April is National Autism Awareness month. FSU’s Early Child Autism Program (ECAP), located at the FSU Panama City campus, is raising funds to help families in need of applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy. The following events and donations are scheduled this month:

• ECAP will host a check presentation at 10 a.m. Friday, April 1, at the ECAP Clinic (FSU Panama City Technology Building, room B129). The funds were raised during the PC Paddle Classic 2016 for Autism, a 30-mile relay and solo race in February. “People have asked me ‘Why a race in February, and why a 30-mile course?’” event organizer Ed Naggiar said. “My answer to those questions was simple: The race was hard because autism is hard. I wanted the race to reflect the challenges that families face every day when living with autism.” The Second Annual PC Paddle Classic for Autism is planned Feb. 18, 2017.
• FSU’s Great Give, a 36-hour online giving campaign will be from 8 a.m. Thursday, April 14, to 8 p.m. Friday, April 15. FSU Panama City’s proceeds will benefit ECAP’s expansion project, which is adding therapy rooms to the clinic to better serve local families affected by autism.
• The Sixth Annual Auction for Autism Awareness will be 6-9 p.m. Friday, April 15, in the Holley Academic Center Lecture Hall at FSU Panama City. The family-friendly auction hosted in conjunction with the Emerald Coast Association for Behavior Analysis will cost $30 at the door. Food, refreshments and raffle tickets for the auction are included with admission. All auction proceeds benefit ECAP’s Butchikas Scholarship Program, which provides funding to families without insurance or financial means to afford ABA therapy. This year’s goal is $15,000.
• The George A. Butchikas Foundation for Autism will schedule a check presentation with ECAP later in April. Since 2001, the foundation has provided donations totaling nearly $500,000 to the scholarship program, which aids about one-third of ECAP’s clients.

“Our local community is incredibly giving, and each year we are more and more impressed with the support we receive in helping our local children,” said Amy Polick, Ph.D., ECAP director and psychology faculty at FSU Panama City. “Every day at ECAP we have children learning new skills and making great strides in their fights against autism, and without these organizations we would be unable to have these success stories.”

For more information about ECAP events, contact Polick at apolick@pc.fsu.edu or (850) 770-2241. To learn more about ECAP, visit pc.fsu.edu/ECAP.