This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Texas chapter.
Name: Cambria Sawyer
Major: Public Relations
Extra Curriculars: UT’s Steel Pan Ensemble as a percussionists, member of Alpha Xi Delta
Favorite Hobby: Hiking
My name is Cambria Sawyer- and yes, Cambria like the font, that always seems to help people remember it a little easier. I’m 6 feet tall and my favorite food is sushi (followed very closely by ice cream). I’m a “commie” to the core, and am in my second year of studying public relations. I’m also working on getting my Business Foundations certificate from the McCombs School of Business. Right now I’m interning at an Austin PR firm, Ketner Group PR + Marketing, and all bias aside, they know their stuff. It’s incredible getting to learn from them every day.
There are a few causes in particular that I feel very strongly about, and work to make sure they are granted the awareness that they deserve. The first is Tourette Syndrome, an involuntary neurological disorder that is constantly misunderstood. It is not a swearing disorder, as most people would conclude after watching satirical shows like “Family Guy” that feature a ridiculous character with uncontrollably foul language. The cursing has a name- it’s called coprolalia (a form of Tourette’s) and it is actually extremely rare (only 10% of those with the disorder swear). About 138,000 children, not to mention the adult count, have Tourette’s, and yet it is one of the most underfunded, most commonly misunderstood disorders in the country and world.
I have Tourette’s, but you would never know. Sometimes people ask me what my “tics” are, and my answer is that sometimes I blink funny and swallow when I don’t need to. Seems pretty harmless in my case, until you look at my brother, Tucker. Tucker is a 240-pound, 6-foot, 4-inches tall pubescent teddy bear of a high school freshman, and he also has one of the most severe cases of Tourette’s most world-renown neurologists have ever seen. Tucker will tic and fall down every 12 seconds whenever we try to walk places. He will punch himself in the stomach until he throws up. He has no control over what comes out of his mouth, and will oftentimes scream, and I do mean scream, out whatever he is thinking. Tucker goes to high school with quiet classrooms. Tucker is pubescent. There are lots of pretty girls, and he says every single thought. Just think about that, for a second.
Apart from the physical injuries, it wouldn’t really be that bad of a disorder if people understood it better, but they don’t, and that’s where I come in. It’s when people hear Tucker’s tics, and instead of listening to what we have to say, get offended, lecture us, ignore us or try to degrade us. We have been called “trash,” been kicked out of restaurants, movie theatres and even church, and physically threatened because people could not understand that what they were seeing was an extremely misunderstood disability. We were once kicked off of an airplane and forced to drive the 4 hours home because the pilot refused to listen. For this reason, Tucker and I have become co-ambassadors for the Tourette Association of America, where our goal is to to raise awareness to the public so that other families dealing with the disorder will have an easier path than the one we have had to take.
We fly to Washington D.C. for annual training on how to best educate people on the disorder and spread a sense of not only awareness but acceptance for these kids that feel very isolated by their disorder. We also lobby on Capitol Hill, meeting with senators and congressmen and women to bring to their attention several bills waiting to be passed that would increase the funding for Tourette’s research and classroom assistance.
I am also writing a book (title suggestions welcome!) about our family’s experience with Tourette’s in hopes that people will learn about it while enjoying our story. If you feel like laughing and crying at the same time, you can read it at https://tictalktourettes.wordpress.com/
In the summers, I volunteer as a camp counselor at Camp Twitch and Shout- yes, that is its real name- a camp devoted completely to helping kids with Tourette’s fell completely understood and at home for one week out of their lives each year. It’s hard to put into words how simultaneously hilarious, terrifying, heartbreaking, exhausting, loud, dirty, and utterly and completely worthwhile that week is.
The other philanthropy that I work regularly with is an organization called Autism Speaks, the world’s leading science and advocacy organization for autism. Each semester, our entire sorority makes it a priority to raise as much funding and manpower as possible to bring this organization’s goals ever closer. This past fall, we fundraised for and then volunteered at Autism Speaks’ Austin Walk, manning booths, helping with setup and takedown, and my favorite part, encouraging all the participants with loads of high-fives as they crossed the finish line.
The final big project I’ve had on my plate recently is organizing the marketing campaign for a 5k benefitting the Livestrong Foundation. It was my job to come up with a theme that would attract participants and then execute the recruitment/marketing process. The run ultimately became the “Record Run,” where the goal was to break a world record during the race. I suggested we break the world record for “Most Pennies Collected for Charity,” which is by far easier said than done, but the idea worked, and with 345 registrants, we displayed the 500,000 pennies we had collected at the center of the racetrack in the shape of Texas. We were even featured by Ripley’s Believe it or Not! All the proceeds (after a LOT of counting, and several broken coin machines), were then donated to the Livestrong Foundation, an organization that benefits cancer warriors and survivors.