reason for DTW listeners to hate football. There's no other reason to do it. You don't like them? No, but you finish what you start. I never wanted to. She wasn't in. I didn't want to start it.
Speaker 1:I wasn't in a 4x4. It was track.
Speaker 3:I ran it by myself I was actually really sad that I had to choose between the two.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hated the idea of not having a chance to play baseball.
Speaker 1:That is such a bummer.
Speaker 2:I was awful at baseball, but I still liked to play it.
Speaker 3:I was good at both, but my dad gave me the choice, of course, run a lot.
Speaker 1:Well, you had a lot of friends and stuff that played softball, though, too, I had friends that did both.
Speaker 2:I think I liked softball a little bit more than yeah, then yeah softball's so cool, yeah, and we ran track with your brother, so we knew what his physical god-given attributes were he was a 200 runner, like me sometimes.
Speaker 1:So I got to the little index cards that the mccants is made for us to be able to do the like. Oh, here are the 200 runners, do everything on this index card. And then Phil just looked at it and just like did it before everybody else did. 20 minutes later, everybody else is finished.
Speaker 2:And then Jackie ran track at Milliken, yeah, and she was about 10 minutes before me.
Speaker 1:So you know in freaking was about 10 minutes before me. You know in freaking holes, yeah she played soccer too. Amazing, did she really?
Speaker 3:Yeah, she was a goalie for them. No, kidding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she did some serious collegiate stuff. She is so badass.
Speaker 2:I just well, because she was at Decatur and I was at Eureka at the time. So she was at Decatur and I was at Eureka at the time, so she was right down the road.
Speaker 1:She did like javelin and everything Didn't she, didn't she. She did all kinds, some kind of like triathlon, catathlon, she'd tell you.
Speaker 2:Oh, she did that. She did steeplechase, didn't she? I don't know. That's like the long distance race where you jump over the hurdle into the water and- whatever, yeah, whatever that is for college.
Speaker 1:That's what she did.
Speaker 2:It was awesome she won a nobel prize. Apparently you choose a monster.
Speaker 1:She just she was awesome to have on a four by anything.
Speaker 2:All you kids were doing just crazy stuff growing up.
Speaker 1:It was a lot of fun four by four, just a dead any four by anything. We're like we're putting jackie in the back and we're gonna win this baby what I hated most about track.
Speaker 2:Growing up I was like when he was going through track, it was just like, okay, what events do you guys want to run? You know, okay, we'll fit you into the ones you want to do. And when we were growing up, it was like, no, we're trying to win this meet, so whatever events you're gonna like place in yeah, like that's what you're running, and I don't know how many times.
Speaker 1:I'm sure there are seniors in track that don't even know that you can win a track event for like as a team, it didn't matter.
Speaker 2:An invitational, a duel, a trial, it didn't matter.
Speaker 1:We're gonna well, the mccants is new.
Speaker 2:They're like we get more funds if we win more events because they start promoting and let people come to our events, and then you know so there was a lot of like when we were in school our all, our all weather track. How good side you're, your most strong you are our all weather track was brand new, so everybody was kind of got excited about track again oh yeah, I will say you were. You were never really where you wanted to go, but that's all about. That was the community too wasn't it?
Speaker 1:that just goes to show you the community has really put in a lot of effort into improving this area.
Speaker 2:It's not all about right, you know, I would love to get a sensory gym in this area yeah I let's keep growing this thing is that something we need a building for, or is that something we can do at our local schools?
Speaker 3:or is that? No, we need a building, okay, so?
Speaker 2:trying to trying to put up a whole new building and and something like that for okay, I see what you're saying there. I mean there's lots of spaces just in town, but trouble is finding the people to talk to you.
Speaker 1:Know anybody or anything about this? Please contact us. We are definitely interested 1-800-GIVE-US-YOUR-MONEY. For our good cause. It is, though.
Speaker 2:No, it's a great cause and we appreciate you coming on and talking about the event itself, the struggles with what you got to deal with on the day-to-day.
Speaker 1:As well as the rewards.
Speaker 2:The rewards of it as well. A lot of parents don't know, a lot of people in general don't know what it's like to go through life with um a kid that has special needs like that you know, I could just spend one day in his head, just so I can right, oh, my goodness absolutely we've said that for years. It's like man I'd love to have a conversation with michael, just so he we can learn all the things that, like.
Speaker 2:He would love to really tell us how big of jerks we are. But no, it's, uh, it's a great deal. Um, we'll be doing what we can to support that walk. Uh, we'll be posting up some links so you can find flyers, so you get your your shirts ordered, um kind of see what the route's going to be and whatnot, and we'll go from there. So, thanks for coming on. Yeah, appreciate you having us. Yeah, no, worries at all. Oh, another thing we got her coming to metal shows now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did you hear that? What? How she says so yeah, it's because she. She says so yeah, it's because she's awesome.
Speaker 2:Alrighty, well, thanks again.
Speaker 3:You're welcome, thank you no worries.
