October was an extremely busy month for us!
Our Executive Director, Jacquie Benestante, and Board President, Rany Thommen, kicked off October by attending the Music Knows No Boundaries benefit concert in Houston that has raised over $16,000 so far for scholarship funds for kids under 18 in the Greater Houston area! We had two riders participate in Bike to the Beach from Houston to Galveston for the first time. Then we capped off the month with our Autism Film Festival, AutFest Texas, on 10/23 with some great films and great people! Thanks to our Board members Heather Reed, Benny Kolbeson and Dr. Jennifer Hamrick for attending and representing the Autism Society of Texas at the event! Also thank you to Board members Amanda Dunlap and Heather Reed who served on our AutFest Committee. A huge thank you to the rest of our AutFest Committee as well who helped us brainstorm ways to make this year the best one yet!
We held our first ever Spanish Education Seminar on “What is Autism and How is it Diagnosed?”. Thanks to Board Member Dr. Berenice de la Cruz for presenting this topic! We also hosted Dr. Katherine Loveland who presented tips on “Obtaining an Autism Diagnosis at Any Age”.
Many of our groups around the state met, and we got new Ambassadors for a new Southeast Houston Group as well as partnered with the Autism Dads of Houston. We had the first meeting of our new Rio Grande Valley with our awesome volunteer Adelina Olivares facilitating! Thank you to all of our old and new volunteer who continue to help us create connections across Texas!
This month, our Navigating Autism team received this response after providing some guidance on a tricky co-occurring mental health & Autism issue, “This gives me hope.”