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BELLAIRE - Dennis Delbert was hoping for a good turnout for the first lecture series on Autism that his Parents for Autism Community Education foundation put on.

Tuesday night, Dr. Jim Ball gave a presentation on "Managing Behaviors in the Home'' at the Bellaire High School auditorium.

Delbert, the co-founder of PACE along with his wife, was hoping to get between 15 or 20 attendees for their first lecture.

What they discovered was that close to 80 people had signed up.

''When we talked with Dr. Ball, he told us around 20 people would be pretty good for the first lecture,'' Delbert said. ''So he was impressed when he discovered how many we had.''

Ball is a board certified behavior analyst (BCBA) who has been working in the private sector with Autism for more than 20 years. He has lectured locally, nationally and internationally and has a NAPPA Gold Award Winning book, "Early Intervention & Autism: Real-Life Questions, Real-Life Answers.''

Delbert said a few local teachers had signed up for the seminar, but a lot of the people in attendance were parents.

He's hoping this is the first of many seminars and series that PACE can sponsor to help continuing to educate the public about Autism.

Earlier in the summer, PACE sponsored a 5-K race in Bellaire in effort to help raise funding to put on the seminars.

"The race was good. You always hope for me people, but we had a good turnout,'' Delbert said. ''Now we'll have a full year to think and plan for next year. We might do some things differently, but we were real pleased because it went off without a hitch.

''Usually you expect some problems for the first time out.''

Delbert is working on planning future events but doesn't have anything written in stone yet.

One event he really wants to organize is to a college fair set up specifically targeted for children with Autism.

''That probably won't be until the start of next school season,'' Delbert said. ''It'll take a good bit of months to try and pull that all together, but that's the plan.

''We'd also like to try to get some speakers in that are nationally known. Maybe we can bring in someone like Doug Flutie, who has personal experience with a child on the Autism spectrum.

''I don't know the cost of bringing in someone like that, but it never hurts to ask.''

Tuesday's seminar was partly sponsored by the Bellaire Library because it had money built up from receiving donations specifically targeted for Autism and Autism education.

PACE co-sponsored the event and Delbert said the original plan was to hold the seminar at the library. But that something was on the docket Tuesday and the seminar had to be moved. Given the turnout, it might have been a good move.

Hughes may be reached at mhughes@timesleaderonline.com