"Answers for Alex"

Alex's Teacher, Alex, Jac, Ethan & Connee

On Saturday, I was priveledged to be able to participate in a Walk for Austism. Debi, John Adison (Jac), Ethan Joel and I walked for Alex on the team, Answers for Alex. Alex is a 9 year old boy that Debi and I have both driven to and from his special school, Giant Steps. Alex is a very precious boy, that understands but cannot talk, as of yet, he has progressed so much in the months that I have been driving him. The walk drew at least 50 teams, who had from 20 + on their team. It looked like there was a 100 thousand walkers. We walked a mile and a half at the Muny Theater in Forest Park. There were venders of every kind providing breakfast, lunch, snacks, ice cream, cotton candy and beverages of all kinds and they were giving of their products and time to this very worthy cause. The picture above is of Alex, his teacher, Jac, Ethan and myself. Christine, Alexs mother and her company provided each team member a shirt, Answers for Alex. My heart was so touched by these children and their families. They told us that Autism is the poorest researched and funded of all neorological problems in children. We are still taking donations, you can donate for Answers for Alex on www.Autism.com, go to view the teams, when it gets to Answers for Alex, stop it and it will tell you how to donate. They also told us that 1 in every 104 boys will have autism. Something is terribly wrong.

Last week Alex had gotten a piece of his book bag in his mouth. Since I sometimes have to stop suddenly (st louis traffic you know) I was concerned about his swollering this. I tried to get him to take it out of his mouth, but to no avail, I caught a break, and put my hand over the back seat and ask him to give me the piece of plastic, he gave me a five instead, then grinned real big. I of course had to laugh. So you can see he understands. Christine says he hasn't looked directly into the camera as of yet, but as you can see in the picture Alex was looking at the picture, and having a grand time.

I can't begin to tell you what this day meant to Debi and I and especially the boys, they are 7 and 4 and made every step with us on the walk as well as walked a long way to and from the parking lot, as you can't imagine how many cars were there. They then made it to the Arch, more walking, and Jac, Ethan and I went up in the arch for the first time.

more later
gg