Andrew was born on May 7, 2003 in San Antonio Texas to an amazing single mom, Peggy. From early on, she knew that Andrew was “different”, but could not per her finger on it. At age four, he was still not speaking and she thought that perhaps he might be hearing impaired. Peggy took Andrew to several doctors and finally received his autism diagnosis.
When Andrew began elementary school, he endured teasing and was unable to make friends, which caused his mother great concern. At this time, Andrew’s older sister McKenna was living in California with her father, so Peggy decided to find a school that would advocate for Andrew and also move him closer to McKenna.
In the past 5 years since Andrew began attending this new school, his life has changed dramatically. He has blossomed into a happy-go-lucky, creative, dog-loving and intelligent teen. Andrew understands that he has autism and he loves explaining to people that autism is not a “bad” thing. He expresses himself through his artwork and enjoys making YouTube videos. He’s not a bad singer either!
Andrew's Pug Party Story
With Andrew’s 14th birthday approaching, his big sister, McKenna, asked him what he wanted to do for his special day. Since not one of his classmates came to his birthday party last year (this happens a LOT with children on the Autism Spectrum), Andrew said he just wanted to grill hot dogs at the park and have some cake.
Inspired to make it the best day ever, McKenna decided to do something amazing for Andrew’s birthday, so she posted to Facebook on April 20th, asking for “at least one pug” to show up for his party. Since pugs are Andrew’s favorite dogs, and dogs are a boy’s best friend, McKenna wanted to make sure he had friends to celebrate birthday this time.
By May 4th, there were only three days left until Andrew’s birthday and not one person with a pug had RSVP’d. However on that day, somehow, a woman messaged that she had reached out to Pug Nation of Los Angeles and asked them to share McKenna’s Facebook post. Well they did, and within an hour there were over 200 comments and 20 shares… everybody was RSVP’ing and wishing Andrew a happy birthday!
Andrew’s Pug Party ended up with over 100 pugs, and the Foxy and the Hounds Dog Adoption raised the money to gift him a brand new laptop for his computer graphics aspirations.
The party was even on the ABC7 4 O’clock news!!!
Thank you to everybody that helped to make Andrew’s Pug Party unforgettable and especially for helping him with his future education by providing the laptop.
McKenna has decided to start a non-profit organization that plans birthday parties for children on the Autism Spectrum. Please buy one of Andrew’s designs to help finance the family endeavor!
