Big Board Traders Launch Fundraiser to Build School for Autistic Kids
Traders Magazine Online News, May 3, 2012
Big Board traders in a few days will be doing something magical. They will be working to make life better for autistic children and children who have bi-polar disorders.
The traders will hold their first "Working on a Dream" event. They expect it will raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for an expanded Newmark School in New Jersey, which educates autistic children.
Newmark officials are working on a unique school in Scotch Plains. The school, which now operates from two different campuses in the Garden State, will be special in several ways: It will provide a K-12 education for autistic children under one roof.
Anyone who wants to buy tickets for the event or contribute to the school should go to Newmarkschool.com. Tickets are $150. The link for the event is on the right side of the page.
"This will be a lot different than most schools. It will bring together all sorts of different programs in one place to help children," says Dan Ryan, a senior floor official and managing director with E&J Securities. Ryan, who has an autistic son, has been active in fighting autism and serves in various organizations.
Newmark School is now split up in Carteret and Plainfield, N.J. It is one of the few schools that provide a special environment for autistic children. Newmark is a hybrid school. It is a "state approved, private school," according to Dr. Regina Peter, one of its founders.
But the new school will also help those who want to devote a lifetime to fighting the problem. The school will also train teachers in how to work with special needs children.
How did the Big Board adopt the school as one of its charities?
NYSE Euronext Chief Executive Officer Duncan Niederauer has a teenage son whose life has been changed for the better by Newmark School. Fourteen-year old Liam Niederauer, the same as other autistic youth, had trouble adjusting to public schools that found teaching special needs children to be a daunting task.
It was his wife Alison who discovered the boy's problem, insisting against doctor's advice, that he needed special help. "I give her all the credit. She understood his problem better than anyone," Niederauer said. Newmark School has helped his son and many other autistic children.
The school helps children with Autism, ADD/ADHD, Anxiety, Asperger's Syndrome, Bipolar, PPD-NOS, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and Sensory Integration Disorder.
The new facility will capitalize on Newmark School's teaching methods provide a statewide Teacher Training Institute, as well as a Regional Special Needs Community Center for Children and families facing common challenges, according to the school.
Niederauer is grateful for the school's accomplishments. So he has become the school's champion at the Big Board. But it is an exchange with a history of supporting institutions that help autistic children. But he didn't canvass fellow traders to contribute to Newmark School. He started raising money himself.
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