The Metrocentre once again paired with Awesometistic to show people that autism can be awesome, this time by bringing in a Lotus supercar to encourage kids to get talking and voicing their autism.
Richie Bow-Grace, the founder of the autism awareness organisation, brought the supercar in to use it as an engagement tool, allowing children and their families who are dealing with autism to come and get their photo taken sat in the car.
This wasn’t a straightforward process however, as Richie had to go down to Norwich to pick up the car, driving it back up in order to keep his promise to the children he has worked with.
One child in particular, named Aidan, spent over 2 hours with Richie as he was so excited about the car, with this being a perfect example of how this can be used as a way of making a connection, so that the child will feel they can open up.
On each of the two days that Richie was their with the car, he interacted with over 100 autistic children and their families, offering them a gateway into help through voicing their needs.
Richie has spoken about the reasons behind doing this and the messages that he wants to get across to children and their families.
“With the car, I was able to show children that it is ok to be themselves and that autism can be awesome. These young people need to be able to voice their own needs as everyone is different, and that is why I try to do something about this.
“I’ve heard from the mums of some of the children that even though they always want to stay at home, when they heard about me and the car being there, they said, ‘can we go down and see Richie.’ It is surreal and a massive privilege to help this many people and I couldn’t be prouder of everyone at Awesometistic.”