For Immediate Release
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Life, Animated author to keynote Easter Seals Central Texas event
Austin, Texas, July 18, 2014
Media Contact:
Susan Savkov
512-615-6894
http://www.easterseals.com/centraltx/
AUSTIN, Texas – Easter Seals Central Texas (ESCT) has tapped Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Life, Animated Ron Suskind to keynote their Aug. 21 fundraiser, which will raise money for the region’s community of people with disabilities.
Suskind will discuss his new book, Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism, which chronicles his family’s 20-year struggle with their youngest son’s autism. Owen, who was diagnosed with regressive autism at 3, was able to relate to others and develop life skills through his affinity for and deep connection to Disney movies.
Owen’s love of Disney movies was the one remaining link to the child he was before his autism developed. The family saw an opportunity to connect with their lost son through animated characters and began to communicate with him in movie dialogue. Astonishingly, he responded. As Owen progressed through childhood and adolescence, Suskind came to know his son through animated characters and watched Owen grasp his own experiences through the lens of the stories he knew so well.
“Disney provided raw material, publicly available and ubiquitous, that Owen, with our help, built into a language and a tool kit,” Suskind says. “There’s a reason – a good-enough reason – that each autistic person has embraced a particular interest. Find that reason, and you will find them, hiding in there, and maybe get a glimpse of their underlying capacities.”
Like Owen’s connection to all-things Disney, ESCT’s Next Chapter Book Club serves as a vehicle for those living with disabilities to discuss life issues, talk through skill development and give context to difficulties they may be experiencing every day.
The Next Chapter Book Club Luncheon is Aug. 21 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Individual tickets are $125 and include lunch. Table tickets are also available. Ticket and sponsorship information is available at www.eastersealsevents.org.
The Next Chapter Book Club program gives individuals with disabilities and developmental delays a place to make friends and socialize, as well as discover a new story. These weekly meetings provide an opportunity to gather adolescents and adults with intellectual disabilities to promote literacy and social interaction experiences that encourage friendship and lifelong learning within a community-based setting.
Ron Suskind is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist. He is a frequent commentator on network television and has been a contributor for The New York Times Magazine and Esquire. Suskind was the Wall Street Journal’s senior national affairs reporter from 1993 to 2000, and won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. For more information about Suskind or Life, Animated, visit www.ronsuskind.com.
Easter Seals programs across the country provide a wide variety of interventions that help individuals of all abilities, including those with autism spectrum disorder. Easter Seals Central Texas provides more than 8,500 children and adults with disabilities with resources and support to meet their needs. ESCT provides patient-centered services such as outpatient physical, occupational, audiological and speech therapy, as well as paid job training, independent living programs and the Next Chapter Book Club for people in 21 counties in Central Texas. For information about Easter Seals Central Texas, please visit www.easterseals.com/centraltx.
