The Cure Autism Now Foundation is hosting a motorcycle rally/ride on September 17 & 18 in four cities across the country. For those of you unfamiliar with autism, it is a developmental disability that affects, often severely, a person's ability to communicate and socially interact with others. It is four times more prevalent in males than females. Currently, autism is believed to affect 1 in every 166 people. The rate of people being diagnosed with autism has increased substantially over the past two decades. Almost 1 in every 4 kids born today will develop autism. It's an epidemic that recently started generating more press.

I'm getting involved because my future nephew Marcus is autistic. Here's what his parents have to say:

This is Marcus Lorenzo De La Ossa. He’ll be three on April 27th. Marcus is fun and full of energy. He has an unbelievable smile and can make your day with a simple glance. He loves to dance and sing and play. He certainly brings the rainbows. But some days he also brings the rain. Marcus is autistic. He seldom looks at us, and is just beginning to learn to speak. He often becomes frustrated at not being understood and has “bad days”. The gap in language between him and other children his age widens with each month. But, Marcus is lucky. He is very bright. He knows his numbers from 1-20, he recognizes all of the letters of the alphabet, his colors, and also his shapes. Marcus has a good memory and shows no signs of being mentally retarded. (About 70% of autistic children are also mentally handicapped.) We saw warning signs in Marcus early (Suddenly lost language, no eye contact, repetitive behaviors, played with toys in peculiar ways like flipping cars over and just spinning the wheels, did not seem to understand commands, did not sleep well at night) and Marcus was diagnosed at 18 months of age. Marcus has grown by leaps and bounds with the therapy he’s received. Although it has been very difficult for us to let go of the dreams we had for what our little boy would be like as a child and eventually as a man, we are now committed to helping him grow to his full potential so that he can have the best quality of life he can have as an adult with autism. Our desire in helping to raise money for Cure Autism Now is in helping others recognize and understand this growing epidemic and to help relatives, co-workers, and friends become aware of warning signs of autism in their young children. So much more can be done to help with early intervention. At the rate that autism is showing up, you soon will personally know someone who is directly affected with it. We hope that it is not your child. I wish we knew what we could do to prevent autism from happening, but we don’t yet. I wish we knew how to cure it or extinct it, but we don’t yet. Did you know that more children suffer from autism than leukemia, cerebral palsy and cystic fibrosis combined? We need to find a cure soon. Donating money to Cure Autism Now is a way you can directly help. I am imploring you to help in the name of Marcus. If you cannot help at this time, I hope that you can at least come away with some knowledge of how to recognize early signs of autism. Autism doesn’t affect the way you look, it affects the way you think, feel, and cope with the world around you. So the next time you go to the grocery store and see a child giving their parents a hard time…or a person who seems lost and disoriented, don’t make judgments, offer your sincere help, you could be helping a family affected by autism.

Below is the link to the ride information. I hope you guys can make it out!

http://www.kintera.org/site/c.luLXJa....CB93/Home.htm