The chance of a child being born with autism in America is 1 in 88. In Utah the chances are doubled to every child in 47 being born with autism. “We don’t know why it’s happening,” said Tiffany Davies. “We just know it is, and we need to fight it. Davies did not discover her son Taden was mildly autistic until he was eighteen months. She knew something was wrong when he did not begin walking until he was fifteen months old and did not speak until he was three years old. “It was scary,” she said. Davies, however, knew her son was special and began taking steps to help him.
“People don’t realize he’s autistic until they get to know him. He’s not different in a bad way. He’s different in a special way.”
Because she knows her son is special as well as other autistic children in the community, Davies organized a 5K run for March 30 through Autism Awareness to raise awareness of and compassion for people with autism. “People tend to be afraid of autism. There are hundreds of levels of autism. We shouldn’t veer from those people.”
The fundraiser 5K run for Autism Speaks, an organization that raises awareness autism, will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 30 at 315 W. 500 S. in Fillmore. The event will cost $15 for individual runners, $12 for groups with 5-10 people and $10 for families of ten or more. Signup for the event will be Saturday morning at 8 a.m.
After the run, a free bagel bar will be available for runners, and will cost $5 for anyone else interested. A bouncy house will be available for children, and a balloon launch will take place after the race. For the balloon launch, one may take a balloon, write the name of a person they know with autism, and enter it. At a certain time, the balloons will be released to remind people of the number of people affected by autism.
Throughout the day shirts will be available for parents of autistic children to write something special about their child on, so others will know how special their child is. The children will then wear the shirt throughout the event. Davies plans on writing that her son Taden is an expert on sharks. Amounts of the shirts are limited, so she encourages parents to come early if they want a shirt for their child
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