Tuesday, August 07, 2007

In the news.........

Publication:Union Daily Times;

Date:Aug 7, 2007;

Section:Front Page;

Page Number:1


Local drag racing team joins couple’s fight against autism

By CHARLES L. WARNER Staff Writer

A card from the father of an autistic child led to Team Aruba joining the fight against autism.

Team Aruba is a professional drag-racing team that located to Union County earlier this year. Crew member Tom Lukans was shown a very special card by local businessman Gator Hudson, designed by Hudson’s wife, Betsy, to inform the public about autism and Fragile X Syndrome (FXS). The Hudsons’ son, Kyle, was diagnosed with autism at the age of 3 1/2 and with FXS at age 4. Kyle’s story is included on the card, which is designed to look like his business card.

Seeing the card moved Lukans to start the process that resulted in Team Aruba becoming a rolling advertisement for “Autism Speaks,” the
organization dedicated to finding a cure for the disease. Lukans, along with Team Aruba driver Burt Kelkboom, his son, Shawn and crew chief Andre Loonstra joined with the Hudsons to announce Team Aruba’s plans during an interview on WBCU radio Monday morning.

“The card’s quite overwhelming and my first words were, ‘What can we do to help?’” Lukans said. “‘We have a car, we have a trailer, can we publicize this in any way?’”

Hudson responded by putting Lukans in contact with Lara Collazo, corporate development manager for Autism Speaks. That led to a special “Proud To Be A Supporter Of Autism Speaks” logo being placed on the team’s race car and trailer. The logo was on display last weekend when the team was in Bristol, Tenn., and when it travels to New Hampshire this weekend.

“As we travel down the highway, people can be aware of it,” Lukans said. “From there we discussed a few other things, what our itinerary was for the rest of the year and how close we are to certain areas. We’re going to have the car and rig on display at Charlotte Motor Speedway for Autism Walks Oct. 6.”

The “Carolinas Walk for Now for Autism” is an annual event staged by Autism Speaks to raise awareness of the condition and generate money for research. In 2006, the walk attracted 3,000 participants and raised more than $240,000. The money raised is used to help fund global biomedical research into the causes, prevention, treatment and cure for autism.

The fifth annual walk will be held Oct. 6 and participants will include a team from Union County called Team Aruba/Union, S.C. Tourism. The walk team grew out of Team Aruba’s discussions of carrying the Autism Now logo on its vehicles.

“From there it prompted us to say ‘Why can’t we have a walk team?’ Lukans said. “So Gator and Betsy started putting together a walk team that has over a hundred members walking in it already. That’s fabulous and we just got started.

“We’re going to have the car on display, we’re going to have a walk team that’s a joint venture with Team Aruba and Union County Tourism Commission,” he said. “We’re going to have special T-shirts designed with the car on the back and on the front it’ll have ‘Honorary Crew Member for Team Aruba.’ That’s what our walkers are going to have and that’s what we’re going to have through some of the other special events that we’re going to do throughout the rest of this year with the autism programs.”

The team has also brought together Autism Speaks with an autism foundation in Aruba. This led to contacts between the two organizations which are now working together on a joint venture on the island.

———To learn more about Team Aruba and its activities log on at www.teamarubamotorsports.com.

For more information about the Oct. 6 Carolinas Walk for Now for Autism, log on at www.walknowforautism.org/carolinas.


Fragile X Syndrome a genetic condition that leads to autism

By CHARLES L. WARNER Staff Writer


When Betsy Hudson gave birth to her son, Kyle, she didn’t know she’d passed on a neurological condition that will affect him the rest of his life.

Kyle Hudson, 4, has autism and Fragile X Syndrome (FXS). The latter is a genetic condition which can cause a child to have autism, which impairs a person’s ability to communicate and relate to others.
“It is genetic, it was passed down from me; we were not aware of anything in our family,” Mrs. Hudson said. “It came down from my father’s side.”

Mrs. Hudson and her husband, Gator, joined the members of Team Aruba on WBCU radio Monday morning to discuss autism and FXS and local efforts to raise awareness of the conditions. Mrs. Hudson has designed a card that tells about her son being diagnosed with autism and FXS. Her husband showed the card to a member of Team Aruba which led to the team getting involved with “Autism Speaks,” a group that raises awareness of autism and generates funds for medical research.
The card also describes the conditions.

Fragile X


The card describes FXS as being able to cause a child to have either autism or Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) “though not all children with fragile X syndrome have autism or an ASD. Fragile X is a family of genetic conditions, which can impact individuals and families in various ways. These genetic conditions are related in that they are all caused by gene changes in the same gene, called the FMR1 gene.”


Like all women, Mrs. Hudson has two X chromosomes while men have an X and a Y chromosome. FXS occurs when the FMR1 gene on an X chromosome does not get enough protein for normal growth and development. She said that since she has two X chromosomes and the genetic abnormality was passed on to her by her father, she was not affected. Since Kyle has only one X chromosome and the condition was passed on to him by her, he developed FXS.
(Girls can as develop FXS as well but it is not as common as among boys.)

Autism


The card describes autism as “a complex neurobiological disorder that typically lasts throughout a person’s lifetime. It is part of a group of disorders known as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

“Today, 1 in 150 individuals is diagnosed with autism, making it more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes and AIDS combined. It occurs in all racial, ethnic and social groups and is four times more likely to strike boys than girls.


“Autism impairs a person’s ability to communicate and relate to others. It is also associated with rigid routines and repetitive behaviors, such as obsessively arranging objects or following very specific routines. Symptoms can range from very mild to quite severe.”


Mrs. Hudson said that to look at her son you wouldn’t know he was autistic, until you tried to talk to him.
“He is not verbal and he gets very frustrated by that because he cannot communicate with us, but he does kind of do some sign language and we’ve kind of learned some of the things he’s trying to tell us,” she said. “He goes to Spartanburg Regional and has occupational and speech therapy. He gets speech therapy through an early intervention class at Foster Park (Elementary School). He will be back in this class this year and he will get the same thing there.”

Despite his lack of verbal skills, Kyle, like many with autism, is intelligent and creative.
“They’re very creative and they’re very smart,” Mrs. Hudson said. “He is not verbal, he cannot communicate really what he’s trying to get across, but you hand him a flashlight and he’ll take it apart and put it back together.”

Mrs. Hudson welcomed the involvement of Team Aruba in promoting autism awareness and in helping raise money for autism research.
“People aren’t aware, we want to make them aware,” she said. “We’re trying to make everyone be more considerate of parents and of children with autism, because you get looks. Like ‘Why can’t you control your child!’ and there’s nothing you can do sometimes. We want to raise money because the money going to Autism Speaks is for autism research so that we can hopefully find a cure for autism.”

For more information about autism and FXS, log on at one of these websites:

• betsygatorh@yahoo.com

• www.autismspeaks.org

• www.fragilex.org
• www.autisticourchurchchunkymonkey.blogspot.com.

Monday, August 06, 2007

On the radio......

WBCU 1460AM Radio

RACING TEAM WITH LOCAL TIES TO PROMOTE AUTISM AWARENESS

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Tuesday, August 7

A car racing team based out of Union is helping to spread the word about autism by supporting Autism Speaks, a network started to raise awareness about the condition.

Team Aruba, an all-Aruban racing team that travels to the US and back to race in the NMRA Pro Stock category, is based stateside out of Union, and a chance meeting with a local parent of a child with autism led the team to provide support.

The racing team decided to provide assistance after receiving information from Gator and Betsy Hudson, two Union residents whose son, Kyle, suffers from autism and fragile x syndrome. Fragile x is a genetic disorder known to be the most common cause of inherited mental impairment, which can range from learning disabilities to more severe cognitive or intellectual disabilities. The disorder is also the most common known cause of autism.

Tom Lukan, of Team Aruba, said he asked, “What can we do to help?” after Gator Hudson came into the team’s shop with an awareness card his wife had designed. The information on the card was overwhelming, according to Lukon.

The team’s decision led to several phone calls and connection with Autism Speaks, and now the team’s cars and trailer are the first to sport a special logo identifying it as a proud supporter of the organization. Team Aruba is the first to display the special logo on racecars and trailers.

A Team Aruba car will be on display during an autism walk at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 6, and an autism awareness walk team has been put together, as a joint venture between Team Aruba and the Union County Tourism Commission; Union's walk team is being organized by the Hudsons. More than 100 people have already signed up to be a part of Union's team. Proceeds raised from the walk go toward researching a cure for autism.

For more information on the walk, or autism in general, e-mail Gator and Betsy Hudson at betsygatorh@yahoo.com. The Hudsons also have a website, www.autisticourchunkymonkey.blogspot.com.

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Sunday, August 05, 2007

TUNE IN!

We will be on our local radio station Monday, August 5th to announce locally that Team Aruba is a proud supporter of Autism Speaks! You can listen to us online (being streamed especially for the island of Aruba and Autism Speaks!) on WBCU AM 1460 in the morning at 9am EST (until 10am) to hear all the details. Hope you all tune it!

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

What Can We Do?

I know you are wondering where we’ve been lately………..well you won’t believe it! I had started (and just posted last night) a “Christmas in July” post with pictures of Kyle at Christmas and was going to then do one with pictures from his birthday party 12-23-06…..with Kyle in shorts! You would have really thought it was July!



Anyway, I have designed a business card with Kyle’s diagnosis history of Autism and FXS that includes his blog and the websites for Autism Speaks (AS) and National Fragile X Foundation (NFXF). Gator handed one to Tom Lukan with Team Aruba (TA) Motorsports…..drag racing team from the island of Aruba who are making their US home base here in Union. Gator knew that Tom did not have Internet access, but thought he might have a chance one day to look at Kyle’s blog. The next words out of Tom’s mouth were “What can we do to help?”. We never dreamed what would happen next (details to be announced at a later date)!!!!!




Tom asked us to contact Autism Speaks about being a sponsor and having their logo on TA’s drag cars and trailers. I emailed the Carolina division of AS and received a reply back saying their Corporate Development Manager, Lara, would be contacting Gator. Gator then put Lara in touch with Tom. After exchanging info. about TA, Union, and TA’s race schedule, Tom then asked how to make this go national.


Before the day was through, Tom and Lara were discussing Union and how to bring more awareness to the epidemic of Autism (we are waiting to see where this may lead us!!!) That was Thursday! By Saturday afternoon, we had the beginnings of a team to walk and raise money for AS at Lowe’s Motor Speedway on October 6th, 2000+ t-shirts being made to give to participants & more to sell to raise money! By this weekend the "Proud Supporter of Autism Speaks" logo will be on the TA trailer and car.


Tom has since made more phone calls and we have others involved! Tom has also arranged other things........of which we can not yet discuss. Bless Tom’s heart…he just kept asking “what can we do” and “what else can we do”. Needless to say, our lives have been very hectic……..oh we have therapy sessions, work, laundry, groceries, etc. to do in between organizing and raising money for all this!


Hang on gang; we are in for a wild ride!