My name is Audrey Ortiz-Rivera, and I am writing on behalf of my 10-year old son, Enrique. When Enrique was three years old, he was diagnosed as Autistic. While this diagnosis was very scary, my husband (Edwin) and I knew that we needed to do everything possible to make sure that he could live life to the fullest. This included giving up a career at State Farm where I had worked for 10 years as an insurance agent so I could take Enrique to the many doctor’s and therapy appointments he had on a regular basis. I knew immediately that I not only had to be an autism advocate, I had to be Enrique’s biggest advocate. Currently, Enrique is participating in ABA therapy ,occupational therapy, Speech therapy and Aquatic Therapy. As you can imagine, paying for all of these services on a weekly basis is very expensive. In order to ensure that Enrique could continue having these services, I got a part-time job at Publix. However, it is still not enough to cover all of the expenses that we incur for therapy services during the year. We will do anything to ensure that Enrique does not regress, as he has worked very hard these past few years. Enrique has now been blessed with a service dog named Seth which will help Enrique with his anxiety and keeping him from getting overstimulated .. We also have the expense with his shots , food and any medical expenses that may occur. 

Thank you very much

Audrey and Enrique