South Plainfield baseball player Simon Diaz (left) locks arms with South Plainfield student Ryan Buckelew after helping assemble an autism awareness puzzle at the school on Wednesday. (STAFF PHOTO: JASON TOWLEN)GMC teams raising autism awareness
By GREG TUFARO • STAFF WRITER • April 22, 2010
SOUTH PLAINFIELD — The South Plainfield High School baseball team, off to one of the finest starts in program history, is taking on its toughest opponent yet.The Tigers did some unique training in preparation for Saturday's Third Annual Greater Middlesex Conference Autism Awareness Day, going from classroom to classroom at the high school to raise awareness and more than $1,000 for the cause."The fact that we as a school community are coming together to recognize this and join together to do our little bit to find a cure is very enlightening," South Plainfield principal Kenneth May said, "because it shows that the young people today are really out for the future and the prognosis is really very good as far as I'm concerned."Saturday's event features 16 Middlesex County teams playing a total of eight games at North Brunswick's Community Park. Pamphlets with information about autism will be distributed to all spectators.All competing players will warm up wearing specially designed T-shirts that bear a baseball-playing puzzle piece sporting a cap and swinging a bat. The words "GMC Baseball Autism Awareness" are inscribed across the chest.Former Highland Park High School star and Rutgers University assistant coach Mike Garlatti, the father of a child on the autistic spectrum, founded the event to promote awareness about the country's fastest-growing developmental disorder, which 1 in 150 children are diagnosed with nationwide.The Tigers, ranked No. 3 in the Home News Tribune Top 10 and owners of an 11-1 record, wanted to do more than simply heighten awareness by taking infield and outfield Saturday in their T-shirts.
"Since it's Autism Awareness Month," senior left-hander Dylan Papa said, "we wanted to come together and do something to give back."
"Since it's Autism Awareness Month," senior left-hander Dylan Papa said, "we wanted to come together and do something to give back."
So head coach Anthony Guida and South Plainfield High School teacher Karen Foley joined forces to create a fundraiser to benefit the Center for Lifelong Learning, a new public school in Sayreville serving students from Middlesex County and elsewhere in the state with autism or similar behavioral disabilities. Foley and three paraprofessionals at South Plainfield High School — Rudy Coleman, Marissa Greenstein and Suzanne Tercek — teach a class of six male students, some of whom are on the autistic spectrum.Those students worked with Guida's senior players to help raise nearly $1,000 for the Center for Lifelong Learning.They visited every homeroom in the high school, asking students and faculty to donate money. Each homeroom received a colored puzzle piece reflecting the universal symbol of autism. Those who donated were allowed to sign the colored puzzle piece. Each signed colored puzzle piece was returned to the baseball team, which affixed more than 60 of them to a wall outside the cafeteria, completing a symbolic completed puzzle that reflected the cause and the school's solidarity. In addition to the homerooms, the nurse's office, main office, cafeteria, guidance office, and attendance office also had their own puzzle pieces.Autism has a broad spectrum of characteristics — from severe detached and isolated behavior to extreme verbal and hypersensitive behavior. Those diagnosed with the disorder — puzzling to all for it has no known cause — are as varied as the colors of a rainbow, thus the concept of the symbol's design.Foley said the rainbow puzzle piece symbol has a dual meaning at South Plainfield, where her students and others in the school — especially the baseball players — fit together and complement one another just like the pieces of a puzzle."It's just really nice to see them come down and really want to hang out with the boys and help them out and take them under their wing," said Foley, noting players such as Papa and Mark Benak routinely visit her class.
"To see the whole community come to bat in a short period of time (South Plainfield raised the money in just two days) is really nice."
The completed puzzle of red, yellow, blue and green pieces lies beneath the words "South Plainfield High School Goes To Bat For Autism." The homeroom that raised the most money for the cause will be honored Friday morning with a bagel breakfast."We are overwhelmed with how much money every homeroom contributed," Guida said. "I couldn't have done anything without the teachers and also the seniors as well."Greenstein said she sees the giving spirit of all South Plainfield students, not just the baseball players, every day."The amazing thing is when (students in Foley's class) walk around the school and the kids in the hallway — not even just the baseball players — give them a high five or say "Hi' to them in the hallway and banter back and forth, you can see how much taller they stand, how much brighter their smiles are," she said."They are so wholly accepted in this community
now. It is an amazing feeling.
"GMC Autism Awareness Day Saturday at North Brunswick Community Park
North Brunswick vs. Spotswood 10 a.m.
Dunellen vs. South River 10 a.m.
Colonia vs. J.P. Stevens 1 p.m.
Piscataway vs. St. Joseph 1 p.m.
J.F. Kennedy vs. Middlesex 4 p.m.
South Amboy vs. Wardlaw-Hartridge 4 p.m.
South Brunswick vs. Monroe 7 p.m.
Sayreville vs. South Plainfield 7 p.m
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