Presents 'My Angel Without Wings'. Conversation
On Sunday, March 16 at 2 p.m. author and founder of Eden II School for Autistic Children, Lucy Perillo Buttermark, will discuss her heartwarming memoir, 'My Angel Without Wings', and autograph copies of her book. "My Angel Without Wings" tells the story of her son, Johnny, who was expelled from school at age 5 due to his hyperactive nature and autism. Advised by a doctor in the 1960s to put her son in Willowbrook State School, Mrs. Buttermark decided instead to school Johnny herself. After a year of seemingly futile struggle, her tutelage began to pay off, and Johnny began to learn. Believing she could better help him reach his full potential by enrolling him in a school for autistic children, Mrs. Buttermark searched in vain for such a school. She reached out to other families with the same problem, and realized that, in order to send her son to such a school, she'd have to create it herself. When Johnny was 15 she and her husband, along with five other couples, founded the Eden II School for Autistic Children in Mariners Harbor. Beginning with just six children, this first special needs school in New York City today serves more than 400 students.