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STAMFORD, Conn. ? Standing onstage at a packed Palace Theater may intimidate some, but 8-year-old Nicholas Portanova had no problem Friday night telling the audience to befriend people with autism spectrum disorders. Nicholas opened the 5th Annual Concert for Autism.
Dont think of them as some other creature or species," he said. "They are the same as you, and always will be. I expect you to always make them feel better and never call them rude names.
Nicholas knows a lot about how people with autism feel because his older brother, Anthony, is on the spectrum, and before introducing Jerry Pia and SlikStuff, he told those in the audience to develop relationships like he has with his brother.
Hopefully, next year you will be the greatest friend to all with autism like I am to my brother Anthony, the prince of our Family, he said, drawing applause after every statement he made.
It was the third straight year Nicholas, nicknamed The Youngest Autism Ambassador, has made his appeal to the audience. Each year he writes his own speech and wont even show it to his mother, Robin Portanova, before the show. His mom, founder of Stamford Education 4 Autism, which the concert benefits, said she makes Nicholas show the speech to someone else, however, before he goes on stage.
The concert was headlined by Felix Cavalieres Rascals, who performed numerous medleys that combined Rascals music with other hits from the '60s and '70s. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer had the audience singing and clapping along with every song. On the Good Loving closing medley, people were dancing in the aisles and in front of the stage.
Jerry Pia and SlikStuff also pulled on the heart strings when they premiered Just Call My Name, which was written for the concert and is about helping autistic children. While they played, photos of autistic Stamford Public Schools children flashed behind them.
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