American Airlines, Wings for Autism Program!

 We want to share this information with you! We encourage you to check it out…

We all look forward to taking vacations and visiting family and friends. These experiences create lifelong memories and strengthen the important relationships in our lives.  However, for many people with autism and other intellectual/developmental disabilities, the experience of air travel can be overwhelming and difficult, making these trips seem impossible.

Wings for Autism® program is an airport rehearsal program specifically designed for individuals on the autism spectrum, people with intellectual/developmental disabilities and their families. The program gives families the chance to experience the process of taking a flight. Families arrive at the airport, check in at the ticket counter and receive their boarding pass, go through TSA security, and board a plane.

The original program was designed for a family that had a negative experience while attempting to travel. Their story prompted the Charles River Center (CRC), a local Chapter of The Arc, to reach out to other families to understand their experiences with air travel. CRC learned that hundreds of individuals with autism and their families in the greater Boston area were interested in participating in an air travel training program, and as a result designed the Wings for Autism program with the Massachusetts Port Authority Boston Logan International Airport.

We are delighted to bring Wings for Autism to the Kansas City airport (MCI) in the evening of Saturday June 20, 2015 and we would like to extend an invitation to you to join us. There is no registration cost but families are responsible for paying their own costs to travel to and from the airport. Space is limited. Follow this linkhttp://www.thearc.org/wingsforautism/MCI/June-2015 to learn more and register for the event.

Please contact Barb Bishop at 785-749-0121 or [email protected]  if you have any questions. We look forward to meeting you at Wings for Autism!

Wings for Autism is a program of The Arc. We hope you will check out our website www.thearc.org to learn more about all the exciting work The Arc is doing to support individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Sincerely,

Barbara D. Bishop
Executive Director
The Arc of Douglas County
2518 Ridge Court,  Rm. 238
Lawrence, KS 66046
785-749-0121  Cell 785-218-1423