Senator Leo Housakos

By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

Senator Leo Housakos will be co-hosting a fundraiser for the Giant Steps Foundation Monday April 29 at the Baton Rouge Grillhouse and Bar on Jockeys Street in Côte des Neiges-NDG. Giant Steps is a widely renowned school tailored for students aged four to 21 who are on the autism spectrum.

The Suburban sat down this past Monday at Baton Rouge with Sen. Housakos; English Montreal School Board Director General Nick Katalifos, also a member of the board of directors of Giant Steps; and Baton Rouge co-owners Jimmy Sotiropoulos and Dean Tallini at the location that was renovated a year ago. The restaurant is donating the food and drink for that night, and this is their first fundraising event since the COVID pandemic ended.

Senator Housakos has been involved with Giant Steps for the past 17 years. “For me, autism became important after my friend and associate Nick’s son was born and, in a very short period of time, it became evident he was special, unlike other children, and in due time, the diagnosis determined he was on the spectrum,” he told The Suburban. “I saw Nick and his family face the challenge with enthusiasm, and I said, ‘I have to do my part.’ A society can only achieve its full potential when we emulsify all the sums of its parts into one solid, unbreakable chain and we use all our assets in our society to be the best we can be.”

Katalifos explained that his son Manoli, now 22, was diagnosed with autism at the age of three. “We began to notice when he was very young that certain milestones weren’t being met in terms of communications, he stopped making eye contact at about a year and a half. We got him evaluated at the Children’s and he was diagnosed at the age of three. We began to plan out what we were going to do — I was in the school system already and we heard about Giant Steps. We were fortunate enough to get him in when he was four years old, and he’s been there ever since.”

Katalifos says the Giant Steps program is “exceptional. “The kids are not only getting whatever assistance they need, they also have the benefit of being, through inclusion, in a regular public school setting as well. Manoli did his inclusion at a public school in the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board. He then transferred to an EMSB high school where he goes two days out of the week. He’s had a good balance. And more recently, he entered the adult program at Giant Steps, which is also a partnership with the EMSB and he has benefited a great deal.”

Sen. Housakos said that “it’s extraordinary what has happened from the time I got involved  — from a small centre that dealt with a need that overweighed the space it had, and now, under the leadership of Mr. Katalifos and other great people, they’ve managed to raise $56 million for a new centre. I talk about autism events and communities everywhere I go. We need many more Giant Steps across the country.”

Sen. Housakos and Katalifos strongly urged the community to attend the April 29 fundraiser.

“The response from our community has been overwhelming,” the Senator said. “If you haven’t heard the word ‘autism’ yet, there’s a great likelihood you will, directly or indirectly. We need to do more for research and diagnosis and to support these young people, who will be able to reach their true potential and be able to become great contributors to our society.”

Katalifos said Giant Steps “is the only autism centre of its kind that I know of in North America that combines services from an educational and social perspective. We have something unique, and we need to try and support it as much as we possibly can. The goal is to expand into the community at large and work with other organizations to ensure we’re supporting autistic people throughout the Greater Montreal area. It’s a very worthwhile cause and people should really support it.”

Sotiropoulos and Tallini say they are very pleased to be hosting the fundraiser.

“I’d like to thank everybody involved who has made this event happen, and as a business, we want to give back to the community,” Sotiropoulos says. “I’d like to help as much as I can.”

Tallini says Baton Rouge would like to host more than one fundraiser a year, for causes such as breast cancer research and others.

“We were giving to hospitals during COVID, and we’re now doing our part once again, paying it forward. I’d like Baton Rouge to be a hub for fundraisers.”

For more information about the fundraiser and to attend, go to https://giantsteps.my.canva.site/dinner.