Autism Awareness Event at Community Center

April is National Autism Awareness Month and there will be an event in East Ridge.

The Chattanooga Autism Center is hosting its Annual Autism Awareness Day on April 7 at the East Ridge Community Center on Tombras Avenue next to City Hall. The event is free and scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Organizers of the event say that there will be sensory activities, games, Superheroes from Chattooine, a photo booth, food, art contest, a presentation from an award winning author, and more.

According to the National Autism Society, a quarter century ago, the organization launched a nationwide effort to promote autism awareness, inclusion and self-determination for all, and to assure that each person with ASD is provided the opportunity to achieve the highest possible quality of life.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.