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12/09/2015 07:30 AMIt’s said that one person—even a young person—can make a difference. In Guilford, Christen Backes is proving it’s true.
The Guilford High School (GHS) freshman was just 10 ½ years old when she decided she wanted to do something to help those living on the autism spectrum. Her efforts began that year, when, together with mom Jodi, Christen began volunteering at High Hopes. The therapeutic riding school in Old Lyme offers volunteer-assisted riding for special needs students.
Christen says she’s always been interested in becoming a special education teacher. A few years ago, when she was 5th grader at Baldwin Middle School, a teacher who knew about Christen’s work with High Hopes asked her if she might want to attend a special presentation.
“It was an Autism Unplugged presentation from a group called FOCUS that was going to be at St. Raphael’s Hospital,” says Christen. “She was organizing some teachers to go and she gave me a brochure and said I could come, too, if I thought it would be interesting to me.”
Christen went to the presentation with her mom (her mom’s maiden name gives Christen’s first name its unique spelling).
“It was two hours, and it was amazing!” says Christen of her first Austism Unplugged experience. “It made me realize how different things are, and how it’s not fair that people on the spectrum get treated that way. One thing that stayed with me is how one person described going to school was like going to a war zone. I’m not saying Guilford’s like that, but there’s definitely a lot of anxiety that has to go with going to school—the sounds and all the people and other stuff.”
Christen thought it was a powerful message, well worth sharing with more kids in the school populations.
“I just wanted people to have the knowledge..., so they could have compassion, and [so] that they could just be on the lookout for someone who might need help,” says Christen.
Earlier this school year, on Oct. 29, Christen realized her wish when she introduced hundreds of Guilford middle schoolers to speakers—many of them kids—who live with autism. The speakers, all members of Connecticut-based FOCUS Center for Autism, visited the students at Adams and Baldwin middle schools.
“They talked for 45 minutes at each school, and they each said what they liked about being on the autism spectrum and what they didn’t like,” says Christen. “They talked about what you can do to help someone out on the autism spectrum who might look like they’re having a difficult time. They also were open to questions, and all the kids’ questions were really good.”
The kids from FOCUS Center arrived thanks to funds raised last year by Christen, after she successfully wrote a Guilford Fund for Education (GFEE) grant request for $250 to sponsor the school visits. She also met with Baldwin Principal Doug Hammel and Adams Principal Catherine Walker. With the GFFE grant and the school principals’ enthusiastic support, Christen brought Autism Unplugged to both schools this fall.
For Yvonne Gardner, the operations coordinator for FOCUS Center for Autism, Christen’s efforts to help raise awareness couldn’t be timelier. On Nov. 13, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced the rate of children diagnosed with autism is now 1 in 45.
“It is only in the last 10 years that public knowledge, advocacy, and interventions have been accessible to kids and families with autism spectrum disease” or ASD, says Gardner. “Fifteen years ago Donna Swanson and Fred Evans realized what a tremendous need there was to help these kids and they created FOCUS. Their many programs have helped over 750 families, and now many alumni are coming back to let us know just how important FOCUS was to their lives.”
In honor of 15 years of helping children on the autism spectrum and their families, FOCUS 15 for 15, a GoFundMe campaign, has been launched via www.gofundme.com/FOCUS15for15
“The money will help us expand programs and create more opportunities for this growing population,” says Gardner, adding any donation, even just $15, “will all go toward making a difference to so many lives!”
Christen hopes her efforts might inspire others to help. She has already served as an inspiration for her mother, Two years ago, Jodi became a para-educator in the STEPS Room at Baldwin Middle School.
“I feel like a lot of times, we kind of model things to our children and show them what’s out there. And I feel like I am in the job I’m in because she showed me,” says Jodi. “This is my second school year doing this. I’m working to support kids with autism every day.”
Christen was a 5th grader when she began volunteering at the Guilford Community Center Special Olympics gymnastics program with Florence Chittenden, as well as volunteering several hours per week at High Hopes. She continues both today and also loves volunteering annually for a week-long immersion camp at High Hopes, for young children with autism.
A member of Girl Scouts for many years, as a cadet (Guilford Troop 62067) Christen recently earned her Silver Award. In addition, Christen plays the French horn in the GHS Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra and has just been named to the Southern New England Regional Band as well as to the GHS Spring Musical pit orchestra.
Christen’s abilities and effort to raise awareness about autism in her hometown have impressed Baldwin Middle School STEPS Program coordinator and teacher, Amy Albe.
“Christen is the model of a girl leader, an inspiration to a community of peers, and a humanitarian who sought to bring understanding, acceptance and tolerance of our autism community in Guilford Public Schools,” Albe says. “It is not often that a person, let alone a middle school student, seeks to improve the culture of our schools, and the initiative to act upon their own inspirations to serve others.”