Sunday, February 2, 2014

John and Traci Schneider

Autism Lights #336 are John and Traci Schneider.



John and Traci Schneider are from Seattle, Washington and their 12 year old son Ben has autism. John Schneider works as the General Manager for the Seattle Seahawks and helped develop the team that won Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014. John and Traci Schneider are Autism Lights because of how their advocacy for autism and their fundraising for Ben's Fund at FEAT of Washington is helping autism families in the Seattle area.

NFL Executive: John Schneider has served as the General Manager of the Seattle Seahawks since 2010. He has established himself as a brilliant NFL administrator. Prior to moving to Seattle, he worked for the Washington Redskins and Green Bay Packers. John Schneider helped construct the Green Bay Packer team that won Super Bowl XLV. Dave Soft Mahler, who is a Sports Radio Show host in Seattle, posted the following tweet in praise of John Schneider in April, 2013.

Seattle Seahawks: The Seattle Seahawks have been very supportive of Ben's Fund. You can watch an autism awareness video of the Schneider's at Seahawks.com.  The Seahawks have dedicated a portion of their website to help promote the Prime Time Event for Ben's Fund.

Traci Schneider:  Traci Schneider said this about their autism journey, "John and I are of the same mindset where we were heartbroken and devastated for about a day, and then we kind of got to the point where it was like, 'All right, now what do we do?' (Seahawks.com, Tony Drovetto, March 22, 2013)."   In addition to being an autism mother, Traci Schneider has volunteered on the board at FEAT and has served as the President of the Seahawks Women's Association.

Ben's Fund: John and Traci Schneider created Ben's Fund in 2012 in order to help families in Washington State receive autism services. The fund provides grants for services in partnership with FEAT (Families for Effective Autism Treatment) of Washington. Ben Schneider has received some important help from the services of FEAT of Washington, when his family moved to Seattle in 2010.


John and Traci Schneider establish "Ben's Fund" charity from Doug Farrar on Vimeo.

FEAT of Washington: According to the Prime Time Website, "FEAT of Washington is a non-profit organization that strives to reach families with a child or children on the autism spectrum, providing support, guidance and resources for families in the community. For the past 15 years, FEAT WA has been developing, creating and inspiring autism programming for Washington's children solely to achieve one purpose - to help those children reach their full potential. Visit featwa.org to learn more."

Entire Family Impacted: John Schneider said this about autism families, "It's not just an issue for these kids. It's an issue for the entire family and it's hard. It affects your neighbors, the siblings, you can be at a restaurant and things can just fall apart. The mothers are just unbelievable and the siblings have to be unbelievable as well (My Northwest.com, Josh Kerns, April 5, 2012)."

John Schneider believes there is hope for autism. John Schneider said, "There's always hope, we have seen that with our son. He has definitely gotten better with everything that we have done over the past seven years. So we are very fortunate (My Northwest.com, Josh Kerns, April 5, 2012)."

Wikipedia: You can read more about John Schneider at the John Schneider Wikipedia Page.

Special thanks to John and Traci Schneider for being Autism Lights. We wish them continued success as autism parents and advocates. The autism community in Washington State is certainly fortunate to have them on their team as our the many Seahawks fans in the area.

Autism Light honors diverse heroes to the world of autism.

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