Meet Crys Worley | Founder – Askate Foundation

We had the good fortune of connecting with Crys Worley and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Crys, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I’m going to have to answer this question as if it were asked in a different way. Such as… what motivated you to start your organization? Because Askate is not a ‘business’. We do not have staff and run solely on a volunteer basis.

When I started Askate, my children were 3 and 5 years old. They are now 18 and 20. My oldest son Sasha was diagnosed with autism at 22 months old. He fell on many ends of the autism and physical health spectrums with severely delayed language, sensory disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, dyslexia, behavioral disorders, ADHD, ADD, impulse control disorders, epilepsy, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, hypogammaglobulinanemia, and a handful of other things. My Sasha was young, he spent a lot of time inside hyperbaric chambers. In between ‘dives’ I would find things for us to do for a few hours until we had our second session each day. At a local park, he was often drawn to the skatepark and was fascinated with the skateboarders so I bought him a skateboard. Every day I would take him to the skatepark and hold his hands while he balanced on his skateboard. We would go from one end of the park to the other, back and forth, for several hours. I didn’t realize it at the time but his brain was changing with each moment he spent on that skateboard. The proprioceptive and vestibular needs in his brain were being met with the stimulation of standing on a moving object on wheels and balancing. Additionally, the vagus nerve and 12 cranial nerves were being worked in ways they had not before. The fact that he was having so much brain stimulation after and before hyperbaric sessions was an added bonus we were unaware of at the time. Dr. Stephen Porges, neuroscientist who discovered the Polyvagal Theory, shed light on what is happening in the brain when neuro divergent children step on skateboards and it’s everything I saw happen to my son but didn’t understand at the time.
At the skatepark I noticed he had eye contact and focus like never before. He couldn’t speak words well but his communication was better, clearer, and his body and hand gestures were easier to understand. When I would meet up with friends at local parks for play dates and I would now have my sons skateboard. It became a thing so I started having small skateboard play dates. I quickly understood that this was something nearly all neuro divergent children could benefit from. When my family would go on vacation to visit friends, I would post on autism message boards that we would be at the local skatepark with skate instructors to help the kids skate, with a date and time, and if anyone wanted to come they were welcome. People would show up. This was almost fifteen years ago. After hosting small skate clinics in our hometown and in other areas, I decided this might be worth starting an organization. The rest is history. Askate was formed and we have been on a mission to raise awareness and funds to spread our mission and host events when we can. Sometime around 2011 two film students at NYU reached out and asked if they could tag along to events, film, and maybe create a documentary out of what they capture. Ben Duffy and Mike Sassano created a really beautiful interpretation of our lives and Askate’s programs during a peak growth point in the organization and my children’s lives. It has ran it’s course on most streaming platforms but it currently available to rent or purchase on YouTube. The documentary is called HeartChild.

There are a million stories weaved within the past fifteen years how Askate has thrived in the highs and lows of the non-profit ‘business’. The most important story is that we are still here and what we do matters.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Askate was an idea that mattered because I saw a significant neurological change in my neuro divergent child after placing him on a skateboard to pass time before and after hyperbaric therapy treatments. Without the visual impact and him changing before my eyes, Askate would not be here.

I am a very smart person but struggled with being book smart. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree with most children on the autism spectrum. A lot of times one or more of their parents have milder challenges or were very similar in their development. I was a child that should have been in special education, needed a therapist, would have benefited from medication, and needed ADA services in college. By the time I gained a diagnosis in my late teens, proper help was too late for me. Back then, the world didn’t have the information and laws it has now, otherwise I would have been more successful in obtaining a proper education.

I experienced a lot of darkness as a child. As an adult, it felt like PTSD and panic attacks when meeting people or being in certain public environments. I had to learn to discern peoples intentions in situations with caution. I would feel uncomfortable around someone who was nice but not know why I felt hesitant until a circumstance exposed an intention. It was hard learning to run an organization with such little book smarts. I took continuing education classes and studied the internet for years in order to grasp the different aspects of how to make this program work without a paid staff. Our lawyer and CPA offered a lot of guidance and advise that we have held onto and when it comes to partnerships, we now know to always have a contract. I can now look at a person and know if they carry a façade and mask over their charm. I lightly trust people and know when to move on. If someone sticks around with my wall up, I know they are my people and I’ll come out of my shell. Part of this is due to the unaddressed issues I had as a child that mimic many things my sons autism diagnosis carries. Other reasons is… life downfall experiences. Looking at things with a new mindset is a way to move forward. I’ve experienced enough trauma and pain in life to now consider it a gift. This gift has helped guide me in business partnership relationships. I can look at a challenging situation and say: I hope God blesses that and it hurts. Challenging things eventually reach the light of day once it’s brought to it’s knees. Life lessons run good organizations.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Birmingham, Alabama is my home and of all the places I’ve traveled to, I always love coming home because I miss the food! We have the best chefs and food in town. (One beat Bobby what’s his name on a cooking show and another recently won the James Beard award.) There are so many hidden gems in our city. If my best friend were in town we would first go to Davenport’s Pizza, assuming she would fly in around dinner time. I’ve eaten NY Pizza every time I’ve visited NYC and have yet to find any comparable to Davenport’s. The sauce is where it’s at and the moment I leave the restaurant my soul stays in line to pull me back every Monday. We would next visit two taco places. For breakfast, yes breakfast, we would visit Dos Hermano’s Taco Truck in Birmingham. I’m not sure which ‘top’ list in America they made but they made one. My husband gets tacos for breakfast nearly every day of the week but when I go, I get a chorizo torta with extra cilantro and lime. You cannot find the marinated carrots and hot sauce anywhere else. We’ve tried. For lunch we would visit Taco Casa. For dinner we would probably go to Makario’s or Surin West. On the official day two, we would likely visit Over Easy for oatmeal pancakes, Saw’s Soul Kitchen for lunch (I’d make her try the sweet tea fried chicken and of course traditional bbq), and we would maybe get fancy and have dinner at Highlands or Hot and Hot Fish Club. Highlands was named most outstanding restaurant in America at the James Beard awards. One day I would love to sit down and have a four course meal there. I’ve dabbled with small plates at the bar seating and it’s just fabulous. If my best friend and I got hungry for a snack before 10pm we would grab wings and fries from American Deli. After midnight we would stop by Al’s Deli and Grill. The rest of the time we would eat at the house bc my husband makes a killer steak and the best chicken rice and gravy. Well, actually we might also visit the Paw Paw Patch for a meat and 3 at some point during her stay.

If we had time to do anything other than eat, I would take my friend to Sloss Furnaces, visit the Vulcan, hike Ruffner, roller skate at CityWalk, grab Ohenry’s coffee, shop at Homewood Toy and Hobby, visit the Birmingham Museum of Arts or Barber Vintage Motorsport Museum, and see if a movie, show, or play was happening at Alabama or Lyric Theaters. Oh and we would also stop by my favorite local stores, Golden Temple, which also has a cafe with the best beet juice and vegan mac and cheese.

When people from the North and West talk about Alabama, they often have a mindset that looks like we are hillbillies, experience racism often, and are less culture than the rest of the world. It is certainly like that in some areas, but I find the same types of people in every region of our country. Some of California’s desert is comparable to parts of Alabama’s deep woods. I grew up in a small town that made it’s mark by becoming part of a podcast called S-Town. I feel I am well rounded and cultured in people and food after growing up there, living in the city over the last decade, and traveling with Askate. I suppose I could take my friend to my hometown and give her a personal S-Town tour but she would have to listen to the podcast first to care. It’s basically like driving through Lone Pine on the the way to Yosemite, but with newer houses.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
In 2010 my family attended a Surfers Healing event where I met my now best friend Elisa Daste. Our sons were participating in a surf program for children on the spectrum. We connected and in time she began volunteering to help me establish a more consistent program in California. She and I have done life together over the past 12 years. Our boys are now young men and we have thankfully had the opportunity to lean on each other through the journey. Without her dedication to the program, Askate would not be where it is today. It truly takes a village to do anything in life. I’ve had the honor of having her with me as a best friend and professional partner.

Worldwide we have a volunteer base of thousands. Volunteers are the heart of Askate. Skate instructors are especially important because without them, we wouldn’t have 1:1 coaches for the kids who participate. We love the support the world has shown for continuing our mission and are so very grateful. Volunteers help us with our grassroots fundraising efforts which is so important because corporate support can come and go leaving a new program unable to sustain. It is very hard for a skateboard organization to win a grant. I cannot tell you how many times we have applied for grants and did not win. It’s often the educational, music, or art programs in the autism field that receive funding. The skate community has been very good to us and support our efforts to make skateboarding more relevant and mainstream.

Website: www.Askate.org

Instagram: @askaters

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/askate/

Twitter: @Askaters

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/askatefoundation

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/askatefoundation

Image Credits
Askate event photos: Brian Mezelle Other photos: self