A Boy and his Red Hat

Last month, my son went surfing with POAC. POAC is an amazing local organization which stands for Parents of Autistic Children. Throughout the year they host all sorts of family events as well as training - major thumbs up. We go to as many of their events as we can get to and consider ourselves so fortunate to have this group literally in our backyard. At the July surfing event all of the lifeguards and volunteers were wearing bright red POAC baseball caps and my son had his eye on one. It didn't surprise me when he went right up to one of the hunky lifeguards and told him "Alex wants your red ball cap". He often refers to himself by name instead of using using the proper pronoun. Of course the kind (and amazingly good-looking) young man took the hat right off of his head and gave it to my son. It made his day and the hat barely left his head ever since. Alex was like a little walking advertisement for POAC, and the hat being so bright also made him stick out in a crowd - a bonus when you have a 'runner' on your hands - easy to spot.

And then the hat got lost during the last week of Extended School Year. The past week was a bit stressful because whenever we'd leave the house he would ask for his red hat and then tell me sadly that his red hat was gone.

Alex was sad.

I sent a desperate email to the prez of POAC who I consider a friend and told him I needed to buy a new hat, or 2 or 3 - quickly. They are just $10 a piece, well worth it. I procured a replacement (and extras) last evening. Today we went to the zoo with friends, hat on head. All was well again Alex's world.

To think that something so simple as a red baseball cap can bring him so much happiness makes me smile.