Walmart Grant to Help Parents of Autistic Kids

A $2,000 grant from the Germantown Walmart store will help the Montgomery County Police Department work with families to prevent children with autism from wandering.

Officer Laurie Reyes, who runs the Department’s Autism and Alzheimer’s outreach and wandering prevention program, and Assistant Chief Betsy Davis, accepted the grant on behalf of the Montgomery County Police Foundation and the Department.

Reyes plans to buy the Montgomery County Police Department “Autism Safety Kits” with this grant money. The kits are provided to parents and guardians of children with autism as part of a wandering prevention program.

The kit includes wandering safety handouts, autism safety shirts, autism ID bracelets, autism awareness MCPD window clings (they read, “MCPD – someone with autism lives in this home, may not respond to verbal commands”), door alarms, and MCPD badge tattoos.

On average, the Montgomery County Police Department investigates two missing or wandering autistic children cases per week.

» Assistant Montgomery County Police Chief Betsy Davis, left, and Officer Laurie Reyes, right, accept a check from Walmart to help provide Autism Safety Kits to caregivers. Photo Credit: Montgomery County Police Department