The keynote speaker at an autism conference tomorrow (Friday) in Davenport is a globally-known author, activist and innovator — and she’s also autistic.  More than half of all cattle across North America are handled in humane systems designed by Temple Grandin. The animal science professor at Colorado State University says before the conference, she’ll meet with Quad Cities F-A-A members to talk about livestock handling and with high schoolers in general to encourage them to give serious thought to their future professions.

“I’ve been working on how to get some of these kids that might be labeled as autistic, dyslexic, ADHD, whatever, on getting them into good careers,” Grandin says. “Schools have taken out skilled trades. I think it’s the worst thing they’ve done because there’s a ton of jobs available in things like auto mechanics and welding. Hands-on classes saved me as a kid.”

Grandin didn’t speak until she was almost four years old. “My art ability was always encouraged. I was building things when I was in high school and those abilities helped me in my career designing livestock facilities,” Grandin says. “It’s just so important to find something the kid’s good at and then work on developing it.”

Grandin is a hero to thousands with autism and their families and she’s widely celebrated as one of the first people on the autism spectrum to publicly share insights about her personal experience. In 2010, she was named by Time magazine among the Top 100 Most Influential People in the World. Her goal is to pass along what she’s learned to the next generation — and the next.

“I’m seeing too many smart kids not learning basic skills,” Grandin says. “They need to learn working skills. When I was 13 years old, my mother got me a sewing job and when I was 15, I was cleaning horse stalls and taking care of a horse barn. That taught me really important work skills, be on time, be reliable, take responsibility.” Grandin says kids also need to be taught basic social skills and table manners.

In 2010, H-B-O aired a semi-biographical movie called “Temple Grandin” starring Claire Danes as Grandin. The network did a “fantastic” job with the film, she says. “They show exactly how visual thinking works and they also showed hard work is required,” Grandin says. “It was not easy. I had to work really hard. A really nice superintendent at the Swift plant said to me, ‘You always have to keep persevering,’ and a cattle buyer told me, ‘The trouble is opportunity in work clothes.’ It was really hard at the time but I really thank those people for supporting me.”

Her mantra is that people with autism are “different, not less” and, often, “different and, in many ways, more.” The conference runs all day Friday at The RiverCenter in Davenport.

(Radio Iowa)

Grandin: http://www.templegrandin.com/
Conference: http://fhautism.com/attend-a-conference/davenport-ia-january-13/

The Atlantic Police Department says three people were arrested over the past week. On Sunday, 21-year old Morgan Hansen, of Omaha, was arrested for Theft in the 4th Degree (shoplifting) and Theft in the 5th Degree (shoplifting). Hansen was booked into the Cass County Jail. That same day, 19-year old Brandan Troyer, of Atlantic, was arrested for Simple Assault. Troyer was cited into court, and released.

And, on Jan. 4th, 26-year old James Howard, of Atlantic, was arrested on Cass County warrants for a Pre-Trial release violation and Failure to Appear on a Providing False Information, charge. Howard was booked into the Cass County Jail.

Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker says on January 12th, members of the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office and Council Bluffs Police Department will be at CHI Health Mercy Hospital at 2-p.m., to deliver money collected from last year’s Law Enforcement Cancer Awareness T-shirt campaign. Danker says it will be the largest donation they have ever presented to CHI Health Mercy Hospital.

A little background: In September of 2011, an idea was brought to Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker to help promote Cancer Awareness by creating and selling a Law Enforcement version of the popular pink shirt. With his approval, a design was created to include local area Law Enforcement. This shirt depicted a patrol car and an SUV surrounded by Law Enforcement patches. Of course, the shirt wouldn’t have been an awareness shirt without the well-known ‘pink ribbon’ and the slogan “LAW ENFORCEMENT – CARE ENOUGH TO WEAR PINK”.

In 2014 it was decided to change from a pink ribbon to a LAVANDER ribbon to bring
cancer awareness to ‘ALL CANCERS’. The lavender ribbon coincided with the Sheriff’s Department’s goal of bringing awareness to all cancers, and was so popular we chose to continue with the LAVANDER color. From its original concept, Danker says the shirts were to promote all Cancer Awareness with money raised being donated to the Oncology Center at CHI Health Mercy Hospital Council Bluffs.

Officials say the success of this program wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the Council Bluffs Police Chief Tim Carmody, Sheriff Danker, and the Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors. Danker says they more than doubled last year’s donation and are very excited to be delivering a check of over $10,000 to help benefit cancer patients.

The local Law Enforcement Community he says, hopes to continue their fundraising efforts and continue to raise Awareness for Cancer Research. Officials want to THANK the public for making this donation possible.