One Columbus family raises awareness for autism
In 2019, the Ferguson's started The Rowdy Foundation to raise money and awareness
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- When Myers Ferguson was 15 months old, Myers’ parents Whitney and Scott Ferguson noticed a regression in their sons speech; at 18 months he was no longer verbal.
“We decided to find a place to get him tested. He was diagnosed at 2 with autism. He has received services up until five and from there we decided that we wanted to give back to community that gave so much to us,” said Myers’ mother Whitney Ferguson.
Following the diagnosis, the Ferguson’s searched for help across the state and realized, they soon realized those resources were limited; however that didn’t stop their mission for their Myers.
“It’s been a struggle to begin with. When you first get that diagnosis at least for me it was a struggle. I’ll give her credit she took it and ran with it. it took me a minute to kind of understand it and wrap my head around what was going on, but services as for ABA therapy, speech therapy, and all those kinds of things to take him from where he was at 18 months to where he is now,” said Myers’ father Scott Ferguson.
In 2019, the Ferguson’s started The Rowdy Foundation to raise money and awareness to give back to the people that helped their son and others. Myers is in school.
On Saturday, the family held a sensory event with the operator of Kid Connections, Jessi Sugg.
“We come together in play groups and we target our visual system and our taste and our smell and we learn how to move our body in different ways and spin in circles and go upside down then we use our hands to touch different types of textures and today we used our feet,” said Sugg.
The kids were simply being a kid; that’s what the Ferguson’s love to see, their son being included.
“We want to do more events like this we want to raise more money for other great things in the community and just continue giving back. We’ve been blessed and we just want to give back… It’s awesome to see kids of special needs to you know your typical developing children all playing together I mean that’s what it’s all about that’s what we’ve always wanted is for Myers to be in that environment and coexist and as you can see from the footage they’re doing that,” said Scott Ferguson.
The Ferguson’s plan to hold more events in 2022 and are thankful for all the people that help raise money to the foundation.
