Our Story

Six years ago my son Michael was diagnosed with Autism. As any parent would be, we were devastated and heart-broken to think that our son would be handicapped for the rest of his life. I knew absolutely nothing about Autism and my wife only knew some basics about classic cases of Autism. She graduated from Central Michigan University with a degree in child development, but was never prepared for the ride we were about to embark on.

Immediately Lori started to research any services available. The more she dug the more resources she found. There was only one problem: Our insurance would not pay for most services needed by Michael. At this point Michael would not look at us in the eye, let alone acknowledge that we were here. He preferred to live in his own world, but we needed to get him to become aware of his surroundings, so we enrolled him in the Play Project at U of M. This cost us $5000 per year, which insurance wouldn't cover. We went into debt both agreeing that we would spend whatever it takes to save our son. Along with music therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, horse therapy, and auditory integration therapy, Michael is now attending Dansville Elementary School. He is in the second grade and has an aid that helps him through the day. He has many friends and is starting to talk and request things on his own. Without the last six years of intense therapy and our will to not give up on our son, Michael would not be where he is today. The therapies will continue through most of his life.

I could go on and on about Michael's accomplishments but there is not enough paper for that. Michael is the reason we started this foundation. Lori wanted to help parents that needed financial aid and support them on the road they were about to travel. I agreed with her. It is an emotional roller coaster. So we decided to form the Autism Foundation of Ingham County.

I want to emphasize that the money raised by the foundation can not be used by us for Michael. Many relatives and friends helped us financially and gave us emotional support. Now we want to give back what we received. There are many parents or single parents out there that have absolutely nowhere to turn. We want to help. We have built up a collection of books on Autism and related subjects to lend out to the parents. Our support group has just begun. This is a place for parents to get together and discuss different issues regarding their child in an open atmosphere. We have put together a free session training on special education law for parents.

Our goal this year is to hand out many more grants to deserving parents and to offer support and training. Again, we are a non-profit foundation run by parents for parents in Ingham County.

Thank you for your time and support.

Sincerely,

Gordon H. Swan
Trustee