UNION, NJ — In honor of Autism Awareness Month, Here’s the Story bookstore in Union Center had a virtual Stay-at-Home story time, featuring guest Elsie Mackey, chairperson of Union Township’s Americans with Disabilities Act Committee, reading the children’s books ‘My Brother Charlie’ and ‘We’re Amazing 1, 2, 3,’ on Friday, April 30. Both books focus on autism.
“Today, we’re going to talk more about autism awareness, since it’s Autism Awareness Month in April,” Here’s the Story owner Joe Leo said in a conversation with Mackey on Friday, April 30. “It’s amazing to think that autism affects everybody’s life. I think it’s really important to get as much information and education out there as possible.”
For Mackey, the month has a very significant place in her heart; one of her three children, Julian, now 16 and a twin, has autism. Mackey explained that the family works around Julian, but it has been important to them to educate children about autism and foster autism awareness.
“My son, Julian, has autism, and I am the chairperson of Union Township’s ADA Committee. It’s an amazing job to have, and it’s definitely necessary, as one community for our people,” Mackey said on Friday, April 30.
Mackey shared her own experiences with her son. “When we first started, I knew at nine months something was off about Julian, but we got the official diagnosis when he was 18 months old. The information and resources that we have now just didn’t exist.”
Maxkie said she looked at her son then and vowed that, not only would she make sure he would make it, but that all children similar to him would make it, too.
“We’ve really worked our way up to get initiatives out there,” she said. “Advocate, awareness, the support. I think that’s what the key is in advocating for our people with disabilities, our children, our adults, because he’s now a teenager, so I have a whole new journey now.
“We’re a whole family unit, and it’s really interesting because we all work around Julian. He’s like the glue of our family that bonds us together,” she added.
Mackey said her goal is to spread autism awareness.
“We have this picture. Julian’s in the middle, and all of us are together, but we navigate the challenges and complexities of autism with love,” Mackey said. “It’s not easy, because we’re living in a society where awareness is just not there as much as we’d like it. My mission, my goal and my life is to ensure that children with disabilities, adults with disabilities, children with mental health concerns, adults with mental health concerns, all of the above are supported, loved, honored, respected and cared for.
“I think a lot of people don’t realize. We hear about Autism Awareness Month, the month of April, we see the blue, we see the puzzle pieces, but it’s bigger than that,” she continued. “It affects not only the children, or the person, or the adult, but the family members, the teachers, the support staff, the speech pathologist, the occupational therapists. It is a huge entity to take on.”
During the segment, Mackey praised the book ‘My Brother Charlie,’ written by Holly Robinson Peete and her daughter, Ryan Elizabeth Peete. Ryan Elizabeth’s brother, Rodney Peete Jr., also a twin, has had to deal with autism as well.
“It’s amazing, because this is one of the books that I bought for Jules (Julian) and his twin brother, J.J.,” Mackey said. “I was so excited, because you didn’t really find books like this for children on the spectrum, but more so, for his brother, because a lot of times, we forget that the child with autism has a whole village, and this was a key book for us.”
For more information about autism, visit www.autismawareness.com, the New Jersey Developmental Disabilities Advocacy Network at www.njddan.org or the Union Township ADA webpage.