Wednesday 14 August 2013

Pushing for Action at Hayle Carnival

On Saturday 3rd August  2013, we (Philip,15, and Thomas,14) took part in Hayle Carnival with our cousin Trells, 23, and our dad Andrew who is Trells’ full-time support worker. The Hayle Carnival takes place on the first Saturday of August and December every year.


Last year we also took part in the Summer Carnival with Trells. We walked the route in the style of the Olympic torch relay with Trells’ torch. In December we did the carnival with Trells’ sister Emilie, who is also Autistic. The week before the carnival our Dad asked us whether or not we would like to take part in the carnival with Trells and we agreed. Our focus this year was on the Push for Action campaign led by the National Autistic Society. We decided to make a costume that was pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, which is a symbol for autism. So we made the pieces with the help of our Grandad on the Thursday before the Carnival.

When we arrived at the carnival we got everyone ready in the costumes and then started to wait for the carnival to begin. As we were waiting children came up and pressed the Push for Action button on our costumes. The carnival began and we started to walk the 2.2 mile route through Hayle. While we were walking we handed out Push for Action balloons and badges to the people watching. As we were coming to the end we saw our family: Trells’ mum Marie, his Dad Chris, his sister Emilie and our Grandparents; which was a lovely way to finish the carnival.

We chose the Jigsaw in our costume design because it represents connectivity between people with and without autism. Our dad told us that as long as you respect Trells he will trust you. The fact that we are doing the carnival is important for 2 reasons:

1. It helps Trells interact and socialise with people that he normally would not come in contact with, this is important for Trells because If everyone’s brain is like a telephone exchange, then an Autistic mind cannot make all the connections that a non-autistic one can, and we are helping Trells make these connections.

2. We were happy to do the Push for Action campaign because it would make the Autism act more important.

1 comment:

  1. Fantastic article by my nephew's cousins. Well done boys.

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