Ronak's mother describes his autism diagnosis and regression at 16 months. Good Friends, a 30-year-old organization, funds music lessons that activate multiple brain regions and help him express himself, plus Bells-A-Place camp where children with disabilities build confidence and community.
Ronak has autism. He was born a typical child, everything is going good, and around 16 months of age He started regressing in his skills. He became very, very shy. He stopped talking and he stopped copying people and doing what a toddler would do. It's day and night. It's day and night. The hopes and the dreams and what you thought about your life changes like that. Then I basically decided that this has to stop now. The grieving and the denial has to stop now, and you have to acknowledge what is in front of you because power is what it is. I mean, you have to empower yourself, and only then I can help my son.
Good Friends is an organization of women. We've been together for 30 years. We fill the gap between crisis assistance ministry, or if they can't pay rent or utilities, maybe they need a new pair of eyeglasses, maybe they need some medical bills paid. They came to us with a story with Ronak's family about music lessons to provide Ronak with some activities that helped him express himself and relax and further himself in his skills. And we just thought it was a wonderful idea. 1, 2, 3, 4. Ronik likes to smile. Ronik likes to— I like Ronik's smile. That's beautiful. So music reaches those places where sometimes where people are unreachable because it activates the brain in all kinds of areas. It's activating different parts of his brain so he's able to perhaps perform a little better or connect in a different way. We give small gifts. We do not give huge $1,000 gifts. We, we try and fill in where we can with people that just really are hardly making ends meet. We have sent a ton of children to camp. This is called Bells-A-Place. Bells-A-Place where you can go and all of your abilities show. You're the person, you're the star, you're among friends, and a friend is what you are.
It's really a dream come true, and it keeps growing, getting better every year. It really builds their self-esteem, self-confidence, self-awareness, makes them feel part of the community.
Life without camp saw is like an isolated life with no social life, no activities, no sports, no friends. My life would It will just be a, a ball.
I want the camp to grow and I want it to be a quality camp and be able to do more things and have more instructors come in and really work on health and fitness. I look at good friends, to me they've become greater friends because of the great financial support to help me run the camp. If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be able to do all we can do with the camp.
I feel like Charlotte is at a crossroads and that we really need some good news and some hopeful news, and we need more than ever to take care of our neighbors that are hurting. We feel like our organization fulfills part of that commitment to our greater city. I'm really honored to be a part of it. It is such a beautiful thing to to see the joy and to see somebody make progress. It's just a beautiful thing to see somebody happy.
