In Memoriam: Ted Carr

OAR and the Autism Community Mourn the Loss of Dr. Ted Carr

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Dr. Edward Carr, pictured in the Psychology Building at Stony Brook University

OAR is saddened to report the death of Dr. Edward (Ted) Carr, a leading expert in autism, who was killed by a drunk driver on June 20. His wife, Ilene Wasserman, died later from injuries she sustained in the crash.

Dr. Carr was a respected leader in applied autism research.  In addition to his many contributions as the leading professor in the Department of Psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he also wrote prolifically about applied behavior analysis and positive behavior support in the home, classroom, workplace, and community. His best-known book was the 1994 Communication-Based Intervention for Problem Behavior.

“It is hard to over-estimate his contributions to the autism community,” said OAR President Peter Gerhardt, Ed.D. “We are grateful for his work over more than 30 years. His research and analysis added greatly to our ability to improve the lives of children and adults with autism and their families. He was a friend, a colleague, and an inspiration and his loss will be felt by many.”

OAR’s Assistant Director of Research and Programs, Alyssa Kruszyna, went to SUNY and took a class from Dr. Carr. “Out of all my professors at college, he was by far one of the best,” she said. “He was the only professor that could pack an 8:00 a.m. class without even taking attendance. Not only was Dr. Carr a great researcher and professor, he was a wonderful person.”

Dr. Carr was known as a lecturer and workshop leader throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. Over his career, he served on the editorial boards of 17 journals. He received many grants for his work as well as awards and commendations, including the Distinguished Research Award from the Association for Retarded Citizens (the Arc), a Certificate of Commendation from the Autism Society of America, and the Applied Research Award for Outstanding Contributions from the American Psychological Association (Behavior Analysis Division).

“Dr. Carr took great interest in OAR when it was founded,” recalled OAR Executive Director Mike Maloney.  “And while he subsequently worked with us as a researcher, conference speaker, reviewer, and newsletter contributor, what struck me about him more than anything was his interest in people, especially persons with autism and their families.”

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Second Day... As Good as the First:
Get the Scoop on the OAR COnference Day 2

The Organization for Autism Research (OAR) will host its Seventh Annual Applied Autism Research and Intervention Conference on Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24, 2009 at the Westin Arlington Gateway in Arlington, VA.  For these two days, 23 leading autism professionals, researchers, and experts will come together to present the latest research and evidence-based interventions regarding autism spectrum disorders.  During the course of the event, attendees will be able to choose from presentations in the following four topics: OAR Sponsored Research; Research to Practice; Education and School-Age Learners; and Transition and Life in the Community.

The two tracks featured on Saturday, October 24 are Education and School-Age Learners, which focuses on teaching important skills to children with autism, and Transition and Life in the Community, which focuses on older individuals who are in the process of becoming independent members of the community. Attendees are not required to remain on the same track, and will be free to move from one track to another throughout the day.

Saturday begins with a keynote address titled “Autism and Transition: Building Bridges from School to the Community and Workplace,” presented by Paul Wehman, Ph.D.  Dr. Wehman is professor of physical medicine with a joint appointment in the Department of Special Education at Virginia Commonwealth University. In his presentation, he will discuss the importance of transition planning to successfully create a bridge from high school to adulthood.  Appropriate supports, training, and intervention can overcome new challenges and make work, postsecondary education, and community integration fully possible. This presentation will discuss how these outcomes can be achieved.

Education and School-Age Learners

Immediately following Dr. Wehman’s keynote speech, attendees will break into the two tracks offered that day.  The first presentation on the Education and School-Age Learners track is “Teaching Self-Help Skills to Learners with Autism,” by Stephen Anderson, Ph.D., BCBA, chief executive officer of Summit Educational Resources in New York.  Independence in the completion of self-help skills is important for an individual’s self-esteem and his/her ability to integrate into the community.  This presentation will briefly discuss strategies shown to be effective for teaching basic and advanced skills of dressing, personnel hygiene, and toileting and for addressing feeding disorders. Dr. Anderson also will discuss areas for future research.

Mary Jane Weiss, Ph.D., BCBA, the director of research and training at the Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center at Rutgers University, is also a member of OAR’s Scientific Council.  She will be presenting the next session on this track, entitled “What Siblings Tell Us: The Challenges and Rewards of Having a Brother or Sister on the Autism Spectrum.”  Dr. Weiss will review what is known about sibling effects and sibling adjustment.  She will also discuss the negative and positive consequences associated with having a sibling on the autism spectrum, as well as strategies for maximizing sibling adaptation.

After lunch, the track will recommence with Frank Cicero, Ph.D., BCBA, the director of psychological services for the Eden II Programs in New York State.  Dr. Cicero will present “Effective Toilet Training at Any Age” and introduce the audience to reinforcement-based techniques for increasing appropriate toileting.  Topics will include urination training, bowel training, and overnight training. The procedures that he will discuss have been shown to be appropriate for use with individuals of any age and level of disability.

The last session on this track, “Peer Mentoring: Teaching Typically Developing Children to Instruct Children with Autism in a Public School,” will be presented by Julie Fisher, M.A., BCBA, and Moira Cray, LMSW.  Both work at the New York Center for Autism Charter School; Fisher as the executive director and Cray as the assistant director of education.  In this session, Fisher and Cray will describe an innovative program that trains typically developing middle school students to become peer mentors for children with autism in a public school program.  As part of the program, students are trained for 10 weeks in how to become mentors of a person on the spectrum and then must give a presentation to students in their own classrooms.

Transition and Life in the Community

Saturday’s second track, Transition and Life in the Community, runs parallel to the first track. The first presentation occurring directly after the opening keynote is entitled “College Support for Learners with Asperger Syndrome,” by Marc Ellison, M.A.  Ellison currently works at the Autism Training Center, located at Marshall University.  The presentation will focus on (1) the basic skills associated with being the typical “successful student,” (2) the challenges many students with ASD may face regarding these skills, (3) educational and behavioral support strategies that have effectively supported individuals with ASD in becoming successful college students, and (4) the importance of emphasizing the development of these skills during junior high or middle school years.

At the next session, Avi Glickman, B.A. and Kaori Nepo, M.A., BCBA, from Preparing Adolescents for Adult Life (PAAL), a specialty secondary educational program for adolescents with moderate to severe autism between the ages of 14 and 21, will present “The Effective Use of Technology to Promote Independent Functioning and Community Integration for Adolescents with Autism.” Various technological devices are currently used to organize lives and improve productivity, but this presentation will show their effective application in aiding individuals with autism to maximize their potential and increase social acceptance.  Glickman and Nepo will present data on the use of such technology with adolescents and adults with moderate to severe autism in a community-based setting.

Ian Paregol, J.D., executive director at Community Services for Autistic Adults and Children (CSAAC) will present at the session directly after lunch. In his presentation “Establishing a Comprehensive Community-based Program for Adults with Autism,” he will discuss residential services and supports for adolescents and adults with autism.  Attendees will learn more about successful, integrated living and working options for individuals on the spectrum.

Paula Durbin-Westby, B.A., B.Mus., and her presentation “Autistic Self-Advocacy: Communication Differences in the World of Disability Rights Advocacy” concludes the track and the final day of the conference.  Durbin-Westby is the Virginia coordinator for The Autistic Self-Advocacy Network and serves on its board of directors.  She will describe the communication differences that impact the way advocacy work is undertaken from the perspective of an individual on the spectrum.  Self-advocates with autism are effective communicators with differences and disabilities that must be taken into consideration.  This presentation will describe the panoply of methods a self-advocate must employ to get the job done.

OAR will be offering both BCBA and ASHA CEUs throughout the conference. Attendees will be able to receive a maximum of 9 BCBA CEUs throughout both days.  To receive ASHA credit, a total of 1.2 CEUs, attendees must attend both days of the conference.

For a detailed conference schedule and complete list of speakers, please visit www.researchautism.org/news/conference.  For more information, please contact Alyssa Kruszyna at (703) 243-9717 or akruszyna@researchautism.org.

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Hope to Go Around:
Daniel Openden Opens Up About PRT, SARRC, and OAR

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Daniel Openden, Ph.D., BCBA-D

As far as Daniel Openden, Ph.D., BCBA-D, is concerned, there is plenty of hope to go around for children with autism and their families. “In contrast to many other severe disabilities, there’s a tremendous amount of hope with autism. There are effective interventions that can make so many improvements. We as clinicians can have a meaningful impact on individuals with autism and their families.”

When he addresses participants at OAR’s Seventh Annual Applied Autism Research and Intervention Conference on Friday, October 23, he’ll talk about Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT), an evidence-based intervention that has offered many families a big dose of that hope. Pivotal areas include motivation, self-initiated interactions, responsiveness to multiple environmental cues, and self-management. PRT is responsive to the child’s initiations and inherent interests and to the need for variation in naturalistic learning opportunities. The main goals are to improve the condition of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) by facilitating, first, the acquisition of social-communication skills and, second, play and other adaptive skills.

Based on ABA principles and practices, PRT is aimed at parents and other caregivers, such as babysitters and grandparents. Parents are the biggest experts on their children, Dr. Openden says. Clinicians generally recommend that children with autism receive 25 to 40 hours of behavioral intervention per week, he explains, but we prefer they be engaged in meaningful learning opportunities throughout as much of the day as possible. “PRT makes that possible because it’s designed to be implemented in natural environments and can be used during interactions between caregiver and child. It’s meant to fit easily into everyday life so that parents are better able help their children improve and learning is always happening.”

That “dailiness” offers the potential for a huge impact on children, observes Dr. Openden. Essentially, PRT makes every interaction therapeutic. PRT also grows with the kids. When parents are trained, they are given tools they can use as their children grow older and enter different settings.

Currently vice president and clinical services director at the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center (SARRC), Dr. Openden learned about PRT from two of the researchers who developed it, Dr. Lynn and Robert Koegel, both based at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Dr. Openden got his bachelor’s degree in sociology there and then continued on to get a master’s and Ph.D. in special education. After he got his Ph.D., he continued working with the Koegels for a year and a half disseminating PRT and conducting research on effective parent and professional training models.

Doubly Rewarding

He has never been bored by his work. “If you work with one individual with autism, you have worked with one individual,” he says, noting that he heard that first from Peter Gerhardt, Ed.D., OAR’s president. “There is so much variability among individuals with autism. I enjoy the challenge of identifying the interventions that will work best with different kids.”

Coming to SARRC was a meeting of like minds, Dr. Openden laughs. His first visit to SARRC was when he came to train staff in the PRT parent training program, and he was “very impressed with the quality of staff at SARRC.” When a position opened up two and a half years ago, SARRC offered the job to Dr. Openden who was delighted to say yes. He was recently promoted to vice president and continues to find his work at SARRC both rewarding and challenging.

“Both my approach and SARRC’s are family-centered. Autism impacts the whole family and the work we do engages the family in intervention rather than just focusing on the kids. People say working with kids with autism is rewarding but the rewards double when you work with parents and children. It’s so satisfying to see parents working with their children and then being able to see their children improve.”

SARRC places equal emphasis on research and Dr. Openden sees continual growth in the efficacy of interventions thanks to the research SARRC staff conducts. His research interests include parent education, professional development, positive behavior supports, early intervention, inclusion, and dissemination of service delivery models for children with autism spectrum disorders. One of Dr. Openden’s research projects, funded by OAR in 2009, is evaluating telemedicine technology for providing ongoing training in PRT to parents living in rural/remote areas. (Look for an article on that study in the July issue of The OARacle.)

“Being invited to speak at OAR’s conference,” Dr. Openden says, “is an honor. I am continually impressed with OAR’s mission and what it has accomplished. The conference has a reputation for bringing in topnotch professionals to talk about applied research that focuses on interventions that really work. I’m delighted to be able to be among such a prestigious group of presenters.”

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News from OAR

Sorting Through Degrees of Excellence for Research Grant Competition

On May 15, the first phase of the 2009 Applied Autism Research Competition came to a close with the receipt of the pre-proposal reviews from members of the OAR Scientific Council and a corps of just over 40 external peer reviewers. Three doctoral-level reviewers, including at least one member of the Scientific Council, reviewed each of the 75 pre-proposals OAR received. 

The total of 225 reviews were then turned over to OAR interns, Danielle Kruglak and Kate Rice, who recorded the scores and collated the reviewer comments into a more user-friendly format.  “The objective and insightful comments provided by our reviewers are of significant value to OAR in determining who will be asked to submit a full proposal,” explains OAR President and Scientific Council Chairman Peter Gerhardt, Ed.D.  “In addition, as these comments are shared with each applicant, they help to ensure only the highest quality research gets funded in the final stage of the competition.”

As a result of the reviews, OAR has invited 29 of the initial 75 applicants to submit a full proposal for consideration in the second stage of the competition.  In this next stage, each full proposal will again be reviewed by three individuals, two of whom will be from the Scientific Council.  The final round of the Competition is an in-person review by members of the Scientific Council.

“This is a very competitive process whereby decisions are often made according to degrees of excellence rather than good research versus bad research,” observes Dr. Gerhardt.  “Regardless of the winners, I have no doubt that the results of this year’s competition will provide much-needed answers to the infinite questions asked by families and caregivers of individuals with autism.”

Military Parents and Families Needed
We’re Asking for Your Advice

In the January 2009 issue of The OARacle, OAR announced that it is looking for volunteers to help with the development of a new guidebook, Life Journey through Autism: A Guide for Military Families. In addition to having a hard-copy resource guide for each parent and family, OAR is also creating a Web-based resource accessible to military families wherever they live. The work of producing these resources has begun, and OAR is looking for additional volunteers to help with this very important project.

Specifically, OAR is seeking help from military parents and families that have first-hand experience raising a child with autism and are willing to contribute to either the hard-copy guidebook or Web-based resource by writing or collecting information and suggestions to address the following topics:

• How to handle and cope with the frequent transitions and moves in the military
• How to identify the right schools
• How to find local treatments, services, resources, and support groups
• Continuity of care
• Transition to civilian life/healthcare
• Tips for other military families (services, PCS moves, sibling support, handling deployments, etc.)

Anyone interested in assisting with this project should contact Mike Maloney, OAR Executive Director, by phone at (703) 243-9727 or e-mail: volunteer@researchautism.org.

Altruistic Ascent for Autism Approaches
Mt. Kilimanjaro Looms!

In January of this year, OAR introduced a young woman who decided to go where no OAR fundraiser has gone before: to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro!  Sarah Carter, a recent Harvard graduate on her way to medical school, decided to perform this feat in honor of her younger brother, Aaron, who has an autism diagnosis.  With her trip to Tanzania now less than a month away, Carter has been busy getting herself prepared for the climb.

Carter has faithfully taken herself to the gym for five to six workouts a week so that she will climb in top physical shape. On a recent trip to Maine, Carter also went out for several long training hikes.  She will continue to train diligently until the week before she leaves.  “That week,” Carter explains, “is supposed to be a ‘rest’ week, so I'll take several days off from working out before flying out to Tanzania.”

Of course, her mind also needs a good workout.  Aside from reading plenty of books about the mountain, Carter has also been getting advice from those who have made the trip before.  Since this is her first climb, she’s tried to absorb all the tricks and tips she can, especially regarding how to handle the change in altitude.  “I'm pretty confident in my physical ability, but it does seem that everyone reacts differently to being in high altitude -- I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my acclimatization is relatively smooth!”

Preparing her body and mind are not the only hurdles Carter needs to clear before making her trip across the world.  She recently acquired her travel visa and is also in the process of getting all her vaccinations.  She is also assembling equipment capable of handling the rough terrain and cold temperatures of this trek. 

Reading about her preparations and purchases, such as her most recent acquisition, a North Face sleeping bag rated to zero degrees, has been a fascinating learning experience for those following Carter’s blog, located at http://firstclimb.typepad.com/weblog.

As if climbing a mountain was not enough to attract attention for OAR and applied autism research, Carter is also planning a concert on June 26.  Before sitting down with a few of her friends to play a variety of chamber music works, she will inform attendees about her climb and fundraising effort.  Afterwards, Carter will be able to talk with guests more informally about her reasons for the Ascent for Autism during a cocktail/dessert reception.

“I'm extremely excited about the trip, and, admittedly, also a little nervous,” she explains when asked about her upcoming climb.  Carter is hoping to use Twitter to provide updates during her trip and will bring along a camera to document the journey.

Carter has been raising funds for her Ascent for Autism since January 2009.  However, she still has far to go before she can hit her ultimate goal of $30,000, enough to fund a full research grant from OAR.  Recently, the owners of The Blue Iguana, a local restaurant in Fairfax, VA, have shown their tremendous generosity by donating $1,000 to her efforts. With this last gift, her fundraising total has been elevated to $1,700.

To help Carter with her cause, visit OAR’s donation page and be sure to choose "Sarah Carter's Climb" from the Program Area drop-down menu. For more information about Carter, visit www.researchautism.org/news/otherevents/AscentforAutism.asp.

A Perfect Match
Interns and OAR Hit It Off

This summer, OAR is lucky to have two talented and hard-working interns in the office. We are happy to introduce them to all of our readers in this article.

Kate Rice

Kate Rice is enjoying the opportunity to work with OAR and hopes to work with people with autism spectrum disorders.

Kate Rice found OAR through a Google search and she’s thrilled she did. A 2009 graduate of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, Rice has a degree in liberal studies with a minor in special education. “I knew right away after interviewing that if I were offered the intern position that I would take it,” she declared.

Since beginning her internship in mid-May, Rice has been working on OAR’s guide for military families.

When she finishes her internship at the end of July, Rice hopes to continue working within the autism community. “My passion is learning about and working with people with autism spectrum disorders. I plan to work directly with people and families affected by autism in creating change and influencing lives in a positive way.”

Danielle Kruglak

Danielle Kruglak has worked with autistic children and is glad to work with OAR "behind the scenes" on autism research.

OAR’s second summer intern, Danielle Kruglak, joined OAR soon after Rice did and expects to wrap up her time at the OAR offices at the end of July as well. She searched for an internship opportunity that would be close to her family home in Potomac, MD, and give her a chance to work in an autism organization.

“I have a lot of experience working with autistic children, so I was looking for an opportunity to try something new, a little bit more 'behind the scenes.’ Also, having spoken with Mike [Maloney, OAR’s executive director], OAR seemed like a fantastic organization.”

Kruglak has enjoyed working on several OAR programs, including the guide for military families, the RUN FOR AUTISM, and the research grants.

She attends Vanderbilt University where she is double-majoring in French and medicine, health and society, which is an inter-disciplinary major that is best explained as medicine from all different perspectives (philosophical, biological, political, etc.). She will be starting her junior year in the fall.

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FOCUS ON OAR RESEARCH
From Academy to Community: School-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

In 2008, OAR funded six research projects. Since the beginning of 2009, The OARacle has featured those research projects in the newsletter. This month’s featured research project examines the benefits of school-based cognitive behavioral therapy for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

How Will This Study Help People with Autism and Their Families?

Children with ASD may be at increased risk for development of anxiety and depression and related conditions. Approximately 40 percent of elementary school students with ASD meet criteria for a co-occurring anxiety disorder. Left untreated, anxiety disorders can severely impact a child’s ability to function and learn in academic, home, and social environments.  It has been found that children with ASD who have elevated anxiety levels have even greater deficits in their social skills compared to children with ASD who do not suffer from anxiety. 

Currently, no intervention programs meeting APA criteria for empirical support have been effectively disseminated. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has a large evidence base and has been found to be among the most effective and robust psychosocial treatments for children with anxiety disorders.

OAR-funded researcher Jeffrey James Wood, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Psychological Studies inEducation, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, at the University of California, Los Angeles, and his colleagues recently developed a successful treatment manual featuring a modular CBT model with a large parent-training component.  Subsequently, they adapted this CBT format for children with autism and Asperger syndrome.

The program is showing promising evidence of significantly improving anxiety (approximately an 80 percent positive treatment response rate in the first clinical trial) as well as ASD-specific areas of impairment such as social initiation and self-help skills

Despite its promise, the use of CBT has not been disseminated within the autism community, which is one component of the OAR-funded study. Effective dissemination efforts involve ongoing training and supervision by expert practitioners familiar with the intervention protocol to fine-tune the treatment implementation by community providers and to ensure effective uptake of the techniques.  Much effort must be expended in tasks such as monitoring progress toward expected outcomes during the therapy process as well as promoting practitioner and family “buy-in” for the new treatment.  Some community practitioners may not initially agree with the concept of a structured, manual-based intervention practice and may require additional training and time to gain support for a new method in community settings.  In short, despite the efficacy of this treatment shown in a university research setting, it will require considerable time, effort and resources to ensure that a psychosocial intervention, such as CBT, is skillfully deployed throughout community settings.  The need for research in this area is underscored given the significant number of affected children in the United States.

Describe the Study.

The proposed study will involve training community practitioners to implement a cognitive behavioral intervention for the treatment of anxiety in children with autism. The practitioners, who will consist of therapists and speech-language pathologists, will be selected from the Help Group’s Village Glen School, a Los Angeles area school specializing in the education of children with autism.  The Behavioral Interventions for Anxiety in Children with Autism (BIACA) project at UCLA, which was developed with funding from the Cure Autism Now (Autism Speaks) Foundation, has proven to be an efficacious treatment targeting anxiety, social adjustment, and adaptive functioning skills in children with autism spectrum disorders. 

The on-site school practitioners will be trained to conduct weekly cognitive behavioral therapy sessions with children and their parents as well as the entire family.  The intervention incorporates traditional anxiety treatment components including coping skills training (e.g., cognitive restructuring), in vivo exposure, operant procedures, and parent communication techniques.  Additional treatment components have been added to enhance intervention response specific to children with autism spectrum disorders, including emotion education, social skills/friendship skills training, and peer tutoring/mentoring modules. 

The proposed project will take an initial step in disseminating this state-of-the-art treatment into the community.  Dissemination efforts will emphasize education of community practitioners on the use of a modular treatment model, as well as providing weekly supervision (ongoing training and consultation) to ensure fidelity of intervention implementation.  This modular treatment approach provides practitioners with flexibility to accommodate the wide range of clinical profiles characteristic of this population. 

Children’s outcomes will be assessed through parent, teacher, and child reports as well as in-vivo behavioral playground observations to determine if the treatment is having the expected positive impact, and to guide further training and supervision efforts.

What is the Practical Relevance?

Fulfilling a Need in the Community: Development of empirically supported treatments for children with ASD and co-occurring anxiety continues to be a high priority. At present, the generalizability to community service settings has yet to be determined.  Moreover, disseminating evidence-based treatments to front line service providers in the community significantly improves cost-effectiveness of ASD interventions.

Making a Difference in the Lives of Families with ASD: CBT has been found to affect not just children’s emotional adjustment, but also social skills, academic outcomes, and behavioral problems. This CBT program for children with ASD is showing promising evidence of improving ASD-specific areas of impairment such as social initiations and self-help skills as well as addressing stereotyped behavior, perseveration, social isolation, and reciprocal communication.

Significance to the Autism Community: Currently, most community-based service practitioners have had little training and supervision in CBT.  By training such practitioners to implement an efficacious treatment in a school-based setting in the community, the researchers hope to begin the process of wide-scale training of practitioners in techniques that may make a substantial impact on the lives of higher-functioning children with ASD and co-occurring anxiety.  By testing the dissemination of an efficacious treatment in the community, the researchers offer a step forward in disseminating methods for providing empirically based intervention to families throughout the country, not just those fortunate enough to live near a major medical research center conducting clinical research.

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RUN FOR AUTISM News

Join Mike (Maloney) and Peter (Gerhardt) in the 10K
Rally Round for a Great RUN at the Marine Corps Marathon/10K

The bad news: Registration for the 2009 Marine Corps Marathon/10K, scheduled for October 25, is closed.

The good news: You can still register to run with OAR’s charity entries.

Even better news: You can join OAR Executive Director Mike Maloney and President Peter Gerhardt, Ed.D., as they sprint (okay, slog) through the 10K’s 6.2 miles. 

Or you can recruit a team of your friends, colleagues, and family to run the marathon or 10K with you.

All OAR runners receive a custom race shirt and t-shirt, training and fundraising guide, personal fundraising webpage, invitation to the Runner’s Recognition Dinner, and staff support.  Those who raise $250 or more also receive a free registration for the Seventh Annual Applied Autism Research and Intervention Conference on October 23-24.

For more information or to register and join the team, please go to OAR’s Web site at www.runforautism.org or e-mail run@researchautism.org.

Summer RUNning Has Never Been Better
Join The OAR Team in Virginia Beach or Philadelphia

RUN FOR AUTISM is forming teams for the Rock ‘N’ Roll Virginia Beach Half Marathon & Relay and the ING Philly Distance Run. 

The Rock ‘N’ Roll Virginia Beach Half Marathon will be held on the Sunday (September 6) of Labor Day Weekend.  This year, event organizers have added a new two-person Relay option.  If a half marathon isn’t in your reach right now, the Relay offers you and a friend the chance to each run 6.55 miles each to equal a half marathon.

Next Up: Philadelphia

Can’t make Virginia Beach? Then join OAR a few weeks later for the ING Philadelphia Distance Run on Sunday, September 20. This classic has ranked as the premier half marathon in the United States for the past 30 years.

To join the RUN FOR AUTISM in either event, get details on our Web site at: www.runforautism.org or e-mail run@researchautism.org.

OAR Overruns Cleveland with a Record 70 Runners

On May 17, more than 70 runners and walkers participated in the marathon, half marathon, or 10K as part of OAR’s team and raised over $31,355 for autism research. That’s more than six times the number of runners on OAR’s 2008 team and almost 10 times the money raised.

What happened? OAR by the Shore! Led by Jessica Hirz, Team “Running for OAR on the Shore” included 42 runners and walkers, made up of her friends and parents and teachers from the Lear North Elementary School where Hirz teaches. (Read more about “Running for OAR on the Shore” and Jessica Hirz below.)

Then there were some outstanding individual fundraisers.  Three-time RUN FOR AUTISM participant Rod Lauredo was the top fundraiser for the event, raising nearly $7,000.  Other top fundraisers include Kyle Cheney, who raised $5,875 and Lauri Ashburn who raised $2,103.

OAR thanks ASA Ohio, ASA Greater Cleveland, and Milestones for their help in publicizing the RUN FOR AUTISM – Cleveland and all the runners, walkers, and volunteers who participated. We appreciate your efforts!

Next year’s marathon is scheduled for Sunday, May 16.

For information on the next RUN FOR AUTISM – Cleveland or other opportunities to be part of the 2010 RUN FOR AUTISM team, visit OAR’s Web site, www.researchautism.org, or contact OAR’s Run staff at (866) 366-9710 (toll-free); e-mail: run@researchautism.org.

Multiplying the Return
OAR by the Shore Makes Waves for OAR

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"Running for OAR by the Shore" brought together 44 people to run for OAR in May's Cleveland Marathon/Half-Marathon/10K.

The 2009 OAR team for the Cleveland Marathon and 10K grew to more than six times the size of the 2008 team. The reason why can be summed up in two words: Jessica Hirz.

As a Lear North Elementary School teacher of students with special needs, including autism, Hirz understands the challenges that families face. In fact, this past year, Hirz taught a class completely made up of students with autism.  As a runner, she enjoys setting up physical challenges for herself. So when she found out at the 2008 Cleveland Marathon that she could create a team to raise money for an organization devoted to autism research, there was no question that she would do it.

By dawn of race day, May 17, Hirz had recruited 44 people, who teamed together as “Running for OAR by the Shore” to raise $13,000 at the Cleveland Marathon, Half Marathon, and 10K. “Most of our members were from the school.  I also had some family and friends of mine who joined.  All of my students' parents were involved, including two sets of aunts and uncles and a set of grandparents, too!”

Recruiting people, she says, wasn’t hard at all. “I sent a mass e-mail to my friends, family, school personnel, and the parents of students in my classroom. I held three introductory meetings to get the team motivated to begin training and fundraising.”  The whole experience, from recruitment to race day, was fun for her and the team, she recalls. The only blight on the process was that she injured herself in the Columbus Half Marathon last fall and then came down with strep throat the week before, which meant she couldn’t run in the Cleveland event.

Otherwise, she says, “the most fun was getting everyone together for training and sharing and hearing stories.  The bond that we were all able to form was pretty amazing.  I am so grateful for that.”

Even the part that many RUN participants worry about—fundraising—turned out to be a “great time. Several of us did some group fundraising and a guest bartending event.  One of our members, Lauri Ashburn, did Dine to Donate. She ran a bake sale, sold t-shirts, and had a huge turnout!  It was a pretty incredible event.”

Hirz was the team’s chief training motivator, holding group runs on Saturday morning and doing her individual training during the week.

Team member Tara Greiner says that her participation was a “great first experience. I actually trained and got myself running when I planned to walk, which is a huge accomplishment for me. At the race, I was amazed by what people will do for a loved one and a cause they truly believe in. I started to think about all of the individuals I have met and worked withwho have autism or autism as a part of their lives in some way and how important research and funding is for all of them.”

There is no question in Hirz’s mind that the event is worth repeating. “We plan to participate again next May!”

To those who are thinking about running for OAR, alone or as a part of a team, Hirz is definitive in her advice, “DO IT!!  It's such a rewarding experience!”

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