Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Ronald McDonald Would Be Proud
STOUT COLLECTS 31 POUNDS OF SOFT DRINK TABS FOR HOUSE
PRAIRIE GROVE — Ronald McDonald would be proud.
April Stout, 14, an eighth grader taking EAST this semester at Prairie Grove Middle School, has been collecting soft drink tabs to benefit the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkoma. In less than two months, she collected 31 pounds for Ronald McDonald House, a record for the class.
However, the real story, says her teacher Tracie Ashley, is the progress she’s seen in the young student since the beginning of the second semester and the effect that April has had on the students in her EAST class.
April has high functioning autism. She’s very social, full of energy, full of enthusiasm and talks very quickly.
That excitement is evident as she tells about her EAST project and her other responsibilities in class.
“I want to help the children,” April said.
She loves art and wants to be an art teacher when she grows up. Her box to collect drink tabs is decorated with a picture she drew. She won a first-place award for one of her drawings.
The EAST class grows native grasses for a rain garden at the Prairie Grove Senior Center and April waters the grass each morning. She also helps with the school’s recycling program. Ashley said she had seen April around school but did not get to know her until she came into her classroom in January.
April has always been very social but would not make eye contact and displayed a few other social tendencies sometimes associated with children with autism, Ashley said.
“I’ve seen her come out of her shell socially,” Ashley said, adding April now will “look you in the eye and talk to you.”
As part of her EAST project, April had to email Ronald McDonald House about collecting the tabs. Ashley said April wrote the initial email and then with some coaching and editing, expanded on the email and sent it off on her own.
But Ashley prefers to talk about how April has taught others in the classroom.
“The kids embrace her and that’s hard at a junior high age,” Ashley said. “They choose her. I call it the ‘April tug-of-war.’ It’s not out of pity but because she brings so much energy that they enjoy it.”
Her energy lasts throughout the class hour. April’s reward, if she finishes her work, is that she gets to “jam” to music at the end of class. Ashley said the other students have picked up on this and they want to finish their work so they can jam with her. April helps motivate her classmates.
“It’s awesome,” Ashley said.
Deena Brown, who teaches special education at the middle school, has been with April since third grade and said she wasn’t sure if EAST would work for April because the environment is not a structured classroom and students work independently on their projects. April prefers structure.
“I thought it was going to be harder for her but she’s proven me wrong,” Brown said.
Ashley said she thinks it works because April is working on her own project and setting up her own schedule.
At the beginning of the semester, Ashley said she talked to April about the expectations of the class and explained she would not hold her hand.
April came in with “guns blazing, ready to go once she got used to how we do things.”
April’s mother, Tammy Stout, said the family drinks a lot of soft drinks to help April collect tabs for the Ronald McDonald House.
“She really got into it,” Stout said. “I didn’t know what she was doing at first. I just knew she was collecting tabs.”
Stout said she knew by the time April was 2 years-old that something wasn’t quite right with her daughter’s development. The autism diagnosis came later after April started school. April’s younger sister also has been diagnosed as high functioning autism though it affects her totally differently than April.
Stout said April helps her out at home and takes care of her grandmother’s cat. She keeps up her grades and always does her homework first thing when she comes home. April also shows rabbits with the American Rabbit Breeders Association.
“She’s one of those girls who steps up,” Stout said. “As she grows up, I think we’ll see great things come out of her.”
Her mother fully expects April to fulfill her dream to be an art teacher.
Michelle Hobbs, office manager with the Ronald McDonald House of Arkoma, said tears came to her eyes when she visited the EAST class to pick up April’s drink tabs.
“April stepped out of her boundaries with me,” Hobbs said. “She let me take pictures with her. She gave me a hug and give me a high five. It was so awesome.”
The tab program, called “Pull for RMHC of Arkoma” is an easy way for communities to give back, Hobbs said. Money is raised by recycling the tabs at Lowell Iron and Metal and proceeds help pay for families to stay at the Ronald McDonald House in Fort Smith and for the dental care mobile, which provides free dental care to children in northwest Arkansas.
“EAST Lab is awesome,” Hobbs said. “They do so much in a child’s life and also for the community.”
April already has started filling her tab box again so she can send off another package to help Ronald McDonald House.
She also hopes to continue the project with the EAST program at the high school next year.