Hi, I'm Kendra with Family Fun Fair and I'd like to thank you for taking the
opportunity to get to know our event a little bit more and ultimately to thank
you for volunteering for Family Fun Fair. This year this is our first official
Make a Difference Day event. We have been participating for about four or five
years now and in the past we have invited Sharing Down Syndrome Arizona and all
of their kiddos to come out and enjoy in the fun of festivities. This year we've
invited members of the community and we've opened the event up to all families
that have special needs children. So you'll see children that initially have
Down Syndrome like we've seen in the past as well as children on the autism
spectrum and those that are physically handicapped as well. Families with
special needs children have a very unique dynamic. It's often very difficult
for them to go to fun events and be out in public because sometimes their
children have what we call invisible disabilities meaning that they struggle
internally with problems that most typically functioning children don't
have and we can't see them. For example my daughter has Down Syndrome and when
you look at her you can see there's something different about her and so
it's possible that we hold different expectations for those kiddos but a
family that has a child with something like say autism they may have pretty
severe sensory disorders and so you might see a kid that's starting to shut
down or become worrisome or that's unable to make eye contact and sometimes
as a mother or as a family it's hard when you're in public because people can
be judgmental and they can be hurtful. So we're providing a place where
children can come with their families and not feel judged and not feel looked
at silly and feel that everyone is there to support them but also that it's a
very safe environment for precisely the reasons that we're providing. Safety is
a very serious concern with some of these kiddos. For example my daughter when
she was about four or five she would get very excited about going places and she
would work herself up to the point where once having arrived she was completely
shut down. She would be like this and she'd be rocking which is called stimming
means self-stimulation and a lot of children on the autism spectrum have
that personality type or that trait. So you might see that and when you see this
or you see a child that's flapping their hands against their sides those
are your signs but it's kind of time to take a step back to take
your cue from the parents and usually the parents will kind of let you know
it's okay to continue to engage them if you're trying to talk or trying to help
or they'll kind of give you a sign. So we're going to ask you to really listen
to the spirit on this one and use what's in your heart and your best judgment to
know when to engage to help a kiddo versus back off because primarily these
kiddos want to feel like they're very independent. This is the place where they
get to shine. This is a place where they know that they get to take ten turns to
throw the ball if that's how long it's going to take and they know that if they
do their very best and they still don't knock over the cans or get the beanbag
in the hole that since they did their best they're going to get a prize. Another
very serious concern that most families that have special needs children
whether that's cognitive impairment or physical impairment is what we call a
flight risk child. I experienced it myself and even though my oldest daughter
is almost 15 she is still a flight risk child and that means that they don't have
the same stranger danger that sparks into a child's head when somebody comes
and starts talking to them. They don't all have that I'm going to hide behind my
mommy or daddy's leg it's oh that's a nice person and they're talking to me or
if you think I always call it like my daughter with greyhound dogs that they
see the bunny oh bunny she sees the bunny she wants to go to the bunny and
then it's oh I see the clown I want to go to the clown oh look the gates open and
it happens that fast and that after speaking with the parents that are
coming to the event that's their biggest concern is that it's a large open field
there's a lot of activity and if they don't have the kiddo that shut down and
sensory they likely have a flight risk child which means that just like that
they might be out so with that we have an emergency plan in place that's very
similar to those that the school systems use. All of our volunteers are going to
be wearing bright chartreuse green vests you're not going to miss us you're
going to be able to see us a mile away and there's going to be I believe it's
between 50 and 70 volunteers at any given point in these vests so if you think
of the size of a ball field a softball field you're probably not going to be
more than about 15 or 20 feet away from another volunteer at any point so if you
see a child and they look like they're in distress and they don't have a family
member around them or even a child that doesn't have a family member around them
your job especially our ambassadors your job is to have hot guys on those kiddos
just watch observe make sure that there's somebody watching them make sure
that they're not kind of willy-nilly about by themselves because you don't
know if this is one of the typical siblings that's there or if this is the
child that has special needs and has escaped from their parents so in the
event you see a kiddo and they seem to be in stress in distress or if they seem
to be alone go ahead and approach them see how they respond to you what if it's
no eye contact I'm not going to look at you you might have a kiddo that needs a
little support the emergency plan is to shout out to one of the other
chartreuse volunteers it's called it's a code green if you find a kiddo and
they're alone give them about 10 seconds to observe and at that point after 10
seconds it's code green shout out to the other person if you're one of those
other people and you hear the code green come a running we want to have at
least two volunteers with that child prior to sending out what's going to be
a map a mass text message at the bottom of the screen right here you see my name
Kendra Woodruff there's a phone number next to it 6237346167 right now I
want you to send me a text with your name so that I can add you to our mass
text list because that's the list we're going to use in the event that we find
one of these kiddos and they can't find their parents everyone in that entire
event is going to have that information in about three seconds at that point we
had our security involved and we take over the microphone from the band and
we start looking for the parents so clearly if we have a lost child that
means we have lost parents and siblings if parents approach you they have the
panicked face don't take the time to find another volunteer your first job is
to send out that code green text me as soon as as soon as possible at the
number below I will blanket the entire community of volunteers our security
officers going to be notified and we are going to block the perimeter meaning
that we almost form a little circle it sounds a little dramatic but but it can
be when you have a lost kiddo form a circle we have the entrances watched and
the individuals that are monitoring the parking lots that the ones out there
they'll be waving the flashlights as far as finding your parking spots they're
gonna be checking cars again it is that it is that serious I hope we don't have
to use this plan but if we do we're gonna be very grateful that it's in place so
if you have the parents once again you send me the text message I text
everyone else we lock down the perimeters and we start watching the
cars until that kiddo is found you've heard me bring up sensory kiddos if
you've not heard that term before what that means is that a kiddo or an adult
because it happens with adults and we have invited adolescents to this event
as well is that the way they process sound noise lights even touch can be
completely different than how you and I experience those sensations in fact
individuals with autism will have a hard time taking the entirety of a picture
and drawing information from it they may focus on just the wheel of a car and
they can tell you about the wheel when you say what is this focusing on the
wheel they can't always tell you it's a car if they were to try to process all
of the stimuli that's coming in at the same time they get overburdened and they
can begin to shut down that's what we're trying to avoid and in fact between the
hours of 5 and 545 we're going to be having what we call sensory hour so in
that time I want everyone to be cognizant that between 5 and 545 is
sensory hour that that's when we're most likely going to have the individuals
that are on the autism spectrum so these are the kiddos that if you look if it
seems like they're struggling with a game if you approach them they may not talk
to you they may not seem to want your help but as long as the parents are
giving you those cues it's okay to verbally prompt them as far as what they
might want to adjust they're a little harder you're doing a good job they can
still hear you they are still processing what you're saying you just might not
see the effects of that communication if however they seem distressed by that
communication it's okay to just take a step to the side again following their
parents cues because their parents are ultimately who's in charge of helping
them that day we're mostly there to support the parents but we want to make
sure the kids are having a good experience so providing that positive
feedback still giving them a yay see if they want a high five they're still just
kiddos like the rest of our kiddos primarily the only thing that we will
be altering during the sensory hour is going to be that instead of having our
live band music we're going to be playing soft Disney music in the
background so it'll still be a fun carnival experience but that bombardment
of sound that can really not help our kiddos that's going to be removed so
that they can focus instead of eight different centuries at the same time
they can focus on just what's happening in front of them whether it's the game
or whether it's the hair painting without trying to also process that
stimuli in the event that any of our kiddos need a break they are absolutely
welcome to any of the primary rooms inside of the church building as well
as we will have a small area kind of towards the back of the field where
picnic type setup is going to be appropriate where if parents have brought
blankets they're welcome to spread out for the children and adolescents that
have more physical impairments if they are still in a diaper or a depend they
are absolutely welcome to use any of the private rooms inside of the church
building we'll have a couple of the primary rooms blocked off specific to
that event so for those of you that are watching the bathrooms or if you're
inside kind of on the security duty just know that there may be parents that
require a private place to change their children because of course the bathroom
floor is not really appropriate not a lot of privacy with the big gap and it's
also very cold we do have some individuals that are coming this year that
will have their seeing eye dogs in the event that the dogs need a drink of water
you're more than welcome if you see the dog to approach and first of course ask
the owner a handler if they need a drink or if you want to give them a snack and
that's entirely appropriate as long as you're asking first just as if you were
trying to give a snack to somebody's kiddo you want to make sure it's okay
for those that speak sign language I'm going to ask you to please let me know
that in the text message that you sent me earlier if you just want to give your
name and that you are proficient in sign even if you just know some of the more
basic signs that could still be very helpful for example things you might
want to know in case you're approached by a kiddo is this is tea and when you
shake it it means toilet so somebody's saying this is a where and it looks like
where where's my car where's the bathroom where's the restroom this is help
it's just a thumbs up and a hand that's help like you're giving somebody a hand
up a thumbs up name dad and mom like the dad is taller it's just a five dad is
taller on the shorter so if you see a kiddo where is dad where is mom code
green ultimately I'd like to thank you for volunteering for family fun fair
this is certainly the largest event that we've done on this scale and we're just
really hoping that we can reach a lot of families this year and you get to be a
big part of that and so we thank you for your time and if you have any questions
or thoughts concerns or bright ideas for next year let me know let any of us know
anybody in the green talk it over come find me we want to hear from you and
thank you
