November brought us our meeting with Nina Wall-Cote, and her associate Ryan Walters. Nina Wall-Cote is the director of the newly formed Bureau of Autism Services at the Department of Public Welfare for Pennsylvania. Ryan Walters is the Coordinator of Special Projects for the Bureau. As at previous meetings, we were given a fifteen minute appointment and amazingly our meeting lasted well over an hour. This meeting proved to be invaluable to the center. We were again met with sincere support and given great contacts, information and advice. Ryan Walters presence was a bonus and I must say, I feel as if he has taken the center under his wing. Mr. Walters has generously given additional contacts and offered his help and support in any way he can be of assistance. I’d like to quote him here and tell you all he thinks “the vision of this center is brilliant”. In his last email communication he conveyed that he knows we will succeed.

We also taped the segment with Comcast Newsmakers in November. It was a five minute segment and highlighted the services and programs the ADL Center will be providing to the community. This segment will be broadcast locally during CNN Headline News for a full week. It is our hope to gain exposure and boost the community buzz about the center.