Local autism group assembles huge puzzle to raise awareness

VIRGINIA BEACH

Before you can put together the world's biggest puzzle, you first have to find someone willing to make the pieces. And that can be a real head-scratcher, especially when the puzzle needs to measure 60,000 square feet.

Pam Clendenen called lots of companies all over the country. Some didn't call back. Some didn't understand what she was asking for.

You want what for what?

It was for a good cause, Clendenen, executive director of Families of Autistic Children of Tidewater, told them. The organization would sell each piece for $5 to help raise money for an autism resource center and clubhouse. At the same time, it would raise awareness for the disorder, which is becoming increasingly prevalent.

In mid-November, a place in New Jersey that makes cardboard cutouts found in grocery stores agreed to take on the project.

Twenty-eight-thousand 18-by-18-inch pieces arrived by semitrailer the first week in January. They went into a warehouse, and there they stayed for more than three months, until another truck arrived to haul the pieces to the Virginia Beach Convention Center.

Orange, red, purple and teal cardboard pieces sat in stacks Sunday morning, on the floor, on wooden pallets and in plastic carts. People clutched them to their chests, got down on their knees and arranged.

The outline - bright orange - went down first, followed by an expanding rainbow of rows up top. Each piece had a message: One in 150 children is diagnosed with autism, some said. Every community needs to prepare for a surge of adults with autism, said others.

Everything looked fine from a distance.

But Clendenen was up close, and she noticed little gaps that seemed to grow with the picture. She pointed one way and then the other, walked one way and then another. She gave instructions and broke out in a sweat.

"Putting out fires," she explained on a quick break. "It's a little harder than I thought."

Clendenen stepped up to a microphone. "We have a plan. Everybody move away from the puzzle."

Instead of going across, they should go down the middle and build out, she said.

The plan seemed to work. The puzzle got bigger fast, thanks to people such as Reid Conrad, an 11-year-old who has a form of autism, and his brother and sister and their friends.

Then there was Team Ashley, distinguishable by their matching yellow shirts.

Ashley Webster, 9, was diagnosed with autism six years ago. Her mother, Cheri, made the shirts with Ashley's picture at the center for all the family members and friends who have helped raise money for autism with fundraisers like this one.

Reid and Ashley both attend a summer day camp run by Families of Autistic Children of Tidewater. They swim and bowl and take karate.

There's no permanent home for the camp, but Clendenen is hoping for one in the next couple of years. The big puzzle could raise at least $140,000 for the clubhouse and resource center, which would provide a place for families trying to piece together answers for a disorder that has no known cure or cause.

It also could set a record. The group still needs to have the results validated, but the puzzle meets the size that Guinness World Records said was needed to make the world's largest puzzle.

To the participants, however, the size of the puzzle wasn't as important as the scope of what it was trying to accomplish.

"I think this is the greatest idea," Cheri Webster said. "It's not just about raising money, it's about raising awareness for autism."

Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5208, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com Number of puzzle pieces that covered a total of 60,000 square feet.