Take advantage of the streak of warm weather this Sunday, April 13, with the Richard Wigney Memorial Run for Autism. The race, a 5K run/walk, is a great opportunity to work up a sweat while supporting a Eugene nonprofit.

Bridgeway House, a nonprofit that has been supporting children and families of all income levels with autism and related abilities, has origins in the late ‘90s when Patricia Wigney, a Eugene mother, refused to give up hope when she felt the systems around her failed. Her daughter, who was three at the time, was diagnosed with autism.

“You go home with this diagnosis that your child may be institutionalized, may never speak, may have only borderline mental ability,” Wigney said. “But where do I get help?”

In those days, support for diagnosed children was sparse. While currently there are systems like Developmental Disabilities Services which offer insurance-based options or Early Childhood CARES, which is free, at the time she was strapped for options. “I was told that my child needs 40 hours of intervention a week but there was no place to get intervention,” Wigney said.

Through persistence, she managed to get 20 hours a week from Early Childhood CARES, but it was nowhere near enough. To fill the gap, she took inspiration from another parent who had home care at the time and started looking for alternative therapies to help her daughter.

“When I started looking for alternative therapies for autism or any type of therapy, everything was alternative at the time,” Wigney said. At the time, the current best practice of Applied Behavior Analysis was a burgeoning field, so standardized care was practically nonexistent.

Wigney began learning Floortime play therapy under the instruction of Dr. Ronda Roberts, an MD in developmental-behavioral pediatrics. “She was doing it for free for me, so she told me I would just have to pay it forward,” Wigney said.

Once Wigney learned the ropes, Roberts would send other parents to Wigney’s home to learn from her, thus beginning the Bridgeway story.

While Dr. Roberts taught Wigney for free, the cost of providing therapy services for her daughter and education for Eugene parents was high. The Wigneys took on the burden during those early days, around $50,000 per year. “My husband and I refinanced our house and he worked on weekends. We did extra work to pay for the services,” Wigney said.

But local parents saw the results of Wigney’s efforts and eventually her home was overflowing with parents in need. Wigney knew it was time for a change, calling for a meeting with around 35 parents who had been frequent observers.

Of the 35, seven parents signed up as board members and together they decided to start a nonprofit. While some of the board members were wary of the cost, estimating $1 million necessary to run the operation, Wigney and another mom pushed forward. “We said ‘no, we need to start now. We need service for our children now,’” Wigney said.

While the operation gained 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in around 2002, according to Wigney it has been a successful but “seat of the pants” operation.

“It isn’t 10 years from now that people need services; it’s now,” Wigney said.

Wigney, whose daughter now has a Masters degree and works as a librarian, says the efforts of the tight knit parental group were pivotal. “My daughter wouldn’t be where she is now if it weren’t for the services Bridgeway provided back then,” Wigney said.

While Bridgeway House offers a series of fundraising events, the Wigneys were both runners, and felt a low stakes race would be the perfect way to bring the community together. “Running accepts everybody. There’s no judgement in running and people like to run together,” Wigney said. “While sometimes it is a competition, you’re more in competition with yourself”

Running, much like parenting, is a very personal challenge. Each race offers emotional peaks and troughs which will keep one on their toes, and often the actual finish line doesn’t quite line up with the runners’ expectations. In both, the most important aspect is the intentional act of taking the next step, knowing that one has the mental fortitude to tackle whatever challenges may come.

“Listen to your instincts and don’t ever give up hope,” Wigney said. “Because your child is always going to grow and develop no matter how impacted they are, there’s always hope.”