FBLA X Best Buddies: Autism Awareness Week

AUTISM AWARENESS PHOTO COURTESY OF EUNSU LEE

FBLA x Best Buddies

HENRY MA writer

Throughout January 21 to January 24, the Community Service Project Chair of FBLA and Best Buddies hosted an Autism Awareness Week with different activities hosted on different days of the week. This is one of the few times that organizations other than ASB have held an Awareness Week. In the past, FBLA has also hosted different weeks, a good example being the AE week. Junior Eunsu Lee, Community Service Project Chair of FBLA directed this week along with the Best Buddies Club to raise awareness for autism in our community.

FBLA and the Best Buddies Club have also made different adjustments for their Autism Awareness Week. They have shortened the Awareness month into a week and decided to move Autism Awareness Week from April to January. Created in 2010, the main purpose of the creation of Autism Awareness month was to recognize people living with autism. During this month, there would be events and educational activities to increase the understanding and support of autism. As of 2017, 170 countries from all over the globe participate in Autism Awareness month.

Similar to the Autism Awareness month, FBLA has also included fun activities into their Autism Awareness Week. Each day of the week had specific activities centered around the idea of having the most outreach to the student body.

The very first activity that FBLA hosted was the distribution of stickers. This decision was made because sticker distribution was one of the most efficient and appealing ways to connect with the student body. All the stickers had a color scheme of blue and held different interesting facts.

The next day, FBLA decided to

include a more interactive activity deciding to host a crafts day. Just like the decisions of sticker distribution, there was also a specific reason that crafts day was chosen. Said Lee, “We did a craft with Best Buddies and we did it because we really wanted to incorporate the ASD community into our autism awareness week.” During this event, the ASD community were making stress balls by using balloons and a choice of clay or circular beans.

After the interactive activities with Best Buddies, FBLA released an informative video on various social medias including Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. The video included differ

ent facts about autism like the fact that autism spectrum disorder is the fastest-growing developmental disorders in the United States. At one of FBLA’s chapter meetings that week, Lee and her committee organized members to create stress balls that are used to help those with autism.

On January 30, a week after the initial Autism Awareness week, Jennifer Kozciki, the guest speaker, spoke about her role in Easterseals Bays Area and the role of the company in the ASD community. Easterseals Bay Area, a company that has been around for over 90 years, provides services to people with disabilities to help them to

play, learn, and live to their full potential. The overall goal that Easter Seals Bay Area tries to achieve is change the way the world views and defines autism.

Through the hard work of the two large clubs, this year’s autism awareness week was carefully planned out and successful in its goals : to help the student body gain a better understanding of autism.