Raising awareness about autism and its impact on families will be the focus of an autism event on Tuesday, Nov. 17, hosted by the St. Mary’s Health Center Auxiliary.

The award-winning documentary “Autism: The Musical” will be shown, and a personal testimony will be provided about one family’s journey with autism.

The program will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Clydesdale Room of N.H. Scheppers Distributing Co., 2300 St. Mary’s Blvd.

The movie features five children with autism as they struggle through life’s challenges and come together to produce an innovative musical theater program. Through trial and error, tears and laughter, the children learn to communicate their feelings in song and performance. The docudrama has won several awards at film festivals across the country.

St. Mary’s Auxiliary is sponsoring the program as part of a statewide autism education effort launched by the Missouri Association of Hospital Auxiliaries. Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and affects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others. There is no known single cause of autism, but it affects one in 150 children.

The program is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Rosemarie Turner, (573) 635-3175.

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