April is Autism Awareness Month, but at the Rising Tide car wash in Parkland, Florida, they support people with autism every day. John D’Eri [[Dairy]] and his son, Tom, started the car wash in 2013 to give their autistic son and brother, Andrew, a steady job.
They did their research and started a business that would put Andrew’s skills to use, learning that 80-90% of people on the autism spectrum excel with processing detail oriented tasks. So the car wash is an ideal fit for him.
And after he did so well there, they opened the doors to other people with autism - now 35 of their employees are on the autism spectrum. The car wash is doing well and the employees are happy to come to work.
"They have a smile on their face and care about every car they work on," says Tom. "It's a really exceptional environment."