Last week, my dad and I attended the Autism & Employment Conference at the 3M headquarters in St. Paul. The Autism Society of Minnesota has begun to put more time and energy into pushing employment for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and I couldn't be more pleased. In fact, this is something that has been at the forefront of my family's mind for the past few years. Trevor graduated from high school last May, and he is currently enrolled at St. Cloud State University as a part time student. (Last semester, he received straight A's! He rocks!). He is so proud to be a college student, but we still have to think about how he is going to support himself after college. It is nice to know that organizations like the Autism Society of Minnesota are paving the way for my brother's future. And, on another exciting note, I met Temple Grandin! For those of you who don't know who Temple Grandin is, Google her, check out the amazing movie "Thinking in Pictures" that is based on her life, and read her books! Dr. Grandin gives me hope for my brother's future!

This week at Awesome Club, we spent the first part of the day chatting, catching up, and enjoying some delicious chocolate chip cookies made by one our very own Awesome Club members. Several of the high schoolers were very excited for the career fair day, which was scheduled for Friday, February 25. It was a lot of fun to hear about everyone's dream jobs. (Looks like we're going to have some rock band members and high profile sports coaches in the future!). After chatting, we played some entertaining games, but the crowd favorite was obviously "Heads-up, 7-up." Some of the high schoolers were incredible, both at guessing who put down their thumb and picking people who wouldn't suspect them!

Written by Stephanie Smith, Edited by Natalie Davis

This week at Awesome Club we mixed up our usual routine and started out with game time. We split into two groups for In a Pickle and Apples to Apples. Given the success of Heads-Up Seven-Up last week, we spent some time with that, but everyone is getting too good at it! The boys had no problem guessing who had tapped their thumb. After that we tried a new game called Frogger. In this game everyone sits in a circle. One person in the circle is designated the frog, who secretly sticks out his or her tongue at other people in the circle to "eat" them. A detective in the middle has to try and guess who the frog is. It was a big hit with everyone, and it was impressive to see how secretive some of our frogs were! Before we finished up, we spent some time brainstorming game ideas for next week to make sure that everyone has a say about what we do at Club!

Written by Sara Schaenzer, Edited by Natalie Davis

This week we had a new volunteer join us at the middle school!  It was great to have someone new with fun ideas to mix it up.  We started out by playing "Heads Up, Seven Up."  The kids responded very well to this game and had a great time trying to guess who had tapped on their thumb.  Next we played an old classic, Red Light, Green Light.  It was fun to watch people lose their balance as they tried to stay frozen and to think up rhymes with green light.  Then we played one of their favorite games - Security Guard.  It was amazing that no one fell down from all the spinning the security guard did trying to make sure no one else moved.  We're looking forward to a new adventure next week!

Written by Sara Schaenzer, Edited by Natalie Davis

We reunited again this week at Awesome Club! We spent a good portion of our time getting caught up. A very nice volunteer brought some candy to celebrate Valentine's Day and we had an (admittedly short-lived) conversation about love. We spent the next part of the afternoon engaged in a drawing game, in which each person had a minute to add to the drawing in front of them before it got passed along to their neighbor. As you might expect, there were several drawings that words cannot explain. To end the day, we played a new game that called on everyone's fantastic senses of humor. The group sat in a circle with one person in the middle, who chose a "victim" and did their best to make this person laugh. If they succeeded, the "victim" became the new person in the middle, and the game continued as such. It was obviously a great end to the day because everyone wanted to keep playing! It looks like we will have to continue the game sometime soon at another round of Awesome Club!

Written by Stephanie Smith, Edited by Natalie Davis

On Saturday, I participated in my very first Polar Plunge with my team, Beauties and the Beast! At the event were 450 plungers who managed to raise over $72,000 for Special Olympics Minnesota. It was an incredible turnout of both plungers and onlookers who came to support the event in St. Peter, Minnesota. Thank you to all of the incredible volunteers who made this event a success!

On Friday, I had the opportunity to hang out with tons of great kids (both neurotypical and autistic) while their parents enjoyed a night to themselves. We played games in the gym, did arts and crafts, decorated heart-shaped sugar cookies, and watched the movie Happy Feet. Per usual, I had several kids ask me how on earth I keep the crown on my head. I told them it was stuck! At the end of the night, when parents arrived to pick up their kids, I had some great conversations with parents about their experiences raising one or more children with autism. What a great event! Thank you, SMAC, for including me in your event! For more information about the Southern Minnesota Autism Coalition, please visit
www.southernminnesotaautismcoalition.org