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IT’S THE CLIMB Club Braman Member Mary Jo Walsh

TOO OFTEN, THERE EXISTS A WIDE casual consciousness into genuine available to her son once he was
GULF between awareness and understanding. diagnosed on the spectrum. Fed up
understanding. with the dismal lack of resources
For Mary Jo Walsh, her staff at the for her child and family, she
Here on our aqua and jade-colored Mountaineer’s School of Autism, cashed out her 401k in 2014, and
planet for example, we are aware and the students and families founded the Mountaineer’s School
of the broader universe—but we they serve, the heartbreaking of Autism with the specific goal of
understand only a fraction of its difference between awareness and cultivating a positive environment
vastness, mechanics, and why a understanding is all too familiar. for families like hers facing the
seemingly-random concoction However, Mary Jo and her team unique trials of autism. The daily
of elements and luck resulted have yet to meet a challenge they climb that those on the spectrum
in our existence. The distance won’t enthusiastically take the and their families face is directly
between our current perception fight to. referenced in the school’s name.
of the cosmos and eventual However, it is also an allusion to
comprehension may never be A Registered Nurse in a former life, Mary Jo’s philosophy of keeping a
reconciled, at least not in any Mary Jo has never been a stranger focus on the summit—no matter
of our lifetimes. Fortunately, to assisting her fellow man. Sadly, how high it may seem—and forging
there are aspects of our world she witnessed firsthand the lack of ahead one step at a time.
of which we can transform our support, education, and empathy

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