Meet Tammy Simone and Katie Orlando, our Program Directors from Akron, OH. Tammy, the mother of a child on the spectrum (Stephen, 21 years old), heard about ACEing Autism from a friend “so I talked to Katie who was a member of my club about starting a program,” Tammy remembered. As Tammy and Katie grew…
Meet Molly McGregor, an 11 year old social butterfly who just started with ACEing Autism Northville this Spring. “She needs to get her energy out,” her mother Jennifer McGregor laughed when asked about her reasons for signing up. “She is really social and has done a lot of sports like adaptive soccer, special needs gymnastics…
Meet Marco Azar, the other half of a volunteer duo out of Baltimore, MD. Marco has been working alongside Rohan since the beginning of the year. “It really surprised me how easy it was to make the kids happy,” the rising sophomore at John Hopkins said when asked what was unexpected. “For example for us,…
Meet Doris Obih, our Program Director from Inglewood, CA. Started in December 2020, she has only missed 3 Saturdays since. “Growing up, I didn’t have the money to play tennis or pursue anything in tennis,” she recalled. “So as soon as I could, I wanted to correct that and started to raise money to start…
How did you hear about ACEing Autism and when did you start? I’m on the tennis team at John Hopkins University (rising junior), and Ryan Hellinger, the Program Director plays on it as well. ACEing Autism has been a tradition and Ryan mentioned we would get a session this spring so I jumped on it.…
What are your backgrounds? Elana: I was a stay at home mom for 11 years and when my son started showing signs of delay, I started and completed a Master’s in teaching at USC in Los Angeles. Then I taught intervention classes for reading, for special education. I was Dean of Students and Director of…
How did you hear about ACEing Autism? I heard about ACEing Autism through Coach Danny, he was teaching me at the time at the Copperfield Racquet & Health Club, and was head of ACEing Autism Houston and he told us about it. I thought it would be great to give back and experience tennis in a…
Meet Kaleb Theard, a 5 year old tennis player from our brand new Pasadena program. “This was Kaleb’s first time with tennis at all and the first ever sport we tried,” his mother Cordijah Ward, said. To understand Kaleb’s amazing story, we have to go back to before he was even born. “At 6 and…
How did you hear about ACEing Autism? I heard about it from another organization called LWD (Learning With Disabilities) and thought it would be worth a try. How did your son do in the first couple of sessions being in a new environment? My son does have anxiety sometimes, especially when he first started with…
Today, we honor a very special person, who for the past 6 years has been beyond dedicated to ACEing Autism’s mission. Andrew Grub just finished his last clinic as Program Director for the Weston, FL program. “It’s been rewarding to have the ability to touch the lives of over 100 children while also helping advance…
