Aug 15, 2013 ... VOL. 193 NO. 12 USPS 264-720. The Inquirer and Mirror, Nantucket, Mass.
Thursday, August 15, 2013. One Hundred Twelve Pages.
The Inquirer and Mirror 08/15/2013
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Nantucket’s Newspaper Since 1821 – New England’s Weekly Newspaper of the Year VOL. 193 NO. 12 USPS 264-720
The Inquirer and Mirror, Nantucket, Mass.
Thursday, August 15, 2013
One Hundred Twelve Pages
Four Sections
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Cape Cod council sues island Boy Scout leaders, locks them out of their camp Judge orders two sides to mediate while developer eyes property By Jason Graziadei I&M Staff Writer
W Photo by Jim Powers
ON THE EDGE: Pat Beilman and David Poor, in red, accompanied by Dawson Hodgson, sail their Indian-class Nippanoose on the first day of the 2013 Nantucket Race Week Saturday. The nine-day salute to sailing continues through Sunday. See pages 7A, 16B for more photos.
On eve of annual walk, Wrights reflect on Autism Speaks’ progress By Lindsay Pykosz I&M Staff Writer
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hen Bob and Suzanne Wright’s grandson Christian regressed into the depths of autism, they knew they’d be in for the fight of their lives. What they didn’t know was just how difficult that fight would be. “Bob, at the time, was running NBC, and we thought we were pretty informed people,” Suzanne said this week. “Both of us didn’t have a clue what autism was.” And so came the daunting task of teaching themselves about the complex neurobiological disorder that affects one in 88 children in the United States, and one in 54 boys. The disorder limits interaction across a spectrum of degrees, and has been labeled a national public-health crisis by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Today, it still remains largely misunderstood
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Photo by Nicole Harnishfeger
Bob and Suzanne Wright, cofounders of Autism Speaks. and complicated. Quickly, the Wrights discovered other families who were going through the same emotional distress associated with autism, and they decided to take action. The result: the founding of Autism Speaks in 2005, an organization that has
quickly become North America’s largest autism science and advocacy organization. The Wrights have raised both money and awareness of the disorder and the need for research, and in 2008 alone, their organization provided $33 million in research funding. “We did it because we couldn’t believe all the families who weren’t getting help,” Suzanne said. “Nobody was talking about this autism epidemic.” Today, the organization has 430 full-time employees and around 100 fundraising walks in the United States. The Wrights have also declared with the United Nations April 2 as World Autism Awareness Day. “It’s gotten to be a large and strong organization,” Bob said. Suzanne recalled a “watershed moment” about seven years ago when she and Bob went to the Ad Council and pre-
Pulitzer Prize-winner Ned Rorem to be honored by island arts community
Classifieds 12B ed Rorem, PulitzerBird Sightings 17B Copyright © 2013 and Mirror 08/15/2013 Prize-winning composer Business Directory 19BThe Inquirer Feasting Letters
AUTISM, PAGE 5A
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and diarist, who has called Nantucket his summer home for more than four
ith a developer eyeing the 100-acre Boy Scout campground on Nantucket known as Camp Richard, a feud has erupted between the Yarmouth-based Cape Cod & Islands Council of the Boy Scouts of America, which intends to sell a portion of the property, and Nantucket’s Boy Scout leaders, who want to protect it. After attempting to block the sale of the island campground, a group of Nantucket’s adult volunteer scout leaders were sued by the Cape Cod Council, had their registration with the national Boy Scouts of America organization revoked, and were barred from Camp Richard itself. Over the weekend, the Cape Cod Council went as far as changing the locks at the Camp Richard facilities. The legal showdown for control of the property got underway Tuesday afternoon in Barnstable Superior Court, when judge Gary Nickerson denied an emergency motion from the Nantucket Land Council to intervene in the case, and ordered both sides to craft an interim plan by Friday that will determine how Camp Richard will be managed and operated while its ownership in dispute. The controversy began last month after the Cape Cod Council revealed to Nantucket’s Boy Scout leaders that it had received a $3.5 million offer from Atlantic Development, a Hingham, Mass. company, to purchase 30 acres within Camp Richard, according to Bob
Photo by Nicole Harnishfeger
The names of off-island troops that have visited Camp Richard hang in the eaves in front of a stone fireplace the local troop built.
“We have spent thousands of hours and over $ 200,000 that we raised locally to improve the site so that scouts from all over can enjoy a rural camping experience, and now they act as though they can walk in and take over. It is outrageous.” The Camp Richard seal, affixed – Bob Graves to the lodge at the island’s Boy Pres., Nantucket Boy Scouts Scout camp off Rugged Road. Graves, the president of the Nantucket District Committee of the Boy Scouts of America. “We have spent thousands of hours and over $200,000 that we raised locally to improve the site so that scouts from all over can enjoy a rural camping expe-
rience, and now they act as though they can just walk in and take over,” Graves said in a statement. “It is outrageous.” The 100-acre Camp Richard property was a given to the Nantucket District Committee
BOY SCOUTS, PAGE 10A
Great white shark hunt for
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John Shea, left, chats with state Rep. Tim Madden and his wife, Dr. Diane Pearl, during the 2012 Nantucket Walk Now for Autism Speaks leaving Jetties Beach.
Autism: Campaigns aimed at minorities (Continued from page 1A
sented to them just how bad the epidemic was. This year, they launched the “Maybe” campaign, a new series of publicservice advertisements designed to reach African American and Hispanic parents. “We found that so many of these people in these nationalities are underserved,” Suzanne said. Bob added, “Their diagnoses are coming too late.” Furthering its advocacy campaign, Autism Speaks launched Autism Votes last year, 88 days before the Nov. 6 national election. People registered and then each person received a message in order to help spread the message to elected officials that autism is an urgent health crisis. The topic became almost unavoidable. “The autism community was very fractured for a long period of time,” Suzanne said. “Now, with Autism Votes, we’re all out for one thing, which is getting the rights that we deserve for our families. That’s where we come together.” In the state of New York, an-
other major hurdle was cleared at the end of July when the Cuomo administration dropped a regulatory requirement that prohibited families from receiving insurance coverage for applied behavior analysis (ABA), which they were promised under the state’s 2011 autism insurance reform law. ABA, a one-on-one treatment, can cost families tens of thousands of dollars a year, a potentially-devastating blow to families without insurance coverage. “We have a good bill in New York for insurance for autism, and unfortunately, for reasons I don’t even want to get into, one of the bureaucracies in the state attached restrictions for parents getting reimbursed,” Bob said. “We got that straightened out. Now we’re back on track
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Copyright © 2013 The Inquirer and Mirror 08/15/2013
and the governor was there standing by to sign the bill.” Around the world, access to treatment is limited, and even when it is available, a lot of people are ashamed because of stigmas, Bob added. “We know that early intervention followed by treatment at the ages of 2 to 6 is an enormous way to improve the situation. Enormous,” he said. “This is the result of an endless study, most of which we’ve paid for. It’s well-known, and that’s the goal.” The Wrights will be on-island this weekend for the Autism Speaks walk Saturday from 8:30-11:30 a.m. at Jetties Beach as part of the Christian’s Crusaders team, named for their grandson. The walk is just one of the many reasons the island has become known as a supporter and advocate for the disorder that devastates a family every 11 minutes. “It appears to me that Nantucket itself should be proud,” Bob said. “It’s getting the reputation that it’s very supportive of people with disabilities.”
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