Media Coverage

The goal is not the remediation of deficits but the cultivation of individual talents.

Hidden Wings is funded by private donations and receives no government funding. All of its programs and courses are available tuition-free. Your contributions are tax deductible, and we deeply appreciate your support.

Hidden Wings was established in 2009 by the Rev. James and Dr. Julia Billington, both honors graduates of Harvard University with decades of combined experience in the Episcopal Ministry, business, and medicine.

Based in California’s Santa Ynez Valley, our Board of Directors and advisors includes a special needs lawyer, a CPA, a special education teacher, a transition specialist, a child psychiatrist, the world’s most renowned expert on Savant Syndrome, a prominent businessman, and a pediatrician.

We invite you to join us in this exciting adventure to unfurl the gifts of autism.

Text reprinted from EdHat Santa Barbara, updated April 6, 2013

“The advantage of having it downtown, they get to be part of the real world,” he said. “Expression, communication, are all improved the more interaction you have with this small town. It’s also a safe haven. It’s really more like a home.”
 

Added Aimee Carroll, who coordinates the music programs:  “It’s great to have a central location. We’ll still be drumming and kayaking and whatnot at Lake Cachuma and everywhere, but it’s a great meeting spot.”

– Report by Willis Jacobson

Remo Belli, founder of Remo Drum company, delivered a custom “drum table” May 4 to Santa Ynez Valley Family School as a donation for Hidden Wings, a program for autistic young adults.  

The specialized drum table is designed to produce a bandwidth that simulates a heartbeat, which creates a connection to people with autism, the school said. Belli joined in a drum circle with Hidden Wings and Family School students.

Family School is a private preschool through fifth-grade campus on Figueroa Mountain Road.

Belli invented the modern synthetic drumhead and opened up drumming to generations of bands from the 1950s to today. His close association with Mickey Hart, former drummer for the Grateful Dead, and their shared interest in the therapeutic benefits of hand drumming, brought them together in their support of Hidden Wings.

Rev. Jim Billington and Julia Billington, the founders of Hidden Wings, were at Family School to meet Belli and accept the drum.

Julianne Tullis-Thompson, head of school for Family School, welcomed them to the preschool garden area, where the drum was presented and the whole school was gathered.

The drum, 40 inches in diameter, was made with a special drumhead to produce lower-pitched sounds with a second layer to muffle the sound, so it isn’t too loud, Belli said. The drum can also be tuned to achieve just the right tone.

“This is a one-of-a-kind. If it works, there will be more,” Belli said.

Hidden Wings has worked closely with Aimee Carroll, the music and drama specialist at Family School, and Hart to develop the specialized drumming program. Hart’s long association with Belli led all four partners to work together to design a drum that would best suit the needs of people on the autistic spectrum.

Students in each grade from Family School took turns drumming together on the table drum while the rest of the students, faculty and parents joined in on various percussion instruments.

Belli lead the fifth-grade class in a pattern based on the phrase “pass the popcorn” and demonstrated the ability of the drum to bounce various objects into the air when hit.

People with autism can be sensitive to excessive sound and activity, so Hidden Wings members had their turn drumming with Belli after the Family School children were dismissed.

“The Family School’s partnership with Hidden Wings is a natural fit with our commitment to help each child reach their full potential. We are happy to share our resources with Hidden Wings and support this innovative program in any way we can,” Tullis-Thompson said.

Carroll has worked with Hidden Wings since it began. She recently completed training with international leaders in drumming and its affects on learning, healing and community. She is one of few in the nation to be certified as a drum circle facilitator.

Mickey Hart, a pioneer in therapeutic uses of drumming, worked with Billington for two years before choosing Hidden Wings and the Santa Ynez Valley for his first pilot program for drumming with autistic people. Like Belli’s drum, the pilot project is the first of its kind.

“SYV Family School has been the ideal partner for Hidden Wings in this venture,” Billington said.

“The beauty of the Family School, the enthusiasm of the students, and the loving spirit of the community provide a fantastic welcoming ground for people who are often the subject of stigma. Since Hidden Wings focuses on young adults, whom society has largely abandoned, a welcoming place is like an oasis in the desert.”

    From 3:30 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Hidden Wings will mark its first anniversary with an art show at the Solvang Library, 1745 Mission Drive. The work of several of its students will be on display and for sale. The students will also do some drumming and show off food-making efforts from life skills class.

    For the past year, Hidden Wings has enrolled 10 students. They have been able to employ many well-known instructors in the Santa Ynez Valley. Cynthia Devine teaches art, Robb Kennedy is an expert kayaker and search and rescue officer who helps with water classes. Musician Gary Foshee teaches the students guitar and Aimee Carrol manages the drum circle. Julie Samuels-Metheany bends and stretches the youngsters in yoga and pilates. Judy Bates instructs in life skills and Dyann Driggers teaches language and math. Kim Blades guides the students through horse care at the Santa Ynez Therapeutic Horseback riding center.
   
    Mrs. Samuels-Metheany has never worked with autistic people and says she finds it “really inspiring,” because she sees the teens responding more to her directly. “I literally have left here in tears of joy,” said Mrs. Samuels-Metheany, of Bloom Yoga in Solvang.
   
    For those on the autism spectrum, having nontraditional outlets and courses is critical, Rev. Billington said. One example, he said, is a new drum circle, with drums paid for through a grant from the Solvang-based Vikings Charities Inc. “A drum circle allows them to realize their voice is not discordant or uncontrollable, but they can communicate through creating a sound that is in harmony with other sounds,” he said.
   
    By her own admission, 21-year-old Katrina Gutierrez spent much of her time at home, watching television or helping with the care of a now deceased grandmother, before enrolling at Hidden Wings School. Her mother Julie Gutierrez, who knew Dr. Billington professionally, heard about Hidden Wings and asked her daughter if she was interested. “I said I’d try a couple classes,” Katrina said. “I don’t know what made me say that.” Now, Katrina is enrolled in yoga, life skills, art, swimming, hiking and guitar. She is looking for a job and has a number of friends. “It was time to do something besides TV,” said Katrina. “I’m really happy with it. It’s meant I can get more mature with my life, more responsible. I can handle things more, take care of myself.”
   
    Katrina, her mother said, is high-functioning autistic, but self-isolates and has no concept of numbers and time — making it difficult to be self-sufficient. The job training is essential, Ms. Gutierrez said, because she hasn’t been able to find any program like that for her daughter. “I don’t even want to put a goal or aspiration to it,” Ms. Gutierrez said. “If it’s a positive experience, that’s all that matters. … Having a special-needs child is really hard. I’m so grateful to the Billingtons for this.” Katrina and several other of the students have particularly excelled in art under the direction of Cynthia Devine.
   
    Santa Ynez Valley Union High School 10th-grader Andrew Lennen took the art courses and developed an interest in anime and manga, or Japanese-style comics. He began writing and illustrating a book about a boy named Takashi, who is “different” from other kids and not popular.
His small self-published book called “Kaze, a New Beginning,” will be sold Saturday at the library.
   
    “It’s been really important to find a support group,” said his mother, Linda Lennen. “In thinking about his future, my big concern is what to do after he graduates. There’s nothing in place. He’s worried about it too.” Rev. Billington cites the stories of Kevin Hosseini, who has had painting exhibitions of his own, as well as Jessica Beebe, a young woman in her late 20s with high-functioning Asperger’s syndrome. Through Hidden Wings, she has been mentored for the past eight months by Disney television animator Nancy Ulene.
   
    “The progress she has made was more than I had expected,” Ms. Ulene said from Burbank. “She emails me her artwork and I go through her pieces and then we discuss what to think about and possible ways to improve it. … She is so special and holds so much talent I do not even think she is aware of at this time.” Dr. Darold A. Treffert, a Wisconsin psychiatrist who has studied savant syndrome for four decades, has been serving as a mentor of sorts for Hidden Wings. He calls it an “important, pioneering program.”
   
    “Jim and Julie have invested extraordinary time, effort and love in developing this program, which is important not only in its own right, but also serves as a model for much-needed similar programming nationwide,” Dr. Treffert said. “Training the talent, in whatever portion it exists, can be a valuable tool in a conduit toward normalization for persons with autism/Asperger’s. What may seem to be only diversionary exercises of such talent are in fact methods of engaging and then improving language skills, socialization abilities and greater independence.”
   
    The Billingtons, existing on a few small grants from local foundations, have spent $100,000 of their own funds in the past year in an effort to keep the school afloat. They have money to cover the fall semester.
   
    Rev. Billington, who frequently walks the youngsters through Solvang to socialize both the students and the town, plans to reach out this summer to established foundations and contacts from his years at Harvard University. He envisions a school building in the countryside, close enough to town to provide socialization, but established in nature to eliminate excess stimuli.
   
    “Our end goal is for them to have jobs that reflect their passions,” Rev. Billington said. “This is not therapy or maintenance, neither is it a school to learn auto mechanics. … We want to make a model for the world.”

The nonprofit “Hidden Wings,” which was formed more than a year ago by the Rev. James Billington and his wife, Dr. Julia Billington, is holding three workshops this month and in April for those interested in forming a college for students with autism, Asperger’s Disorder and related syndromes.

The first retreat focused on the potential construction of the college will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the San Lorenzo Seminary, 802 Sky Dr., in Santa Ynez. The follow-up will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. March 21 at the seminary. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 24, Hidden Wings will host a day of “exploration, creativity and fun” at Camp Whittier in Santa Ynez for parents, students and volunteers. It will include art sessions and a ropes course.

“By then, our goal is to have a blueprint of a school,” Rev. Billington said. “Three sessions, very intense, moving from brainstorm to blueprint.”

The Billingtons formed Hidden Wings with the goal of assisting young people diagnosed as having autism or similar disorders receive higher education and career or vocational training. Two of their four sons have been diagnosed as being within the “autism spectrum.”

“The overall response has been that youth on the autistic spectrum — from the lowest functioning to the savants — need a place after high school where they can grow and flourish without the pressure, the teasing, the incapability of the public school system,” said Rev. Billington, who dubbed the proposed school “First Flight College.”

Though Hidden Wings has been teaching a handful of students in the past year, Rev. Billington said he has had little luck in placing the young people into local jobs. The college concept is meant to help provide another path for those students, Rev. Billington said.

“No college has been designed uniquely for those on the autistic spectrum,” he said. “We are in virgin territory. And we have decided that the main architects would be the parents of autistic youth and those who are uniquely gifted at mentoring these youth.”

The Billingtons have been in contact with Dr. Darold Treffert, clinical professor psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin Medical School and a known authority on Savant Syndrome. He has provided much guidance, the couple said.

“‘Hidden Wings” is an apt title for a desperately needed, timely project,” Dr. Treffert said in a statement. “School and program availability for K-12 students with autism ends abruptly with high school graduation and adulthood. Into this regrettable vacuum comes a program that provides continued opportunity for experiencing greater self-worth, increased socialization and more independence. To my knowledge there is no college in this country or elsewhere that is designed uniquely for those on the autistic spectrum. It would be an inspiration.”

“What is at stake are hundreds then thousands of kids who will simply drop off the map once secondary school is over,” said the Rev. Billington. “It is a looming tragedy that we see, in our stable of youth, to be absolutely heartbreaking.”

For more information or reservations to the sessions, call Rev. Billington at 705-3918 or e-mail jim@hiddenwings.org.