By renewing its CAC designation, The Garden Theater helps maintain Traverse City’s Certified Autism Destination™ status.

FRANKFORT, MI, UNITED STATES, January 30, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — The International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards (IBCCES) proudly renews The Garden Theater’s designation as a Certified Autism Center™ (CAC). To earn this accreditation, at least 80% of guest-facing staff completed autism and sensory training to ensure they are up-to-date with understanding of best practices and skills to welcome and support autistic and sensory-sensitive visitors and their
families.

“At our small arthouse theater in Northern Michigan, we believe building community means every person should feel welcome, safe, and supported. By training our staff and volunteers in autism and sensory sensitivity, we’re creating a space where neurodiverse individuals can fully experience the magic of film and connection,” says Katie Jones, executive director of The Garden Theater.

Training provides staff with clear, standardized protocols for interacting with guests with autism and other invisible disabilities. This reduces hesitation, guesswork, and the time it takes for staff to decide how to handle a situation, leading to faster and more confident service. Building visitor loyalty, providing better guest service and expanding the definition of “accessibility” are tangible results of training and certification that help organizations expand their reach and serve a larger population while creating a supportive and welcoming environment.

“We are proud to recognize The Garden Theater for renewing its Certified Autism Center™ designation and for its continued commitment to accessibility and inclusion,” says Myron Pincomb, IBCCES board chairman. “Through this renewal, The Garden Theater is helping ensure that Traverse City remains a welcoming destination where all visitors can fully enjoy the arts and feel a true sense of belonging. This continued dedication sets an important example for cultural venues everywhere.”

By renewing its CAC designation, The Garden Theater continues to play a role in the wider movement Traverse City Tourism spearheaded to turn Traverse City into a Certified Autism Destination™ (CAD). The CAD designation means visitors have multiple trained and certified options to choose from when in the area, including entertainment, recreation, and lodging.

For 25 years, IBCCES has been a leader in providing autism, sensory and neurodiversity training and certification for professionals worldwide, including those in healthcare, education, public safety, travel, and corporate sectors. As the only credentialing board offering these programs, IBCCES provides training from subject matter experts and autistic self-advocates, along with long-term support, continuous learning, onsite reviews, and renewal requirements to ensure continued growth and lasting impact.

To further support inclusivity efforts, The Garden Theater is featured on the IBCCES Accessibility App, which is free to download. This app provides individuals with a variety of disabilities real-time guidance on certified destinations, sensory-friendly spaces, and tailored recommendations. By connecting users to accessible locations worldwide, the app helps ensure seamless, enjoyable experiences for everyone.

IBCCES also provides access to resources such as AccessibilityCertified.com and AutismTravel.com, free online tools for families that list certified locations and professionals. Each organization listed on the site has met IBCCES certification requirements.

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About The Garden Theater
In 2018, the 501(c)3 Friends of The Garden Theater was formed with the mission to use our historic theater to build a stronger community. Our vision is that the Garden Theater will act as a gathering space, using film, music and private events to enhance our community vitality. We have committed to the growth of the theater, becoming more than just a movie house, now offering live music, dance, storytelling and theater. By increasing the amount of shared artistic and cultural experiences, we strive to further the depth of community connectivity and artistic appreciation in Benzie County. Located on the corner of Main Street in downtown Frankfort, mere blocks from idyllic Lake Michigan, The Garden Theater has served its community since it opened its doors in 1924.

The Garden Theater supports an inclusive environment for experiencing art and community without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, or disability. All staff and volunteers at The Garden must adhere to this code of ethics. The Garden has advanced its efforts in the past year to be accessible for all by the construction of ADA compliant restrooms, building out a new area for wheelchair access, and upgrading the hearing impaired system and equipment. The Garden Theater is also extremely proud to announce that through IBCCES, the theater has been designated as a Certified Autism Center. This certification allows us to create an inclusive, safe environment for every patron who wishes to experience art at The Garden. You can learn more about what being a Certified Autism Center means here: https://ibcces.org/cac-family-entertainment-centers-fecs/.

About IBCCES
Delivering the global standard for training and certification in the fields of autism, neurodiversity, and accessibility – IBCCES provides a series of certification programs that empower professionals to be industry leaders and improve the outcomes for the individuals they serve. For 25 years, IBCCES has been a global leader, setting the industry standard in autism and cognitive differences training. IBCCES works in over 111 countries and provides training in 8 languages, and its programs have been recognized around the world as the leading benchmark in training and certification.

In addition to individual certification programs, IBCCES partners with cities, destinations, and organizations on initiatives like the Certified Autism Destination™ (CAD) and Autism Certified City™ (ACC), ensuring autistic and sensory-sensitive residents and visitors feel welcomed and safe. Destinations that achieve the CAD designation have completed a specialized program that ensures a multitude of recreation, hospitality and entertainment organizations have completed an autism and sensory-sensitivity training, certification and IBCCES facilities review process. The ACC designation expands on that program and includes IBCCES training and certification for the public safety, education, healthcare and workplace sectors.

IBCCES also created the Accessibility App, AutismTravel.com, and  AccessibilityCertified.com – free resources for individuals with a variety of neurodiversities and disabilities, listing certified locations and connecting individuals to other resources and each other.

Meredith Tekin
IBCCES
+1 904-508-0135
marketing@ibcces.org
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Shirley Rickett’s Tales weaves memoir and poetry into an unflinching life story shaped by memory, art, and the questions that linger after growing up.

KANSAS CITY, MO, UNITED STATES, January 30, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Spanning the Great Depression, World War II, and the decades that followed, Tales: Memoir and Poems of an American Woman by poet and memoirist Shirley Rickett has recently been released, offering an intimate and formally inventive portrait of a life shaped by family, art, and survival within twentieth-century America.

Blending memoir, prose, and poetry, the book traces a woman’s life from early childhood through later adulthood, revealing how historical forces are absorbed through everyday experience. Set primarily in Kansas City and rural Kentucky and Tennessee, the book captures scenes of childhood and early adulthood shaped by poverty, migration, faith, and family bonds. Ordinary settings, such as shoe shops, backyards, movie houses, churches, and dance studios, become the places where identity, ethics, and imagination are formed.

The memoir sections are marked by close observation and emotional restraint, addressing difficult subjects such as alcoholism, domestic fear, sexual violence, and the long psychological aftermath of war. These experiences are presented without sentimentality or spectacle, allowing memory to unfold with clarity while acknowledging both what was spoken within families and what remained unspoken.

Interwoven poems provide moments of compression and reflection throughout the book. Recurring images, dance shoes worn thin, folded parachutes, musical rhythms, and movie screens flickering in dark theaters, signal endurance, care, and continuity. Art, particularly dance, music, literature, and film, appears as a sustaining force rather than an escape, offering language and structure for experiences that resist easy explanation.

“I didn’t set out to write a memoir in the usual sense,” Shirley said in a recent interview. “I wanted to follow memory the way it actually moves, through images, fragments, and moments of attention. Writing this book meant returning to the places where silence lived alongside love, and letting both speak without apology.”

The book also reflects on mentorship and surrogate family relationships, including the influence of a great uncle whose generosity and intellectual curiosity opened paths beyond economic hardship. Acts of teaching, storytelling, and shared attention to art illustrate how small gestures can redirect a life.

In its later sections, the book turns toward myth and fairy tale, revisiting figures such as Demeter, Cinderella, and the Frog Prince through a contemporary feminist lens. These retellings emphasize transformation, endurance, and interior life, extending the book’s inquiry into how stories are inherited, revised, and reclaimed over time.

Written with a steady, compassionate, and unsparing voice, the book speaks to readers interested in women’s life writing, intergenerational memory, trauma and recovery, and the ethical role of storytelling. The book also affirms the creative vitality of later life, showing how reflection and artistic risk deepen with age.

With Tales: Memoir and Poems of an American Woman newly released, Rickett is already turning toward her next project, New and Selected Poems: Cicada, 1976–2022, a sweeping retrospective that gathers more than forty years of poetry into a single volume.

Tales: Memoir and Poems of an American Woman is now available on Amazon. For more information, visit https://shirleyricketttheauthor.com/.
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About the Author

Shirley Rickett has been writing and publishing for five decades. She holds an MA in Education and an MA in English and was a staff member at New Letters magazine at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. Her work has received a Colgate University fellowship, a Pushcart nomination, and funding from the UMKC Women’s Council for research in Norway, interviewing adult children of Nazis. Her books include A Minute of Arc, Dinner in Oslo, Love: Poems for Vintage Love Song Titles, Transplant, Cicada: New and Selected Poems, and Tales: Memoir and Poems of an American Woman. She lives and writes in Kansas City, Missouri, with her husband and their rescue dog.

Shirley Rickett
The Chicago Publishers
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