Richmond Musician's Song for Autistic Children

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Robbin Thompson composed “Maybe Tomorrow” after reading a post from an old friend, Nancy Alsbaugh Jackson, on Facebook.

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Thompson: She was starting up a campaign to help military families with autistic children and she mentioned that they was looking for a piece of music, guided me to a link that was an interview with this woman named Karen Driscoll, whose husband was in the military, and was overseas while she was alone at home dealing with her autistic kid.

The song was written the night he watched that video. Still deeply moved by it, he told me, it’s in the form of a letter.

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Thompson: We met here in Richmond, right here where we’re sitting, and I played the song for her, just me and a guitar, and from her reaction, you could tell that she liked it. It was one of those tearful moments that, for both of us actually, when you write a song and you see what happens at that moment, it’s very emotional for everybody involved.

Watching with him I knew just what he meant. Alsbaugh Jackson, who has an autistic child, has included the song with Karen Driscoll’s story on a website act today for military families DOT org.

Jackson: Autism is an epidemic, and let’s help those that are hardest hit, those without resources, help their children. This could be the next Einstein, this could be the next person who discovers the cure for cancer. These kids are brilliant, but we’re going to lose them if we don’t get to them early enough. We don’t have time to waste. We can’t wait ‘till tomorrow, let’s make it today.

She explained that one in 110 children in America are diagnosed with autism while at the same time one in 88 children of military families are autistic and their health insurance covers only a fraction of the cost of treatment. And she noted, that in spite the resources available to her and her husband, caring for their child presented real challenges.

Jackson: Typical children are under tremendous stress when a family member is deployed, and we bring in a diagnosis of autism, can you imagine having a parent deployed in combat and having a family member at home fighting the battle for services?

The therapy requires anywhere from 25 to 40 hours a week.

Jackson: There are children recovered that actually lose their diagnosis if we get them there early enough with this treatment.

Using the website and Facebook, the hope is to raise a million dollars to support these military families with autistic.

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John Ogle, WCVE News