Family Opens Car Wash, Hires Mostly People With Autism, And It's Improving Their Symptoms
February 10, 2015
Like many people with autism, Andrew D'Eri had a hard time finding a job. So his father, a veteran entrepreneur, and older brother, who had recently finished business school, had an idea: What business could they start that would thrive employed mostly by people with autism?
Rising Tide Car Wash / ABC News
"We wanted to build ... an example big and bold and out there that other companies could go ahead and want to emulate," Tom D'Eri told ABC News, adding that they wanted to find a business that would educate the community by putting autistic employees in front of the customers.
The D'Eris did their research and determined that unemployment is common among people with autism not because they lack skills, but because society views autistic individuals as people to be sympathetic toward rather than valuable people with different skills.
Rising Tide Car Wash / ABC News
"Typically people with autism are really good at structured tasks, following processes, attention to detail," Tom D'Eri said. "So we saw that they're really important skills that people with autism have that make them, in some case, the best employees you can have."
In 2013, the D'Eri family opened up the Rising Tide Car Wash in Parkland, Florida. Today, they employ 35 autistic men and women.
It was Andrew's first job, and though he didn't like it at first, Tom D'Eri said he started noticing positive changes three weeks later. Andrew, 24, had issues with empathy and trying new things in the past, but when his father offered him a bite of a new food - his father's chicken and portobello mushroom sandwich - he tried it and then courteously asked to split it when his dad offered him the whole sandwich.
"Typically, that wouldn't happen," Tom D'Eri said, adding that Andrew also helped people with bags on a plane for the first time after starting work. "There were noticeable differences in his behavior. He was willing to try new things, wanting to empathize more. These are things any family with an autistic child will say, those are really rare things."
The D'Eri family / ABC News
And since many autistic people are bullied in high school, he said working at the car wash helped them build confidence.
"They come to us with very little purpose and very little hope for their future," D'Eri said in the video. "But once they start working with us they start getting positive reinforcement of doing a good job, a customer being happy, getting a tip, that really starts to open them up."
Credit: ABC News
Click Here For The Most Popular On Sunny Skyz
Couple Rescues Prairie Dog From Their Dog's Mouth, Then Decides To Adopt It
My Girlfriend Gifted Me My Father’s Handwriting To Keep Forever
We Can’t Stop Looking At These Adorable Baby Loon Photos Taken On A Lake
This Couple Built A Grass Patch For Their Cat, And She’s Obsessed With It
This All-Black ‘Goth House’ In Indiana Is Going Viral. Wait Until You See The Inside
Meet Igor: The Fluffy Poltergeist Dog With The Most Unhinged Adoption Bio Ever
Baby Elephant’s Trunk Steals The Show In Adorable Treat Time Video
What Happens When A Man With A Hose Meets A Group of Kids? Pure Magic
Chicken Or Pigeon? The Internet Can’t Believe This Bird Is Real
Mom Surprises 4-Year-Old Son With First Apartment After 14 Months In Homeless Shelter
Bear Vs. Sprinkler: Hilarious Garden Moment Caught On Camera