When I was very young a family friend was diagnosed with autism, and over the years our relationship made me aware of the difficulties they were to face.  My brother and I also learned that traditional methods of inclusion have not met the needs of autistic children or their families.  With this in mind, my brother and I started a sports clinic for children with special needs in our community five years ago. Using volunteers from local high schools, we grew the program under the motto of 'kids helping kids' with a focus on high school athletes teaching special needs children not only basic sports skills but lessons in teamwork and communication.

In 2009 Special Needs Athletic Programs (SNAP) received non-profit status.  Our goal is to inspire young people to work together through sports clinics, peer mentoring activities and buddy training programs and to raise awareness about the impact we can make in the lives of children with autism.

As the clinics grew we encouraged younger mentors from elementary schools to get involved. We now help over 80 special needs families and have around 400 mentors that volunteer through our program.

More recently I have engaged SNAP in a pilot program at a school in my community to conduct training for the all 4^th and 5^th grade students.  The goal of the training is to bring awareness, acceptance, and appreciation of these special needs children and to build a more inclusive social environment at school. My ultimate goal for SNAP is to build a more empathetic, compassionate and accepting world for future generations.