About a year ago, the school he attends tried to arrest him for assault. He and a friend were sword fighting with pencils and  Austin poked the other child and it broke the skin. When he realized his friend was hurt, he tried to take him to the nurse; the child who has his own difficulties, wouldn't go. He tried to find the teacher but she wasn't in the classroom. He was later pulled from class and made to sit in the hallway with a police officer standing over him. By the time I got the call to go to the school, the police were already there. The officer determined it was an accident and no charges were pressed.
My son, however wouldn't go to school for four days because he thought he had killed his friend. This situation led to two months of turmoil in our household. In January of 2007,  Austin came home and asked if he could do something to make himself feel good again. I asked what he wanted do. His first response was he wanted to get a state flower from every state. I explained that because it was winter and we lived in New Hampshire, that probably wouldn't be a good idea and I suggested state flags or stamps. He decided on t-shirts.

We sat down and looked up all the addresses for the governor's around the country.  Austin wrote a letter to them asking for a shirt from their respective states and he explained that he wanted to wear a shirt a day for the last fifty days of school. In return, he sent them a poem he had written in fourth grade. We received a response from each state. The states that couldn't send shirts sent memorabilia and I made a transfer to put on a shirt for him. Some of his shirts are even autographed!
 
Every day for the last fifty days of school last year he wore a shirt in alphabetical order to school, and every day I went with him and took his picture. We decided to make a video of him wearing his shirts to send back to governors as a thank you for their support. When we were making the video I asked my four children what would make their world perfect for them; so interspersed within  Austin's picture are the sayings that they gave me. Some of these include; when normal means nothing, where hugs are nice, where different is awesome.

This project helped my family in many ways. The children learned that good things can come from bad, that little voices can be heard and to never ever be afraid to ask a question or favor because you may just get surprised with the answer.  Austin was also able to meet  Gov. Bill  Richardson  when he was in New Hampshire campaigning and thank him personally for the shirt from his state. The "Rolling For Autism" campaign even stopped in New Hampshire and we had fifty children wearing  Austin's shirts there to greet them. We are now in the process of finishing the videos to send back to the governor's along with a picture of  Austin wearing their state shirt. I hope you consider him for your award because he really is my hero."
   
Thank You,

Anmarie  Kemp