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BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT
Improving lives for those with special needs in our community.
I’m Terry Gilliam, your southwest Tallahassee neighborhood reporter.
I’m looking at how one non-profit organization and a local business owner looks to help high school students on the autism spectrum transition into higher education.
Teaming up for a good cause, that’s the goal for the independent organization, Peace by Peace and Agape’s Lemonade.
“Agape’s was founded in 2019, we got the inspiration from our son who was diagnosed with autism at two years old.”
Jontae Jackson owns Agape’s Lemonade. His son, Agape, not only drove him to create his lemonade company, but also partner with the Peace by Peace foundation to create a scholarship to help those on the autism spectrum transition into college.
“Not everyone who’s been diagnosed with autism; their goal is college, but the ones who have college goals, it’s important to see faces just like theirs.”
It’s called the Exploring Extraordinary Education scholarship.
It aims to empower two high school seniors diagnosed with autism by awarding each with a $500 scholarship to pursue a 4-year degree.
“He kind of found or Instagram page and saw what we were doing and we reached out to him about partnering and doing a fundraiser,” says FAMU student Kiera Macklin. She is co-founder of the non-profit Peace-by-Peace foundation. It works to provide resources and support to autism in minority communities.
“We decide to come up with this scholarship so we could send more kids with autism to college because there’s a common misconception that because autism is somewhat of a learning disability that kids don’t have goals to get higher education, and we wanted to fight that stigma.”
I looked at the numbers. According to the CDC, about 1 in 36 children in the United States was diagnosed with autism last year. This is up from the previous rate of 1 in 44.
Agape’s traveling lemonade stand, and Peace-by-Peace sold drinks on FAMU’s campus, Friday, raising money to make their mission a reality.
“Being at a college campus, the scholarship is centered around trying to inspire kids with autism to go to college, this is the perfect platform for it.”
Ten percent of all profits will go to the scholarship.
Jackson tells me the amount raised will be announced next week.
He says it’s a big deal.
“It’s extremely important!”
People with Agapé’s lemonade and Peace-by-Peace organization tell me they hope the scholarship is meaningful gesture to those who need it.
In Southwest Tallahassee, Terry Gilliam, ABC27.
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