Oct 12, 2022, Greenville [NC] Reflector: ‘A place of purpose': Aces for Autism breaks ground for new state-of-the-art clinic https://www.reflector.com/news/local/a-place-of-purpose-aces-for-autism-breaks-ground-for-new-state-of-the-art/article_8e65f8d3-1ce5-5c96-a338-a2045b2447c7.html
WINTERVILLE — Nearly four years after announcing plans for a groundbreaking, multi-million dollar campus to serve students with autism, Aces for Autism broke ground Tuesday on what will become the organization’s new home.
More than 100 people, including government officials, construction workers and families of children with autism, attended the celebration at the 24-acre site on Worthington Road.
“The Ron and Rose Bowen Family Autism campus will be a place of purpose and belonging for so many people,” Aces President and Chief Executive Officer Kyle Robinson said. “We want each individual who steps foot onto this campus to know that their life has purpose, that they are fearfully and wonderfully made by almighty God.”
The first phase, a 32,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art clinic, is expected to cost as much as $13 million and take about 18 months for Washington, N.C.-based general contractor WIMCO to complete. The SECU Autism Clinic of Eastern NC, funded, in part, through a $1.5 million grant from the State Employees Credit Union Foundation, will have more than twice the space of the organization’s current location on Conference Drive.
Ron and Rose Bowen in 2021 donated $2 million toward the campus, which will later include a nontraditional school for students with autism and other special needs. Although they have no history of autism in their family, the Bowens are longtime supporters of Aces, which Robinson and his wife, Bobbie, began in 2014, after their son, Samuel was diagnosed with autism at age 18 months. …
“Individuals with autism find it difficult to go many places we take for granted,” Robinson explained. “Sensory elements such as lighting and noises can make places a traumatic experience for individuals on the autism spectrum.”…
