WINTERVILLE — A decade after its founding, Aces for Autism on Feb.6 celebrated the opening of a multi-million dollar campus to serve students with autism.
Hundreds of people, including local government officials, business and nonprofit leaders and families of children with autism, turned out for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Ron and Rose Bowen Family Autism Campus in Winterville.
The address for the $15 million, 32,144-square-foot facility is 700 Samuel Robinson Way in honor of the son of founders Bobbie and Kyle Robinson. It is not only symbolic of Samuel’s journey since being diagnosed with autism at age 18 months but also of a pathway of hope Aces for Autism aims to provide for others.
“This clinic is the culmination of years of dedication and commitment to fighting for a cause and advocating on behalf of the needs of others,” Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Trent McGee told a crowd of supporters waiting outside for a tour of the state-of-the-art facility constructed by Washington, N.C.-based general contractor WIMCO. “This is what purpose looks like. This is what sacrifice looks like. This is what community looks like.”
Samuel, now 12, stood between his parents as his father shared some of the history of the organization, which began after friends held a fundraiser to help pay for the boy’s treatment. Aces President and Chief Executive Officer Kyle Robinson held back tears as he read the names of seven people who organized the first event, a tennis tournament.
“Bobbie and I shared with the group our heart to start a ministry to serve individuals and families in the east, and this group said yes. If they said no we would not be sitting here today,” Robinson said.
“What started as a tennis tournament now has impacted over 100 children and families.”
The SECU Autism Clinic of Eastern NC, funded, in part, through a $1.5 million grant from the State Employees Credit Union Foundation, represents the first phase of construction. The campus is modeled after Faison Center in Richmond, Va., and ABC of NC in Winston-Salem, where Samuel received applied behavior analysis treatment.
ABA is individualized therapy designed to help make improvements in communication skills, independence and social skills, and decrease behaviors such as self-injury or aggression in children with autism spectrum disorder, which is estimated to occur in as many 1 in every 40 children in the United States.
Dr. Stephen Phillips of Eastern Pediatrics said ABA as an early intervention for autism has shown great benefits for children and has become the standard of care.
“Here in our area, it is not uncommon for children to be on a waiting list for a year or longer before receiving ABA therapy,” he said. “As a pediatrician, it’s been very frustrating to know what’s considered most helpful and yet not have the necessary resources to provide that care.”
Kyle Robinson said in an interview that Aces for Autism, which plans to move into the new facility in mid-to-late February, hopes to decrease that wait for families.
“We hope to increase from the 50 kids we’re serving now to 200 kids in five years,” Robinson said, adding that the organization hopes to increase the size of its staff from 60 to 100 within the next year.
Plans call for the 24-acre campus, named for longtime supporters who donated millions of dollars toward the project, to later include a nontraditional school for students with autism and other special needs. The school, Shine on Academy, which co-founder Bobbie Robinson said is awaiting final approval from the Department of Public Instruction, will have space to accommodate as many as 30 to 40 students at Aces’ Conference Drive location until the next phase of construction.
The facility, which has nearly two and a half times as much space of Aces’ current building, includes learning labs designed to replicate experiences a student might have while grocery shopping, getting a haircut or visiting a doctor or dentist. A mock apartment is available to help train students on practical living skills such as laundry and food preparation.
In addition to numerous therapy rooms, the new facility includes a Snoezelen room designed to stimulate the senses through lighting effects, color, sounds, music, scents and tactile experiences. Parent Jessica O’Neal believes the new sensory room will be a favorite space for her son, Khailil, 8, who has been coming to Aces for about three years. O’Neal, who got her first look at the new location on Tuesday, said Khailil and other children also will love the larger outdoor playground, which is equipped with a splash pad.
Nichole Whitehurst, whose son started at Aces around age 8, believes the learning labs offer more opportunities for older students like Noah, age 11. Whitehurst, who was part of a parent group that toured the clinic prior to Tuesday’s event, said the larger space also is more accommodating for families.
“There are actually parent respite rooms so parents can go in while their child has therapy,” said Whitehurst, who makes the drive from Tarboro. “They don’t have to wait in the car. There’s a TV in there; there’s a couch and you can shut the door and just have privacy.”
Bobbie Robinson said in an interview that the new family rooms are designed to offer a sense of calm to parents, providing a quiet space just for them.
“One of the things that’s so hard with having a child with special needs is sometimes as a mom, sometimes as a dad, you don’t get the time to kind of recuperate and just kind of take a deep breath,” she said. “We want families to feel like when they come in that they can stay and they can relax and just have a sense of respite.”
Features in the design of the new clinic, from the color palate (soft shades of blue and green) to the ceiling height and natural light were all selected for their soothing qualities.
“Even right down to the chairs, we want to make sure that they are comfortable and that they appeal to their sensory needs,” Bobbie Robinson said. “One of the things when I walked through the doors of the place in Winston-Salem, I felt a sense of relief that my child was finally going to get the help that we needed. That’s what we want families to feel when they walk through the doors.”
Kyle Robinson told supporters that Aces’ new campus is designed to be a place where families know that children with autism are loved, valued and celebrated.
“More than anything else, our prayer is that this property will become a refuge, a safe place for the individual who is forgotten, a place of hope for families that are hopeless,” he said. “We want each individual and parent that steps foot on this campus to know that their life has purpose and that they are fearfully and wonderfully made by Almighty God who can use their child and situation just like he did with Samuel to do great things.”
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