Big Red Safety Box

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a posting on facebook for the Big Red Safety Box.  It was posted by a few different groups that I follow, so after the 3rd time I saw it, I decided to check it out.  All that you had to do was fill out a small form and submit it and they (Autism Speaks and the National Autism Association) would send you a free box of safety items geared specifically for those with autism who wander.  Wandering is such a problem in the autism community that it is now a medical diagnosis.  The reason that we need it to be a medical diagnosis is for school IEP's and to try to get insurance companies to help pay for the costly items that are available to help track these individuals.

I was excited about the kit that I immediately sent the information to a couple more of my friends that also deal with wandering.  By the time that they filled the form out, the kits were gone.  In 5 hours the 1000 free kits were gone.  Wandering is such an unfortunate problem in the autism community.  In fact it is our biggest issue with Bobby.

One of the questions on the form was, "why do you need this kit."  Bobby has wandered from our house 3 times so far.  Once he went to our neighbors house (luckily we live in a community with 7 houses and they know Bobby).  I was in a training recently where a father told about his child leaving their house without them knowing.  He was found (yes they were all out looking for him by then) when someone a few streets away called 911 because someone had entered their house, sat down and started using their computer.  Sounds funny, I know, but thank God that the boy entered this house and was not shot for intruding, didn't go into the house of a pediaphile, or enter some other horrible situation.  These are the things that keep autism parents up at night.  Bobby was also missing in the woods surrounding our house for around 45 minutes.  I called 911 and Bob went out on his 4 wheeler to look for him.  Bob finally found him and I called 911 and told them that Bobby was found and they immediately got off of the phone so that they could call off the search party.

When I called 911 all that I had to do was give them Bobby's name, his Project Lifesaver transmitter number and what Bobby was wearing.  911 immediately knew what I was talking about and have access to all of his information.  Bobby has been a Project Lifesaver client for almost 4 years.  He wears a LoJack tracking device all of the time.  He swims and bathes with his bracelet.  A volunteer from the Mon. Co. sheriffs office comes out monthly, in full uniform, to remove the bracelet, change the battery and put on a new band.  This is also so that the clients are used to the staff wearing police uniforms.  Bobby's physical description, photos and all other information is already accessible so that we don't have to stop and try to find a picture (which obviously in our case, would not be a hard thing, but some families aren't picture obsessed like me) and calm down and give this information.

Yesterday, our Big Red Safety Box arrived...

The kit contains 2 door alarms and 2 shoe tags (which open up and contain all of the childs information.  The directions also direct you to keep a hair clipping or a nail clipping of the child in a dry, secure place).

The kit also contains some great information for family plans, IEPs, safety checks...

If any of my autism friends want copies of these documents, let me know.  I will be more than happy to send them to you.  Again, this is information that you hate to think about, but it is a necessary evil if your child wanders.