Jones Beach walk for autism draws 1,000 to help expand awareness and research

About 1,000 people walked in Jones Beach State Park on a sunny Sunday to raise money and awareness for autism, some donning colorful shirts that bore the name of a loved one they came to support — including “Brendan’s Buddies,” “Mason’s path,” and many others.

The annual event raises money for walk organizer Autism Speaks, an advocacy group that serves those with autism through increasing awareness and advancing research on better interventions and understanding of the causes. By Sunday afternoon, the Long Island walk — one of several in the nation held in autumn — had raised more than $232,000 toward the $403,000 goal, according to the organization’s website.

About one in 44 children in the U.S. has autism, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 5.5 million adults live with autism, accounting for about 2% of the nation’s adult population.

“It’s not a disease. It’s a diagnosis. To have a diagnosis means you process things differently,” said Carla Sterling, senior area executive director in New York State for Autism Speaks. “This person is different, but it’s a difference that should be celebrated. There shouldn’t be stigma around it.”

That was a sentiment shared by Amit Mehra, 45, who donned a yellow shirt that said: “WHY FIT IN? WHEN YOU WERE BORN TO STAND OUT.”

He named the team “Mason’s path” for his 5-year-old son Mason, who is autistic.

“I just figured, you know, he walks to the beat of his own drum,” said Mehra, of Queens, surrounded by family members and friends wearing the same shirt. “It’s his path and we are going to follow it.”

The father of two teared up as he spoke: “This is more like tears of joy,” noting he was thankful for the support his family has received at the walk.

Chandice McQueen, 35, has come to the walk with her family since 2016 and said she remembered how little people knew about autism when her older son Jaiden, 16, was diagnosed with it nearly a decade ago. Her younger son Zindell, 7, was diagnosed when he was 4.

“When my first son was diagnosed, out of all my friends, he was the only kid that anybody knew that had autism,” the mother of four said. “Now it's more widely accepted.”

In her experience, rising awareness has helped expand resources for families like hers, McQueen said.

“When we first started out, there weren't that many programs,” she said. “We felt we had a lot of obstacles that we had to go through. … Now that my little one has been diagnosed with it, they have tools that can facilitate these things.”

McQueen, who moved from Hempstead to Queens a few years ago, came with members from her church Love Fellowship Temple in West Hempstead. That included Bishop James Byrd, who changed the format of the Sunday service from in-person to Zoom so that he could be at the walk.

“It was great,” McQueen said of the walk after it ended. “The boys felt a lot of love.”

Alex Buffolino, 21, of Massapequa Park, came with friends whom he knew through Massapequa High School. It felt good to be at the walk, Buffolino said, “because I’m here supporting people like me.”

By Dandan Zou

dandan.zou@newsday.com@DandanZou

Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, she worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, D.C.