Melissa: Hello and welcome to the Autism News NetWORK. I’m Melissa [Goldfein 00:00:17], and today we are very excited to chat with our special guest, Kat Bodkin.

Kat Bodkin: So excited to be here and answer all of your questions.

Dr. Gwynette: And we’re excited to have you here. Our first question today is going to come from a man they call the Godfather.

Godfather: I was wondering, what is the Lowcountry Autism Foundation about?

Kat Bodkin: I’m so Glad you asked that, Godfather. Lowcountry Autism Foundation is about supporting all of our families from the second that they suspect that their child is going to receive a diagnosis, all the way into adulthood. We provide family support services to get them set up with therapies. We provide supplemental programming, like music therapy, swim lessons, art therapy, yoga, kayaking, social skills groups, parent training, all of those things at no cost. And we also want to bring awareness and acceptance to the community. So, we do a lot of fun things here at the foundation.

Godfather: Absolutely fantastic.

Kat Bodkin: Thank you. We work really hard.

Godfather: Now, let’s toss it over to our next host.

Draehgo: Why did you choose to work with people on the spectrum?

Kat Bodkin: My son is five years old and he is on the moderate to severe side of the spectrum and he is nonverbal. So, it was very important to me to get involved and learn everything I could and can to help my son. And I love talking to new people and learning. So, that’s why I joined.

Draehgo: That’s great to hear.

Kat Bodkin: All right.

Draehgo: I’ve interviewed a few people with Hearts for Autism, and now I can add another to the list.

Kat Bodkin: Thank you.

Vell: All right. Do you help make people’s dreams come true?

Kat Bodkin: I love that question, though. I believe that we do make people’s dreams come true. I think we help parents’ dreams come true by supporting them with ways that we can help their children. And a great example is swimming. I know that we all understand wandering off and not understanding safety sometimes. That is a big issue and challenge with my son. And we offer free swim lessons to our families for their kids, and that is a dream come true for our parents because they worry about their kids ending up in the water by mistake and could drown. And this helps protect them and provide water skills and life safety skills. And I think that’s just one example of the things that we do to make dreams come true.

Vell: So, next question.

Evan Borton: All right. Hello, Miss Bodkin. My name is Evan. My question for you is, do you have connections with businesses who hire people on the spectrum?

Kat Bodkin: Evan, thank you. We actually do. So, our office-

Evan Borton: Oh, really?

Kat Bodkin: Yes. Our Lowcountry Autism Foundation office is a part of a two-story building with several other special needs companies. And one of our sister profit nonprofits is called Five Fish Foundation, and they are collecting a lot of different businesses who are hiring for specific jobs for individuals with autism. So, they actually are building a really cool app to be able to help with that. So, they should be coming out with that soon. And in the meantime, we do have some available jobs that we could get out to people that are interested.

Dr. Gwynette: Thank you. That’s a really, really great question, and-

Evan Borton: Thank you.

Zephyr Blaze: Is there any extra training or/and support for autistic individuals?

Kat Bodkin: Yes. So, there are a lot of available training and resources throughout the Lowcountry, and we have resources to that and for that. However, in Lowcountry Autism Foundation, we have some social skills groups for younger kids and young adults. We have a pizza making class, which is with our social skills group, and that’s in Bluffton right now, and we’re hoping to bring that to Charleston, too. And it’s been really fun.

Zephyr Blaze: Yeah. I handing it over to our next question, Melissa.

Melissa: What age groups do you serve?

Kat Bodkin: We serve all ages. We have some families that have individuals with autism that reach out to us for resources up in their 70s and 80s. So, we want to help anyone that calls us. As far as programming goes, we typically help those from the early ages to 21 years old.

Melissa: That’s amazing. Okay. And now we’ll pass the next question to Nathan.

Nathan: What type of social connections do you have for people on the spectrum?

Kat Bodkin: I think the social connections is a great question. I’m sure all of you can relate to, there’s so much out there in the tech world. So, a lot of the connections that are made for our families are done through social networks, so we have a lot of different groups that you can connect with. There are several different groups that are wanting to connect individuals with autism together, and we have a list of those. And then as far as the social clubs go, that’s been hard since COVID. I’m sure that’s part of the reason that we’re doing virtual right now, but I know that there are several groups trying to get back up and running in person again. So once they are, we will be sharing that with our community.

Nathan: Splendid. Alrighty. Well, moving on to David.

David: Deal with a married couple who are both autistic, on the autism spectrum? Who’ve been married for… who are newlyweds or who have been married for a couple years?

Kat Bodkin: I am so happy you asked me that. I have been with the Lowcountry Autism Foundation for a little over a year, and I haven’t personally met a couple where both individuals have autism until I met you and Vell. Is that right? Vell’s your wife, correct?

David: Yeah. Yes. Vell is my wife.

Kat Bodkin: Well, I’m happy to say you are my first married couple that I have met. So, so nice to meet you.

David: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Kat Bodkin: That’s amazing. Marriage is tough, so the fact that you guys are together and making it happen, that’s amazing. Congratulations. Making it happen. That’s amazing. Congratulations.

Dr. Gwynette: We’ll go to Oliver.

Oliver: Is Lowcountry Autism Foundation a nonprofit?

Kat Bodkin: Yes, it is. We’ve been a nonprofit since 2007.

Oliver: That’s a long time.

Dr. Gwynette: Great.

Oliver: Oh, okay. I’ll hand it over to Miles. Oh, I’ll hand it over to [Rafael 00:07:37].

Rafael: Do you work with local schools and colleges?

Kat Bodkin: That’s a great question. We currently do some programming with the nearby schools where we will bring our partner and music therapist in to do some music therapy for some of the younger kids, but other than that right now, there’s no direct connection with some of our schools. We are a small foundation, so hopefully one day we will get big enough where we can have some initiatives in the school district.

Miles: Maybe just, what drive you to stay in the Autism News Foundation?

Kat Bodkin: Hi, Miles. I love this question because you’re a good reason why I do what I do. This is so fun. I love meeting all of you and talking to all of you. This past Saturday we had our music therapy, and there was a family that came and the mom had just received her son’s diagnosis, who was three.

Miles: What makes you to stay in the drive with the Autism News Foundation?

Kat Bodkin: Thank you, Miles. I am so glad you asked this question because this is what makes me want to stay doing what I do, because I love meeting all of you and getting to talk to you. You all make me happy. I get to experience so many wonderful things working for the foundation. On Saturday, we had our music therapy session and there was a family that came who had just received their son’s diagnosis. And the mom cried in my arms and needed somebody to talk to and needed advice, and I was able to do that for her. And this is why I do what I do, because when I was going through my son being diagnosed, I felt very alone. And I wanted to make a difference and be supportive to those that need us. So, that’s why I stay doing what I do.

Miles: Very nice. Your next question.

Kaede: All right. Can you share a success story?

Kat Bodkin: Yes. I will say that just recently we had some swim lessons for some twin little girls who were very scared of the water, did not even remotely want to get their toes in the water. At their eighth and final swim lesson, they were jumping in the water, going under, treading water. And that’s all we can hope for offering swim lessons to our kids. So, that is just one of so many.

Dr. Gwynette: That’s fantastic to hear. I mean, just, I mean, that just is life changing. Not only give them a skill that’s helpful for their safety, but also to give them something that’s a lifelong skill they can enjoy their whole life.

Kat Bodkin: Exactly.

Dr. Gwynette: Very heartwarming. All right. So, this next guest is… or this next interviewer is a little shy sometimes. Drama Queen, you ready?

Kristina: Yes. What advice can you give to the ANN?

Kat Bodkin: Hey, Drama Queen. I would say, my advice would be keep on doing what you’re doing and be you, because it is so awesome to be able to come on here and meet all of you doing what you’re doing and being who you are. So, my advice is to keep on doing it because it’s great.

Kristina: Thank you. That’s great advice.

Kat Bodkin: You’re welcome.

Magnus: Oh, do you know of people or individuals of autism who have service dogs?

Kat Bodkin: Yes. I know that service dogs help a lot of individuals with autism, and we do have resources for parents that want to get a therapy dog for their individual with autism. I will say, my son has autism and he doesn’t like dogs. So, I think it just depends on the individual and if they get care and support from an animal, and then you go through that process. And we do have that information for anyone who’s interested.

Magnus: That sounds great. And I’m going to pass this to Big Chris. Go ahead, take it Big Chris.

Chris: My question is, I’m into the Pokemon trading card games and such. Do you hear of a lot of individuals with autism who also enjoy the trading card game and all that?

Kat Bodkin: Hi, Chris. Yes. I wish I knew more about Pokemon so that I could actually talk intelligently about it. I remember how big of a deal it was when… and you might have to tell me Chris, what it’s called, but that whole scavenger hunt with the Pokemon that went on for a while. That was when everybody was talking about it in our community. What was that called?

Chris: That was Pokemon Go, I believe.

Kat Bodkin: Yes. Yes.

Chris: For mobile phones. It’s still pretty popular. They’ve updated it quite a bit since when it first came out, but I still play that on occasion.

Kat Bodkin: That’s really cool. I know that the Pokemon Go is a popular subject at our social skills group. So, you have a lot of company if you love Pokemon.

Chris: That’s pretty good.

Dr. Gwynette: That’s awesome. It really is. Miss Bodkin, how do people find out more about the Lowcountry Autism Foundation?

Kat Bodkin: There are several different ways. You can email me. My email is Kat_Bodkin@lafinc.org, or you can go to our website at lafinc.org. And our phone number is listed on there as well.

Dr. Gwynette: That’s great. And I think you guys have a big Instagram presence too, don’t you?

Kat Bodkin: We do. We do. We have a social media gal that helps us out and she is phenomenal. So, you can follow us on social media; on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Dr. Gwynette: That’s awesome. And I think God’s putting this on my heart right now, but for our audience, Dr. Peter Gerhardt said, “Anything good that ever happened in the world of autism happened because of a parent,” and it’s true. And Miss Bodkin is living proof of that. Her passion as a mom and just as a human being is driving the Lowcountry Autism Foundation do really incredible work.

Chris: Thank you for joining us at the Autism News NetWORK.

Nathan: Please be sure to check us out at theautismnewsnetwork.com.

Kat Bodkin: Thank you so much for having me. It was so nice to meet all of you. You’re wonderful, and I hope to see you soon.
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