La Mirada~In keeping with the Rotary’s more than 100 years history of community service and forward thinking leadership throughout the world, the Rotary Club of La Mirada is helping special needs children in La Mirada with a game changing device for dealing with Autism - the iPad.

The iPad has been demonstrated to be a very effective tool for dealing with all children with special needs. In particular, the iPad has proven results with Autistic children around the world. The dramatic benefits of the iPad can be seen most easily with non-verbal Autistic children due to the iPad’s intuitive nature, easy manual manipulation and overall ease of use.

Dr. Lance Williams, Medical Director of the Finding Autism Cures & Treatment Center, said. “Thanks to the incredible generosity and leadership of the Rotary Club of La Mirada the children at Benton are getting an invaluable tool that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to at this point in time.”

The earlier an Autistic child receives intervention and therapeutic services, the better their long term outcomes become. Christine Young, the Special Education teacher at Benton who will be working with Dr. Williams to implement and take full advantage of all the iPad has to offer the severely Autistic students said “I have been wanting to use the iPad in my classroom, but couldn’t afford one yet. This life changing gift from the La Mirada Rotary will make a world of difference to my special needs kids. My heart is truly overflowing with joy."

Members of Rotary International have a long history of making great impacts in their local communities in the over 200 countries around the world, most recently having tremendous impacts globally on eliminating Polio and improving water quality in many nations.

The Rotary Club of La Mirada invites other organizations and individuals in the community to help bring this type of cutting edge technology to the neediest children in the community. Those interested in helping to provide additional i-Pads for special needs students at Benton Middle School should contact Thomas Polley at 714-994-4299.

Pictured are (l to r) Thomas Polley, Walt Jenkins, Mark Troutten, Special Education Teacher Christine Young, and Pastor Steve DeRuse.