SkiP HappEns Podcast

Championing Inclusivity: Celebrating Autism Awareness and Supporting the Community through Bowling for Autism

April 03, 2024 Skip Clark
SkiP HappEns Podcast
Championing Inclusivity: Celebrating Autism Awareness and Supporting the Community through Bowling for Autism
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Navigating life with a son who has Down syndrome has opened my eyes to the vibrant world of those with disabilities, a topic we dive into heart-first as we commemorate National Autism Awareness Month. Joining me is the remarkable Kelly Davenport, founder of Bowling for Autism, who offers a window into her younger brother's life with autism. Together, we reflect on the essence of acceptance and the pivotal role of inclusion. Our conversation traverses the terrain of disrupted routines, an obstacle magnified by the recent pandemic, and we celebrate the unique milestones and characteristics that individuals with autism bring to our lives.

The spirit of community shines through as we spotlight the upcoming Bowling for Autism event, a cause close to my heart that blossoms from its Pennsylvania roots to nurture the hearts of central New York. This special gathering not only fosters awareness but also raises crucial funds for programs aiding those with special needs in our local nooks. We share the myriad ways you can lend a hand, from sponsorships to raffle participation, and mark the date for an unforgettable rendezvous at Beeville Sports Bowl on April 20th. Stay tuned to our Facebook page for the latest, and join us in sowing seeds of generosity within our community.

Our episode wouldn't be complete without celebrating the remarkable individuals with autism who enrich our daily lives. We explore the story of a 30-year-old man whose active involvement in his community, including the Special Olympics, exemplifies the profound contributions of those with autism. Kelly and I discuss the importance of seeing abilities over disabilities and the beautiful complexity of relationships within the autism community. As we honor the resilience and devotion of families and allies championing inclusivity, we extend a heartfelt invitation for you to lend your support and witness the transformative power of understanding and advocacy.

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Thanks for listening! Follow us at youtube.com/c/skiphappens

Speaker 1:

trick. Work you ready, Are you sure?

Speaker 2:

Okay now don't be afraid of the mic, okay.

Speaker 1:

I want you to kind of talk fairly close to it.

Speaker 1:

All right, here we go. It's coming to you in three, two, one. Hello everybody, it is Skip Clark and here we are again and she's already giggling, and I love this. The Inner Harbor cast live from the Inner Harbor Media Studios, the beautiful Syracuse Inner Harbor. Like I always say, that's a whole lot of inner harbors. But welcome everybody. Thanks for having us on, thanks for viewing, thank you for listening, because we have another great informative program for you this morning. As you know, my name is Skip Clark. I'm from 92.1 the Wolf, which is one of the four radio stations here at Inner Harbor Media. But I have a child with Down syndrome, a child with disabilities. Well, I don't know if I can call him a child anymore, he's 23. But I guess he'll always be my child. I always say a child at heart.

Speaker 2:

Yes exactly.

Speaker 1:

I want you all to say hi to my new friend, Kelly Davenport. Kelly is the founder of Bowling for Autism. But here we are. We are recording this. It's April right now. It's April right now and April is National Autism Month. Is that Autism Awareness Month? Is that correct? Kelly, tell us a little bit about autism and what it is.

Speaker 2:

Hi everybody and thank you for having me. This is really cool. The Wolf is my favorite station.

Speaker 1:

I love connecting to all these guys.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, Bowling for Autism is something I started as part of Autism Awareness Month as well, is something I started as part of Autism Awareness Month as well. But Awareness Month is just to kind of introduce that these people are, you know, even though they have disabilities they are still people who want to be accepted and loved for who they are and they should be included as such and we should not make them as a separate entity of people.

Speaker 1:

Now you have a personal connection, just like I do with my son when it comes to Down syndrome. But you have a personal connection, just like I do with my son when it comes to Down Syndrome, but you have a personal connection with autism.

Speaker 2:

Yes, my younger brother, I should say my younger, taller brother, wait a minute, you're pretty tall. Well, he passed me after. Oh gosh, I was in high school and he shot past my five foot ten self and I was six foot seven. And I said just remember, you're still my little brother you play basketball he should, he just stand there what about you? Because you're tall um, I did track and field actually okay, I got the long legs, you can run fast, I like it tell us about your brother a little bit um.

Speaker 2:

So he and I are just sort of six years apart but we've always been very close growing up. Um, I've seen him go through a lot of different changes and it's really cool to see how he's developed through finding different um activities and doctors that have helped my parents through the situation. I mean he's really calm from. He would barely even want to touch you. You'd go to hug him. He'd kind of do this little shutter side thing. But now he's so social and they call him the mayor of the town sometimes because he's just talking to everybody and it's it's amazing to see how far he's come since he was a kid and only sibling now I have another sibling.

Speaker 1:

Okay, but he's the only one with. He's autistic. Yes, and how did? Do you remember when, um, you say there's a six-year difference but when he was diagnosed as being autistic? Can you tell me what do you know about? When your parents found out, and how did all that go down and how did they find out? What did they suspect? How did they say you know what? We need to look at this a little bit and find out what's going on.

Speaker 2:

So my parents have told me that he was diagnosed when he was 18 months old, have told me that he was diagnosed when he was 18 months old. They started noticing that he wasn't developing with, like certain speeches and mode of functioning that you would notice with a typical or an atypical neural functioning child. And she's like something's odd here, like we should talk to a doctor and see what would come about. And he always had this thing. I remember so vaguely when he was a kid that autism is all about routine, routine, routine and for him, like he would have these toy cars and trucks and everything and he would line them up and if something distracted him he would mess the whole thing and he would start from the beginning. Just line them up, line them up, line them up and it was, was just something he always did and it's all about routine. And when his routine gets messed up, that's when he struggles to get around it and something like covet happened and they couldn't do the activities they were used to.

Speaker 1:

That I think he's still trying to recover from how that changed and even though he's back to his routine now, it's yeah, yeah, I was gonna ask you about that because here again not it, this is about you and autism and your and your brother. But having my son the way he is, that when COVID happened, we feel that he, you know, after taking three steps forward, he ended up taking four steps back and it just like you had to start over again. And we're still working on that to this very day, you know. And you say that your brother would line up his trucks, his little toy cars, trucks. You know, I know, with my son, if I was to take one of those away, it'd be all out of sorts for him and he'd no, no, no, I can't say he, he wouldn't get frustrated and, you know, kind of lose it for a second and then, uh, start over again. But Zach would, my son, zach would definitely have a fit over that. So that's, I mean, I think that's, it's almost like autism autistic.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of similar components, yeah yeah, so, uh, so what happens when, when a child gets diagnosed with the autism? Uh, they work with um different people to try to overcome those obstacles, correct?

Speaker 2:

yeah, there's occupational therapists, there's speech therapists, um, like people that can try to work on what developmentally they're most struggling with. Like you have individuals who are non-verbal or limited vocabulary, so they work on different ways to help them talk. My brother is fortunate in the side of being higher functioning, but there's still a lot where he wouldn't be able to live on his own, he wouldn't be able to drive, but he can do a lot. He's always very helpful and stuff. But early intervention is key. It's key, yes, and the earlier they can start getting services for these individuals the better. But as long as they have a support system and find the right doctor who's going to work with them and try to understand.

Speaker 1:

It does still help them, but the earlier the better, definitely, yeah. Do you have any numbers on autism? Do you know off the top? I know you work like you say, you work kind of with individuals with disabilities, and why have you? But I mean, it's a pretty. I shouldn't put it this way, but I'm going to. It's kind of like a pretty common thing. You see a lot of autistic put it this way, but I'm going to. It's kind of like a pretty common thing. You see a lot of autistic, you know, young adults, children. I see, now that we have a somewhat down syndrome, it's like, oh my gosh, there's so many. And it's a good thing though, because they can all interact and you say there's all different levels too.

Speaker 2:

It's a different social impact for sure. The latest prevalence I know about in autism is like one in 54, and males are four times more as likely there's not really a known correspondence behind that, but I know that it's four times more likely now, like you say, there's all different degrees, all different levels of autism.

Speaker 1:

Um, I know, I I'm big into sports and every once in a while they have a you know a day for autism and they turn the volume down on everything. They you know, if you can't really clap, you just go through the motions and all that. So that's a whole different level.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that could be a sensory input. Some of them are very sensitive to touch or sound. Sometimes you'll probably see individuals going around with, like, bigger headphones or something that they need, and they'll do like a kind of like this, like a flapping type motion but it's just part of how they interact and stuff.

Speaker 2:

But there's a saying that I've seen through autism community and I think it's very, very interesting and well to go by. It says when you've met with one person with autism, you've met one person with autism Because even though there's a lot of similar capacities, and similar degrees. Every single person is still very different in their own. They all learn differently, they all accept differently. So I think that's a really cool concept to understand that they're all people. They're all should be treated that way, but each person is completely individual from the next.

Speaker 1:

You know, I think there's on another note, on another side, there's a lot of people that are totally ignorant to what's going on. You could be in a grocery store and if your child starts acting up, you know some people automatically, you know they react in a way that they like, oh my God, what's going on? You know you can't treat them like don't do this, don't do that. Um, there's a lot of people that have no idea and it's so frustrating. I see it, I see it on my side of things.

Speaker 2:

So, um, and I'm sure you do, but I feel like I mean, you might understand exactly what I'm talking about here, but someone who's in that position, meaning they're directly connected to someone who's on the spectrum- or any kind of whether it's cerebral palsy or down syndrome, any of that stuff. Um, when you're in it, you see it completely different and you start to gain a.

Speaker 2:

You know, like you said in public, someone's having a situation or they're having a meltdown. My first thought is I wonder if they're having trouble because their spectrum but might not be the case.

Speaker 1:

No, because you're in it and I'm in it in a sense, but a lot of people are not, and that's why a lot of individuals need to be educated on, especially in this, the the way society is nowadays. People need to be educated on. You know autism, or you know children or adults with disabilities and know why they do certain things the way they do certain things?

Speaker 2:

you know, going to school, being on the bus together and kids would be making fun of him, and I was constantly like fighting back to these kids like you're gonna leave him alone, because he's not, oh, he's trying to be social, and when you're in it it's a whole different ball game.

Speaker 1:

But that's part of why I started bowling, for autism as well is to bring more awareness and inclusion and just, they deserve a voice as well been there, let me and you know I'm only one part of it, but if you were to get my wife involved, that's one thing you do not want to do. I'm just saying, anyways, so you, we've got some really cool stuff going on. You're the founder of Bowling for Autism and first of all, thank you for doing that. That is so cool that you do that. How long have you been doing the Bowling for Autism?

Speaker 2:

Oh gosh, I started it. I live in Pennsylvania, I grew up there and moved to New York in 2016. I've been doing Bowling for Autism since 2012.

Speaker 1:

This is the 13th year for the Pennsylvania branch. Yeah, but you're doing it up here.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I started last year in central New York. I felt I was pretty settled. I'm in the Baldensville area now and I felt, you know, it's about time I want to help more communities. So this year is actually our second event in central New York, so number two we're going to make it even bigger than that Number 13 and number two.

Speaker 1:

I love it. I love what you're doing now. Is there a lot of planning to do in something like this. There must be I mean, there's, you know, so many people that could get involved and we hope they all listen to this and watch it and they get involved. But tell us about it a little bit. Tell us about what is Bowling for Dollars, yeah, which?

Speaker 2:

is that way. Now I'm showing my. I know, I know it is right.

Speaker 1:

It is, and I'm now. I'm thinking back of me growing up and there used to be a program Bowling for Knowledge. No, on a more serious note, it's something we all need to pay attention to is Bowling for Autism. Tell us what that is Exactly.

Speaker 2:

So I kind of came up with the name because, again, my brother and I have been so close and one of his favorite activities is bowling.

Speaker 1:

So that was easy, and who doesn't love a good bowling game when you get a chance?

Speaker 2:

Exactly. So that was number one. And number two was, you know, I wanted to get back to the community and find a way to just kind of spread awareness and, you know, think, okay, how can I help groups develop and continue their work to do the same thing of helping those with special needs and trying to make it aware in the community that you know they, they should be part of that as well.

Speaker 1:

Equal, not less, or different, not less. What's the same?

Speaker 2:

Same concept. So, I approached our local bowling alley at the time and I threw out the idea and she was right on board and we just went for it. And first year I didn't really know too many organizations, so I donated to Autism Speaks, but for the first time we raised over a1,000, which I was like wow, and as.

Speaker 2:

I've gone through the years I've kind of tweaked and adjusted according to what we learn and how the developments go. But now I keep it completely local organizations and I rotate them through. So it's just every year is a new group that helps special needs and every dollar I raise goes right back into the community.

Speaker 1:

You love it. And it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and better and better. And not that it was. I mean, you just keep growing, let me put it that way which is cool. So all the money stays right here.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so for the Pennsylvania branch it stays in those groups. Last year we did families first. They're based out of a home in Syracuse but they do a lot of inclusion things and social interactions and social activities for individuals. I know one of the people who works with the group offers free dental cleanings to those on the spectrum. And then this year we're doing the Baldwinsville Nursery School. They're in the First United Methodist Church in Baldwinsville church in baldwinsville um we are supporting their scholarship program that helps fund the tuition for special needs students as well as um.

Speaker 1:

The average person might not know what a cool down room is, but you might have invented a little bit, yeah, kind of like the, the sensory thing where they can go if they're having a hard time, or like a meltdown.

Speaker 2:

They can go and kind of relax and bring themselves back to their individual. So they're working on coordinating more of those. So that's this year's recipient, with New York trying to help them with their scholarship and cool down rooms.

Speaker 1:

That's cool. Now how does one get involved? Do they actually have to go out and bowl, or do they sponsor somebody that's bowling, or how is all that coming together? How does it?

Speaker 2:

work. There's so many different ways we do sponsorships, and that can be businesses, organizations, individuals, whatever they prefer. We do a raffle that day, so raffle donations are definitely welcome and very well needed right now yes, please help.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and if somebody wants to help, let's say somebody just heard us say that they're wanting. You said you know what I'm gonna make a donation. Who do they get a hold of and how do they get a hold of?

Speaker 2:

they can get a hold of me of.

Speaker 1:

They can get a hold of me, and how do we do that?

Speaker 2:

We have. We're on Facebook at Bowling for Autism. I can. I don't know if we need to share a photo of that at all, but I can.

Speaker 1:

I can put the link at the bottom here underneath.

Speaker 2:

All right, so we have a website not at the moment no, okay, we did, but I had an issue with the.

Speaker 1:

It's better if you go to the socials yeah, so you go to the facebook. I mean almost everybody is it's got something going on facebook.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and they also add us as a friend on facebook. I kind of make it a little interactive. I'll post different photos, but it's all related to the cause. Just another way to hopefully hop in their feeds. With the way Facebook and its news feed runs, Right, One thing we haven't touched on.

Speaker 1:

where is it?

Speaker 2:

It's at the Beeville Sports Bowl. It's at 45 East Genesee Street in Baldwinsville.

Speaker 1:

And when.

Speaker 2:

April 20th from one to five Really quick yeah, coming up pretty soon.

Speaker 1:

And if you're watching this after the fact, just you know hopefully it's informative to you as well about individuals with autism. Do you do you know of any other events that go on throughout the year when it comes to autism that we could talk about as well? There's a walk, correct.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there's usually a lot of groups will do autism walks in? April. I don't know of any like off the top of my head with dates at the moment, I'm sure.

Speaker 1:

No, I wouldn't expect you to, but I know there's more than just Bowling for Autism. So, you know, if you want to help out, or maybe you know somebody that's autistic and you want to give back a little bit, by all means just do what you can to participate in some of these events and the uh, the bowling for autism that's coming up on the 20th. I mean, what a great opportunity we're gonna have bowling. We're gonna have live music I was gonna ask yeah, oh nice raffles.

Speaker 2:

Uh, we're working on. Unfortunately, scooch can't make it from the mets, but uh, we were working on getting the crunchman and the beville b. For anyone who doesn't know that's the mascot of the Baldwinsville School District and everything is the bee connection, because we're the. Beeville Bees.

Speaker 1:

You are now. Do you work with the school at all, with what you do, or no?

Speaker 2:

I've actually been working on trying to get the school involved have their students and everything come out.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We got the Dirgeytsa as one of the um sponsors this year so we're slowly starting to get them as part of it you know, this is just a big undertaking that that you've taken upon to, to get it done. Yeah and uh, for, rightfully, can I ask how old is your brother?

Speaker 2:

he just turned 30 in febru See.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, now does he, being autistic and you said he's pretty much on the high-functioning end of it. I know he can't go out on his own, but can he still like make a sandwich for himself when it comes to lunchtime, because my son, you know, sometimes my son gets lazy and says Dad, I want a sandwich. No, zach, you know where the bread is, you know where the jelly is, you know where the jelly is, you know where the peanut butter is. And you know I kind of I help him but I make him do most of the work, so he definitely is able to do stuff like that.

Speaker 2:

He helps my dad with yard work.

Speaker 1:

Oh, nice Okay.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there's, he's very, you know people. He always likes to keep busy too.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I've. You know. I've noticed that with a lot of autistic individuals that there's something about keeping busy. Maybe it just keeps them motivated in that whole routine.

Speaker 2:

He can be out all day doing whether it's a fun activity, or out with his com hab, or he works at the job as well, but he'll come home after eight hours and still want to go somewhere.

Speaker 1:

So you and your brother are very close and I totally get it, absolutely, man. Just it's a love that's like no other, I'm sure. But what would you like to say to somebody that you know isn't aware of somebody with autism, or you know what I mean? Like, what would you say, as somebody that you know you're on this side but people that don't know?

Speaker 2:

I think that everyone should approach individuals, not even thinking that they have a disability. Just approach them, say hi or, you know, be patient with them, trying to understand that this might be someone that is very shy or might not know how to talk back or might not know how to talk back. So even if they don't respond to you, they're not necessarily being rude, they're just coping in their own way or they're not used to folks. But just you know, patience and understanding go a long way and accepting that you know, they're different too.

Speaker 2:

But hey, any of us who are considered neurotypical, we're all different too, and I think we all have our own things for sure, absolutely things for sure absolutely.

Speaker 2:

I think that there's a lot of components of ourselves that we can connect to with them and going through. My brother's groups are like special olympics and the team at the ymca he goes to and just everything he's involved with they. They all have the best time and they just accept each other and we should be doing the same for them you know, I'm wondering if my son zach knows your brother because he goes to the Y, does the Special Olympics.

Speaker 1:

He's actively involved in all that stuff, challenger baseball big time. They all kind of intermingle and they're all individuals with disabilities at different levels.

Speaker 2:

And we can learn so much from them.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh. So much, such a great thing, so much yeah.

Speaker 2:

I will always. You know, if someone wants to put down my brother like, I will always defend that and I don't care who you are. If you want to be, I would say, like family and close friends, if they want to be in my life, they're going to accept him and fall on and 100.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly you go give me a high five for that, because you know we're both in it. But we've been talking to Kelly, kelly Davenport, who is the founder of Bowling for Autism. But it's more than just being the founder she's a sister to somebody that is autistic, somebody in the family, and she also works with individuals with disabilities and now she's working with the. Hopefully the school district is watching this April 20th bowling for autism in in Bollinsville the lanes what again? What were the name?

Speaker 2:

Beville sports.

Speaker 1:

Beville sports bowl. I actually know it very well. I just had a brain thing.

Speaker 2:

They don't even have to bowl to participate, they can come, and I've had people come just to do the raffles and watch other people bowl and just have. So do you have like?

Speaker 1:

a silent auction, or do you have like baskets set up and you can bid on them, or do you buy tickets and the tickets go into a bag? Yeah, they buy tickets Either way. It's just a way to fundraise, and rightfully so.

Speaker 2:

And the guy in the van plays some classic rock. Yeah, nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 1:

Man, it's right up my alley, I love it and a little bit of country. Right up my alley, I love it and a little bit of country. But so they go, they give it's all tax deductible too if somebody wants to. You know it's a 501c3, I'm sure. But very cool, kelly, you're awesome. You're awesome, thank you. Thank you for doing what you're doing From somebody that knows what it involves to a certain extent.

Speaker 1:

it's a lot of work, it's a lot of frustration and there's a lot of good that comes out of it and you're blessed.

Speaker 2:

Is it okay if I throw out a?

Speaker 1:

couple of shout outs. Please do, let's do it right now.

Speaker 2:

Well, number one, I could not do any of this volunteering without my family and my husband and everybody else who volunteers to help it. Because, even though I'm the founder and I'm like the person that does it, if they weren't helping me on the day of and helping me get flyers out like especially now that I'm up in New York and I'm trying to get Pennsylvania, my mom and brother are the foot runners right down there getting the flyers out, getting those donations. So I definitely could not run this without any of my family members, my husband and the kids. They all come out and support it. Again, we have our sponsors, and raffle donations are a big key right now.

Speaker 2:

But I would like to give a personal shout out to all of the businesses and organizations that are currently on board right now sponsoring us this year. We have the Jerome Fire Department, the Beeville Diner, timeless Tattoo, san Miguel Sweet Dream Candy Shop, the Baldwinsville Volunteer Fire Department, the Oneida Indian Nation Foundation, lou's Car Care, barnes Memorials, the Baldwinsville Kiwanis Club, the Most Butterfly Liquors oh shoot, sorry, no, no, it's all good man, you got quite the list.

Speaker 1:

Wegmans, the Dirty PTSA, the.

Speaker 2:

Sorry, no, no, it's all good. It's all, good man, you got quite the list. Wegmans, the Dirty PTSA, the Northwest Family YMCA, oh, the Powerhouse Gym Sorry, I misheard that the CNY Family Sports Center, the Female Charitable Society, the Syracuse Nets, angry Garlic, patty'sty's crafts and shop with the lad. But we are still accepting donations, we are accepting monetary sponsorship, anything of any kind. You can support both if you want.

Speaker 1:

But you know, coming out that day and helping us is a good thing as well wow, it's so awesome and thank you to all the sponsors that are on board because they know what it takes and they're giving back and they get it, they understand and if you watch this, please, if you go into any of those businesses and just say thank you for being a part of the Bowling for Autism.

Speaker 2:

And it's cool because, as we're growing in New York, some of them this year are brand new from last year. Some of them are repeats, so it's nice to see that mixture. It was a little different up here because it's a bigger area than where I'm from so I don't really have that connection like I do back home, so it's been extra work where?

Speaker 1:

where are you from? Um, it's a town called waymart, pennsylvania never heard of east east of scranton okay, 30 minutes grand um, yeah, wing county top most right yeah, I used to drive to scranton almost every weekend many years ago, but it's pretty much a straight shot.

Speaker 2:

81, 690 up here, only about two hours yeah it is.

Speaker 1:

I did it in an hour and don't tell anybody. I did it in one hour and 50 minutes, so that was pretty quick.

Speaker 2:

I probably have before too.

Speaker 1:

I'll be honest and I paid for it for a few times as well, but anyways, kelly Da well, but anyways, uh, kelly davenport's been with us today on the inner harbor cast and, uh, you're blessed, you're very special, and uh, for doing what you're doing and the love for your brother, of course, I mean, why not? Yeah, that's absolute. Um, just the same way with my son. Um, how many kids do you have?

Speaker 1:

I like two stepchildren well, two stepchildren I got. That's pretty cool, yeah, yeah, so you pull the chair up to the table yeah, so to speak, and they did too.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, so you pull the chair up to the table, yeah that's so awesome. Kelly davenport, we thank you for coming by and thank you for having me welcome to the inner harbor studios, the legendary I mean this you know there's a lot of history here so yeah, make sure you tune into these stations, because they are all excellent people yeah, well, we support you.

Speaker 1:

thank you so much for doing that. It's Kelly Davenport talking about Bowling for Autism right here on the Inner Harbor cast. Thank you, thank you for watching. Thank you for listening.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.

Speaker 1:

All right, I just I wing it when I do these things.

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