The National Student Speech Language Hearing Association will be hosting Zumba for Autism at the student recreation center Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m. to celebrate autism awareness month.

Tickets are $3 in advance and $5 at the door. All proceeds go the Eastern Autism Center. There will be two Zumba instructors during the event while supporters are free to participate at their own discretion.

NSSLHA is a pre-professional organization for students pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree in communication disorders and sciences. According to Eastern’s website, the university chapter of NSSLHA was created because of the desires of students for a closer affiliation with professionals in the CDS discipline.

“This is a fun event to get everyone excited and raise awareness for autism,” Meghan Levy, a graduate assistant for the Autism Center, said. “I feel like so often there is a stigma or stereotype with someone with autism.”

Levy believes this is a great way to overcome the misconceptions toward people with autism.

“There’s just a lot for people to learn about autism so we’re handing out some information and just trying to spread the word,” Levy said.

This event has taken place at Eastern in previous years, but not annually. Last year the student organization hosted a softball game to raise awareness.

“I thought it would be a good idea to bring back Zumba because they don’t have Zumba as a fitness class anymore at the rec center,” Elizabeth Rumbaugh, a senior communication disorders and sciences major said.

Rumbaugh coordinated the event as the autism representative for NSSLHA. She was inspired to help people with autism after teaching swimming lessons to children with the disorder. Rumbaugh also said she expects there to be a great turnout to the event.

Mary Beth Xenakis serves as the president of the NSSLHA and is the graduate assistant for Students with Autism Transitional Education Programs (STEP), a program that helps Eastern students with autism transition into the college environment, which includes organizing social events and helping them with time management.

“We’ve been working with a lot of college students with autism and just kind of seeing the challenges they go through every day I wanted to do something for April. I feel like it would be wrong not to,” Xenakis said. “Our profession works a lot with people with autism so this is another way for us to get involved.”

According to the Center for Disease Control, autism is the most common developmental disorder. This has led to one in every 68 children meeting the criteria for diagnosis.

“It’s just another way for us to raise money for the autism center and continue to provide these services at a low price for families,” Levy said.

Jeff Coy can be reached at 581-2812 or jrcoy@eiu.edu.