♪♪
Colby Burt: Gary does recognize that he has autism and he says
it makes him think differently. And we've talked about how
that's not a bad thing and thinking differently can be seen
as a good thing.
Gary doesn't want to be seen as autism.
He wants to be seen as Gary.
♪♪
Burt: Gary is 35 years old. He is a very hard worker himself.
He is incredibly kind, a people person.
He always wants to help.
Gary does have family. His family are natural supports to him.
A lady named Katie, who is his guardian, so not blood family,
but she definitely is family to Gary.
I've got family now. I've got Katie as a family. I've
got all of it. And I get to be Uncle Gary.
To who?
To Katie's baby.
Katie's baby. How old is Katie's baby?
He's about 2 months.
2 months old.
Do you hold him?
Yeah.
Yeah. Have you fed him yet?
No.
Do you change a dirty diaper?
No.
The baby adores me. And then I've got pets too.
Oh, Katie has dogs?
Yep. Three dogs.
Wow.
And you know what they like it what I do?
What?
She lays down on her side and lets me rub her belly.
(laughs)
Burt: Gary recently moved into a brand new, beautiful home.
He lives with three other roommates.
What is your favorite part about your new home?
Fishing.
Fishing? Because you have a pond in your back yard, right?
Yes.
What kind of fish do you like catching?
Blue gill and croppie and bass, catfish.
Okay, cool.
♪♪
What else do you like to do?
I like to cook.
♪♪
My favorite thing every year is to go to the Iowa game.
Who is your favorite team?
The Hawkeyes. They've been winning.
I! O! W! A!
Eight, nine.
Burt: Gary is a very curious learner. He is huge into people and
loves making friends and having those relationships.
Thank you, Tom.
We're going to have a cookout this weekend at your house.
Yep.
Who's coming? Are you having friends come over?
Yeah, I told James I would ask you today if he could come.
Yeah, absolutely. And so we're going to grill out.
What else are we going to do?
Maybe fish.
Maybe do some fishing? Maybe play some games?
Yep.
Nice shot. I'm going to lose on TV, Gary.
Burt: Gary is interested in dating. We have recently talked
about that and he brings up girls and everything.
He's interested in it but he just, not right now,
which is completely fine.
Gary, what are some ways that you're more independent?
Doing my own laundry.
Okay.
♪♪
What else?
Doing dishes.
How are some ways that you have grown as a person?
No bad behaviors.
No bad behaviors. What does that mean to you?
No cursing.
So you've worked on being angry, right?
Mm-hmm.
You're a pretty happy person now aren't you?
Yep.
Yeah.
♪♪
Burt: Not too long ago he always had overnight staff, now he
uses an overnight monitoring system so he doesn't require
an overnight staff.
If he wants to stay home alone, he can do that, which seems
small, but for Gary that's huge.
This is done.
And now to be able to even go out in the community
by himeself is massive.
I got a good deal on a riding lawnmower.
Gary started working on the farm in October 2017.
Gary works five days a week, Monday through Friday.
Yes, yes.
Yes, yes, what?
I don't know. Chicken butt.
(laughs)
♪♪
Gary works here at Balance Autism as a farm hand
all year round. So there's a lot of variety of things that he
does. He will seed. Anything that goes into our field is
hand seeded by individuals with autism.
♪♪
I like this better in the summer than the winter.
♪♪
Julie Beougher: Gary came to us just needing a little
fine tuning on his skills. He needed to follow directions,
take feedback, and he has progressed in that really well.
That way it doesn't get tangled on my fingers.
Do you want to try it?
Thumb. There you go! See!
When you get discouraged just take a deep breath.
Good job using your coping skills, Gary. I'm very
proud of you. That was awesome!
♪♪
So you made a black and gold Hawkeye flower basket.
Yeah.
I bought that one. I bought that one that you made and I
didn't know you made it. That's really cool.
So when you walk behind the tractor, what are you doing?
Making sure the holes are big enough to plant things.
Okay, so in the summertime --
We plant.
You plant. What kind of plants?
Strawberries, tomatoes, a whole bunch of stuff.
Do you eat any of the plants that you grow? What kinds?
Eggplant, sweet potatoes and stuff like that.
What is your favorite vegetable?
Eggplant because you can fry it in flour and bread it.
Joni Brown: So Gary helps harvest all of the produce. Each piece of produce
is hand cleaned, hand packaged and then we deliver it
to our community supported agriculture members.
At the end of the season we tear apart the fields and
we start in on our fall and winter projects.
I didn't see that one.
What have you been doing at work?
Pulling plastic.
Pulling plastic. What does the plastic do?
Helps the plants grow.
Helps the plants grow?
And keeps the weeds out.
♪♪
Joni: Gary eventually we want him to work in the community.
We're not sure exactly what that job would be. Right now
he likes cleaning. So he could get a job in the community
cleaning someday.
He wants to be out there and he wants to be independent and
he wants to do a good job. When he first came here he was very
unsure of himself, very argumentative and
extremely attention-seeking. Now I can pretty much say hey,
Gary, go work on this for me and he'll head that direction.
But before it was I can't, I can't, it doesn't work.
And so instead of saying I can't, he will flat out
be like I'm going to succeed at this. I think now
he stands a little taller.
All right.
Think they'll be okay back there?
Yup.
This program is part of the Move To Include
Initiative made possible with support from the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private
corporation funded by the American people.
♪♪
The Max and Helen Guernsey Charitable
Foundation, in support of educational programming on
statewide Iowa Public Television.
♪♪