My Remarks on Knoebels’ Autistic Acceptance Day

Posted on July 7, 2025

I have been asked to give a few remarks on my induction and the photo of me that has been placed on the “Wall of Important People with Autism” at the Knoebels Amusement Resort. I was asked to speak about “How to become a well-established autism self-advocate in my community.”

Well, it probably started a year or so after I joined a newly formed adult autism disorder support group known as Spectrum Friends. The leader of the initial three-person group was a women named Georgia Rackley. She wanted a way to make our newly formed group into the outside autism community. So, I volunteered to find someone to speak to at a later group meeting. When I look back now, I wonder how in the world I got myself into this. After I sent email invites to important people that I had heard of, I did get positive responses back. After all these years I cannot recall every single person who spoke to our group or what the topic they spoke about. The two most influential people I did get were Nina Wall, the former Director of the Bureau of Autism Resources and Special Populations, and Dennis O’Brien, a former speaker of the Pennsylvania House and was working at Philadelphia Behavioral Health.

This is where my life took a turn for the better. In 2017 I got a call from Dennis O’Brien that I was to receive the Dennis O’Brien Autism Advocacy award. I thought he was pulling my leg but low and behold he was not. So, in April 2017 I was to receive this award down in the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, PA. The event took place at the Philadelphia District School Building during an autism fair. My eldest sister, Sue, joined me on this special day and was in the audience cheering me on. Both Nina and Dennis gave some of the nicest remarks about me and Spectrum Friends. Then it was time for the award and my acceptance speech. After my speech ended, I got a standing ovation.

That is where my autism advocacy life started.

Not long after the ceremony I was offered an autism subcommittee assignment, and the race was on. Shortly after, more autism related projects would come knocking at my door and have continued for over the last decade. Plus, in 2017 I was given the reigns of the adult group Spectrum Friends, after my friends, Chris Previc and Samantha Christ, stepped down from leading the group. I still get guest speakers from time to time for group meetings and some of these speakers have become friends of mine.

In 2021, my life would take another surprising turn when a member of our adult group nominated me for a Disability Award from the American Public Health Association and again my sister Sue was in attendance. Unfortunately, just over two and a half years ago she passed away suddenly. I hope she is looking down on me today along with my parents and relatives and beaming with pride from what I have accomplished. Today I am involved with varied autism projects which include three different autism research projects, an autism /disability podcast, two different disability /autism employment forums and an advisor to the Self Advocates United as One board. I am also a blogger for the ASDNext website, and a member of the Pennsylvania Developmental Disabilities Council’s Self Advocates network.

In closing, I would like to thank the Greater Harrisburg Autism Society Affiliate board members past and present who took me under their wings and taught me how to become a board member. And I would like to thank my new friends at the Self Advocates United as 1 board and Kaye Anderson. Plus, I do not want to forget members of Spectrum Friends adult but most of all I want to give a big thank you to Mr. Mitchell Roshanon from Knoebels who offered me to be enshrined on the wall with those other notable individuals with autism.