Fighting until the finish

Hundreds press on despite the cold

By Sara Ganim

STATE COLLEGE — Rocky Landers teaches autistic children every day at the State College preschool where she works.

That’s why she walks. Allen Saylor’s 4-year-old daughter is in the spectrum.

That’s why his family walks. Pearce Smithwick brought his 4-year-old son who just wanted to run in a race.

It’s a good cause, he said. That’s why they walked.

Landers said it well: “Awareness, support and education — that’s what it’s all about.”

More than 1,200 people raised more than $100,000 at the fourth annual Autism Speaks 5K walk/run in State College Saturday afternoon, said overall

chairman Jason Shorr, of Beta Sigma Beta fraternity at Penn State.

It was quite chilly for a spring day, but participants mostly came prepared.

“We’re just really happy it didn’t rain,” Shorr said. “The cold is something we can deal with.”

Weather wouldn’t stop Saylor’s team from walking.

“If they have it every year, we’ll be here,” said Allen Say-lor. “It’s just wonderful to see that there’s so many people aware of it. ... It’d be nice to find out what is the cause of it. We need money to do research.”

Leighton Smithwick just kept asking his parents to let him run in a race so he could be more like the character of Dash, a youngster with the power of super speed, from the movie “The Incredibles.”

They saw an ad for the event at his preschool and decided to let him run.

The race kicked off at noon — Leighton could barely wait.

“If he beats mom, he gets waffles for lunch,” his dad said. “He’s been saying he wants to do a race. That and to help a good cause, why not?”

Landers, who is a occupational therapist at the State College Central Intermediate Unit preschool, came with Sue Dill-man, a speech therapist at the school.

“We’re both heavily invested,” Landers said. “Autism has touched almost every person that I encounter, in some way.”

The crowd was full of families, college students, community groups, including the Penns Valley All Stars — a group of families with autistic children — and a strong showing from the Greek community.

“It’s really impressive,” she said.

Sara Ganim can be reached at 231-4616.