Xaverian Student Develops Program with SNARC

Staring next fall, Xaverian Bros. High School senior and varsity hockey player, along with the rest of his team, will begin begin forming some friendships with autistic children. 

Ryan Hall, 18, said he first came up with the idea for the initiative after spending time with a family friend, Joseph Wheeler, 10, who has autism. 

"(Joseph) inspired me to do it, and basically I asked where I should go, where a good place to be for that was," said Hall. "I thought it'd be a good idea to create a bond between two different groups of people, and it'd be good to see how we all react, us and the kids we'd be working with."

Hall is the older brother of a friend of Jack Wheeler, Joseph's older brother. Hall and Joseph began a friendship that sprouted out of an eighth grade service project Hall was completing at St. Joseph's in Needham.

Joseph is currently a student at Downey Elementary, where he is engaged in a collaborative program for children who have autism his mother, Katie Wheeler, said she reached out to Hall to help fulfill his obligation and also fulfill the need for Joseph, who was unable to find a swimming program that would work for him.

"For us it was a really pressing need," Wheeler said. "We could't find an appropriate program for him."

As such, they asked Hall to help out.

"That's sort of how it all got started," Wheeler said. "(Hall) was amazing. He was more at ease with Joseph, and Joseph has some unusual behaviors, and makes some unexpected noises. Nothing phased Ryan. He was more at ease and comfortable with Joseph than some adults we come in contact with."

Although it fulfilled Hall's Christian Service Project, he didn't stop spending time with Joseph. Their time together allowed Ryan to develop the idea to have his teammates on the Xaverian hockey team spend some time with autistic children to help spark some friendships. 

"Over (last) summer, Ryan had contacted me and said, 'This is kind of what I want to do,' and sort of explained the project," Wheeler said.

As a result, he headed to Southern Norfolk County ARC, which lies across the street from Xaverian on Clapboardtree Street.

"They loved the idea of getting some kind of idea going between them and the hockey team," Hall said. "But the scheduling didn't work out between the both of us, so we decided to do it next year.

The idea was for each player on the hockey team to have his own buddy, whom they would get to know well over the course of the school year. SNARC, meanwhile, would deal with transporting the kids to some of the hockey team's practices.

The idea would be to meet with the group two to three times each month, and then they would finish the year with a special event. 

"This program would give us the chance to give something to those who go through more every day than we could imagine," Hall said. "As 16 to 18-year-old kids, we do not realize how much of an impact we can really have one someone's life."

No funding would be needed for the program, Hall said; Xaverian simply planned on giving some gym time to play basketball.

"That's the plan for next year," Hall said. "We'll take advantage of the gym on Sundays, and invite the kids around."

The program, Hall said, will begin right after Thanksgiving, right before the hockey season starts.