Rachel Berman loves to take us all to the movies
If you have been enjoying going to the movies for special showings just for ASSEW members, you have your fellow member, Rachel Berman, to thank. Rachel has been coordinating the events, most recently setting us up to see Madagascar: Back 2 Africa at the North Shore Cinema in Mequon.
Rachel says she started setting up the special showings because, like many of us, her family had such a hard time going to the movies. While, in their perception, their son Isaac was fairly quiet, once they got him into a movie theatre he seemed loud to the other moviegoers around them, resulting in the mean stares so many of us are familiar with.
In the end it always cost her family a lot of money even though they were never able to stay more than 20 minutes, despite Isaac being very “into movies.” It got to the point where Rachel and her husband, Chris, were willing to spend $200 to rent the theater for just the five of them.
At one Morning Coffee support group meeting Rachel brought up the idea of other support group families joining them. She figured if she was already spending the money more families with autism could come and they’d have the whole theater to enjoy without the stares, glares, and comments. Patti Meerschaert, who was the ASSEW Executive Director and leading the support group meetings at the time (Patti is the current Board Treasurer) said that ASSEW would help sponsor the outing if it was open to all members.
Rachel couldn’t be happier than when she’s greeting people coming in to the movie events, seeing all the families who are now able to go to the movies together that normally wouldn’t be able to. She says that’s the only thanks she needs.
Rachel says she’s happy to get the word out about her experience volunteering for ASSEW because she thinks there are other members with great ideas who are willing to contribute in some way to benefit all our families, but who don’t know where to start.
Rachel and Chris have three children: Isaac (9), has Autism and is their oldest. They also have a son, Noah (4) and a daughter Chaya (3). Rachel and her family live in Port Washington.