Focus Comics champions autistic and special needs kids, super heroes and local heroes. In celebration of Autism Acceptance Month, we was honored to have Glendale Mayor Jerry P. Weiers as our Special Guest in Presenting the Focus Comics Hero Awards, as well as celebrating our students accomplishments. We thank him for his opening speech about the importance of community, autism acceptance and the work of the military and first responder heroes.
The Focus Comics Hero awards is a celebration honoring local heroes for their courage; sacrifice, selfless service, patriotism, compassion and leadership. It is an honor to present these awards to 9 distinguished individuals for embodying the values and ideals of the nation. Each individual representing a different military and first responder category in Arizona.
This years list of Hero Award recipients include
Eugene Metcalfe – A WW2 POW Army ParaTrooper Veteran (101 years old)
Carl Krawczyk – VFW Commander – US Army
Chris Snow – Deputy Chief – Fire Rescue
Sgt Francisco Acosta – USMC – Brother to a sister with Down syndrome
Tony Muscarello – Crew Chief – US Air Force
Mike Bufford – Petty Officer Quartermaster – US Navy
Sara Pritchett – Chief Petty Officer – USCG – Mother to an autistic son
Steve Tremonti – Engineer Paramedic – Father to an autistic daughter
LT Rudy Acosta – Law Enforcement – Maricopa County Sheriffs Office – Father to an autistic son.
Congratulations to our 9 distinguished heroes for the contribution to society.
Here is a booklet that Yvonne Wan Created for the award recipients to take home to share with their family (Booklet printed by Office Depot):
We want to thank Mayor Weires and Yvonne Wan for signing the printed books, and all 29 certificate of achievements for the children, and 9 Hero certificates. The certificates feature art by our students and resemble a Focus comic cover.
Organizations that attended the event in support of autism acceptance month and their veterans and personnel included: The U.S Army, The U.S. Navy, The U.S Air Force, Luke Air Force base, The USMC, Rural Metro Fire, Tempe Fire and The Maricopa County Sheriffs Office.
Our graduates had an amazing time interacting with the military and first responder organizations who sent personnel, specialized vehicles and equipment for the kids to immerse themselves into the world of local heroes over the weekend. We want to thank the organizations for including the kids on stage with their interactive demos.
Our students loved listening to all 9 hero recipients share their stories on stage especially Eugene who is our honored 101 years old Ww2 POW army paratrooper veteran.
We want to thank everyone for being part of our extraordinary class photo featuring our autistic and special needs students and our local military and first responder heroes.
Check out our students art work from the free 4 week art program:
Here is one of the class highlights films:
Check out our students graduation photos as they received their certificates and gifts including US Air Force gifts, fire station gifts and Blick art materials.
Our Focus comic creator honored the Mayor, Eugene ( the ww2 POW veteran) and Carl an original portrait painting as a personal gift. Yvonne was delighted that the art made them happy: Check out her art (art supplies used: Windsor Newton water colors and Yatsutomo Sumi art supplies);
We want to thank Habit Burger grill for supporting autistic and special needs kids, military and first responders during autism acceptance month. Our attendees appreciated their generous hospitality and catering:
Thank you sound and arts for loaning us the sound system. Thank you country rose boutique for gifting flowers to our photographer Lisa. Thank you Samurai comics for providing a great venue. Thanks Sutton custom creations for making the trophies.
Thank you to everyone for helping us make this collective experience extraordinary.
Love our project? Please support us in any way you can. Thanks. [email protected]
Have any questions: Please reach out to Yvonne at 480 787 6729.
Lastly, we salute all our heroes for the important work that they do.
