A small piece of a family farm in Youngwood is in the fledgling stage of becoming a place to help children with autism.

With volunteers, Becky Wineman-Pekar, a nurse and mother of an autistic child, is turning part of her farm into an autism support center.

It will be called Wineman Farm Outreach, and she hopes to open next month.

Her immediate plans include offering educational presentations, support groups and clinics where children with special needs can have their blood drawn.

"With a kid with autism, you can't always explain what's going on," Mrs. Pekar said of the challenges that can arise when a special-needs child must have blood drawn. "They have sensory issues, the lights bother them, or the smell of the alcohol wipe. They need to be restrained, and you have a problem on your hands."

So, she thought, why not hold blood-drawing clinics in a more homey environment -- with soft lighting, toys, possibly movies, places where the kids can play until their turn comes, and numbing cream for the needle site, among other things.

Other not-too-far-off goals include a dietary supplement co-op, outdoor social activities, camp outs and a program to offer advice and resources for churches serving those with special needs.

Mrs. Pekar has more grandiose long-term dreams, but for now she's focusing on what she can realistically accomplish soon.

Her plans originated five years ago when she lay half-awake one morning. She experienced what she describes as a "vision from God," in which she saw "people milling about the farm, groups playing" and a three-story barn called the Gideon Center with a gym and a petting zoo with a Noah's Ark theme.

It seemed ridiculous at the time, and she was tempted to shrug it off as "projecting what I need for Alex," her 10-year-old who has autism.

When her father died a year and a half ago, he left her the farmhouse and 3 surrounding acres. She and an uncle co-own the remainder of the 50-acre Wineman Farm.

She described her father as "the rock of the family" and said his death threw the family into grief. Eventually, however she saw the possibility of carrying out at least a portion of her vision, which she had discussed with her dad before he died.

After asbestos is removed from the farmhouse and it is renovated, she intends to move in with her family, which, in addition to Alex, includes her husband, Rege Pekar, and their 13-year-old son, Rege.

They're preparing the house for the possibility that someday it may be Alex's permanent home. It is big enough that it could be converted into a group home for autistic adults.

In addition to preparing the house, she is waiting for insurance approval. When that happens, she can begin the most fully developed aspect of her plan: the blood-draw clinics for special needs children.

The idea was born years ago when, after numerous painful experiences in doctors' offices, she started asking whether she could draw her son's blood at home. She is a nurse and an experienced phlebotomist, and she could take the tubes of blood to doctors.

As a nurse for a doctor serving special-needs patients, she has participated in blood-drawing clinics held for such patients. She jokes that she is a skilled "vampire" after years of nursing and drawing blood for special-needs children.

She plans to hold the periodic venipuncture clinics at two local churches -- New Stanton United Methodist, which is her church, and Youngwood's Christ United Methodist, which borders her farm -- under the Wineman Farm Outreach name.

The other fully operational aspects of her plan are the support groups and educational forums.

Mrs. Pekar has already led other groups, including a Christian support group for mothers of autistic kids. Its sessions that tapered off as she was mourning her father, but she plans to revive them next month.

She also has led her own education forums, including a special-needs venipuncture presentation last month and organized presentations by other professionals.

Her plans for 2010 include lectures by an accountant on financial planning for special needs and by a chiropractor on biomedical intervention. Presentations will be held in the churches that host her blood-drawing clinics.

In the meantime, she and volunteers continue to prepare her three acres for the more distant plans. In late October, a workday drew neighbors, friends, family members, strangers and even a church youth group that had finished raking leaves at their own church and were looking for more work.

The volunteers chopped down walnut trees, made benches, built a fire pit and cleaned up the property, looking ahead to those hoped-for outdoor social activities and camp outs.

A nonprofit application for the outreach is pending. With nonprofit status, Ms. Pekar could apply for grants to further develop the site, offer scholarships for special-needs medical care and carry out her other dreams.

"If God wants me to do it, He'll provide the money."

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.