I am starting a camp called "Aspie's retreat"

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My name is Jed Gardner. On July 6, 2017 I started a corporation called Apsie's Retreat. It will be a camp for anyone effected by autism or autism spectrum. It is in Southern Utah. Would anyone here be interested in something like this? If you are, let me know. I need lots of help in this project.

FYI, I am self-diagnosed as being on the spectrum and have 2 grandchildren who are autistic.

Jed

i am not interested.

Would you be willing to pay the airfare?
From Australia?

Sorry, don't think I can make it.
Sounds like a good idea though.
Good luck with it.

Last edited by Raleigh on 14 Aug 2017, 3:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

I've been to camp Patterson in Washington state, it was alright.

Might be best to establish a presence as a member here first OP, so that members can get to know you a bit, before promoting your venture. I like your idea, though as you are not known here as yet, people may feel wary about it.

Hi. That sounds like a wonderful idea.

I spent the first part of this summer working at a camp for people with a wide range of disabilities, including autism, up here in New York called Clover Patch Camp. The campers loved the experience.

I wish you luck with your camp and hope everything works out.

I'll take you up on the suggestion.

1. I didn't talk until I was 3 1/2 years old and born when only profound autism was ever diagnosed.
2. My brother beat me up on a regular basis because I was different. I didn't fit in. I have never fit in.
3. My empathy scores are below the 5th percentile.
4. I have been a medical doctor for over 25 years and have been told hundred of times my bedside manners suck.
5.. I have one child on the spectrum and three grandchildren with autism. Two are verbal while one iside nonverbal.

I am about 7 years away from retirement and want to give back to a group to which I have great affinity. I didn't realize I needed to chum the water...
It is funny, I get rejected just as quickly from this group as from any other group. So how is this group any different?

Jed

I am also an older person - have two children on the spectrum, 5 grandchildren on the spectrum and my NT daughter is married to a man on the spectrum! So unlike people who are on the spectrum with only NT relatives, we are perhaps fortunate that we do fit in to our families and understand one another's little quirks! The great joy of a family like this is that we can provide informed encouragement to the younger members and they have immediate role models and mentors who can recognise and play to their AS strengths.

If it's geared more toward adults on the spectrum, I might be interested, but I'm not certain if I could travel for it. I'm working on hopefully getting a job that pays enough for me to support myself so I can live on my own, and I don't know if I'll be in a position to travel much or at all once I manage that, since as of now, I can't drive (I don't know if that might change anytime soon or not - I'm still looking into it). It does sound like a great idea, though, for people who will be able to get there.

How did you get connected to this forum, if I may ask?

Actually, a lot of people seem to like the idea. Asking you for more information about yourself is kind of the opposite of rejecting you, it is wanting to get to know you better. I think the camp is a wonderful idea, but as I live in England I wouldn't be able to attend.

It's a funny story! One night some years ago now I was having a look at Tony Attwood's book The Complete Guide to Aspergers. The reason I was doing this was because my NT daughter - who is married to an Asperger's husband (a professor of engineering as it happens) - had rung me and asked me if I thought my son in law had Asperger's Syndrome. When I trained at university in psychology. not once did we ever hear this term, so I knew nothing about it.

Reading Attwood's book, it increasingly seemed to me that a lot of what he wrote was relevant to both my son-in-law (to whom I am close) and myself . We were both "Little Professors" at an early stage of our lives and have other hallmark attributes. I also realised that one reason my NT daughter may have chosen an AS spouse was because AS was so familiar and familial to her - give that she had been surrounded by us all her life! I am very fond of my son-in-law and the night I read Attwood's book, I understand our particular affinity much better.

Tony Attwood mentions Wrong Planet, so I googled it. I was instantly fascinated, on my first visit here I read various threads for five hours straight, finally going to bed at 4am. From that day and night on I had no doubt whatsoever that I was AS too, and eventually had this confirmed independently, though my son-in-law has not. He is even more aspie than me in some ways, though as we know, AS can present very differently in males and females. Nevertheless, there are common factors too. My NT daughter and her AS husband have twin boys, and they are both AS too, although they are not identical twins.

Its sound like a great idea, when you read it quickly. There are aspie retreats in there UK too, but to be honest I have no desire to spend a week or whatever with a load of aspie's I have never met anymore than a group of NT's I have never met.