Philadelphia Officer Gives Back To Children With Autism
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- April marks National Autism Awareness Month and some local children living with autism received a free iPad thanks to one of Philadelphia's finest.
Philadelphia Police Officer Sammy Sanchez raised thousands of dollars in order to make those donations possible. "Like every father, this is it...my football, my baseball player, and all these typical dreams that I had like any other dad. And then I learned what autism is all about," said Sanchez.
Autism affects people differently, but tends to include trouble with social interactions, verbal and non-verbal communications.
Sanchez says that his son, who has autism, was largely non-verbal, until using the program Proloquo2Go.
"My son went from being non-verbal to maybe 30-40 percent just saying one word syllable to actually speaking in sentences," Sanchez said.
Seeing how much it helped, Sanchez wanted to have other children benefit from it too. Through his bowling for iPads program, this year he raised $15,000 to donate iPads to 76 children at different Philadelphia schools.
"When you're a parent, and you have things going on with your children, and you don't understand what it really is going on, I think it's awesome you know, because my son the only thing that helped him to learn and to eat and things is through a computer," said Kimberly Zappas.
"They can communicate their needs, answer a question academically, interact with other students," said Yanet Duran.
Sanchez says it's just his small contribution. The gesture is now helping 76 children communicate in a way best for them so they can themselves can continue to contribute to this world more and more each day.
