LA CRESENT,MINN – Ten year old Spencer Brown has Autism Spectrum Disorder and is high functioning. Social cues and skills are difficult for him and often lead to frustration.
His parents found a summer program called Kids’ Company whose coordinator Meghan Wall came up with meaningful programming to keep Spencer focused and happy during the summer months. Megan grasped onto what his mother, T racy Schultz, already knew. Tracy told the La Crosse Tribune:
“He really doesn’t like to be outside, unless he’s riding his bike.”
Meghan reached out to the volunteer-driven La Crescent Bike Shoppe where Lew Plummer was a volunteer. He volunteers his time taking apart old bikes and putting them together like new. Plumbers grandson has Asperger’s syndrome and was very happy to work with Spencer.
Together they chose a yellow 1973 Collegiate Schwinn bicycle and stripped the bike completely apart and built it back together again side by side. Spencer can be seen proudly riding his newly put together bike around town. Plummer called on his grandsons father to give him some ideas about the difficulty in performing tasks and stay focused would be for Brown. He was so excited to see the smiles on Spencer’s ‘s face, knowing he had played a part in bringing a wonderful summer to him.
Meanwhile Spencer learned it was fun to take things apart in order to find out how they worked.
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