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At the third-grade level questions about autism center around athletics, school work and getting dressed.
"How fast can he swim?" asked a boy at Eisenhower Elementary School Thursday during a Kids on the Block presentation.
The children completely ignored the very visible puppeteers during two presentations, the first about a mental disability, the second about multi-culturalism. They asked questions as if the 3-foot tall puppets were human.
One person who especially enjoyed the Cardinal Center sponsored show was Sue Mock, an Eisenhower special education teacher.
She and fellow teacher Pam Jarecki-Vosler wrote a grant requesting funds for the puppets last year and was awarded $12,000 from the DEKKO Foundation, K21 Foundation and local businesses and service organiztions.
"The DEKKO Foundation suggested we partner with the Cardinal Center," Mock said, "and its really turned into their program."
The program is a tool to teach children about disability awareness, medical-educational differences and social concerns.
Mock had been borrowing Kids on the Block puppets and the scripts from Whitley Consolidated Schools for years. Finding compatible dates to use the figures was becoming difficult.
Now there are a dozen puppets available through the Cardinal Center and another four at the Kosciuko County Mental Healh Agency.
Each puppet comes with a personality, a biography and equipment. They cost $700 each and are manufactured in the United States.
Information packets provide taped and written scripts, suggested answers to questions and suggested activities for teachers after the presentation.
On stage Cardinal Center employee Betsy Cline and volunteers Deanna Hicks and Tracy Benzinger moved puppets while the script played. They moved rods to make hand and arm gestures and opened the figure's wide mouths, not necessarily on cue.
"We're really rookies," Benzinger said.
The students didn't care or notice.
Cardinal Center community relations and volunteer manager Sheena Whitaker said the schools are starting to schedule performances and the puppets are on the road about two to three times a month. The progam is designed for third and fourth graders.
For more information call Whitaker 267-3823, Ext. 387.
