When Alyssa Antonelli, a regional team lead in Carvana’s title and registration department, and other members of her team submitted an idea for a Passion Project during Autism Awareness Month in April, they had no idea the impact it would end up having.

For Alyssa, and many others at Carvana, the disorder is something that hits especially close to home. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), roughly 1% of the world’s population (over 75 million people) has autism spectrum disorder. Yet, while most people have heard of autism, there is often a misconception about the individuals who have it.

“The misunderstanding when it comes to autism is, everyone thinks that it’s severe,” says Antonelli. “As soon as [people] hear the word, they’re immediately picturing somebody that is non-communicative and automatically think that that person is not going to have a job.”

That reaction, in particular, is something that Casey Brown, a coordinator on the talent acquisition team at Carvana, is familiar with. Brown’s daughter, Jamie, was diagnosed with autism at a young age. At that time, doctors told Brown that her daughter’s future had a bleak outlook.

“When she was born, she was developing normally and then we noticed that she stopped answering to her name,” said Brown. “I went ahead and had her evaluated and [the doctors] did diagnose her with autism. The psychiatrist told me that she would end up institutionalized and I was not willing to accept that. At that point, I started educating myself about what to do.

“Everybody was looking for what to do with their kids after high school and we settled on Pathway to Work.”

According to Lisa Silva, the director of programs and training at Pathway to Work, the organization is a non-profit that aims to provide meaningful experiences and preparation for employment preferences for adults with autism.

“Jamie started attending our program almost two years ago,” said Silva.

“She wants to be her own entrepreneur and she wants to have her own business, so we talk about that with her. What we’re really focusing on is really holding her accountable for it. I think that that kind of responsibility for her has been a game changer. I think she knows she has to be accountable for her own behavior.”

With support for the cause clearly in place, all that remained in this particular instance was the connective tissue bringing Antonelli, Brown, and Pathway to Work together. Kara Estes, a member of Antonelli’s team at Carvana, got the ball rolling by designing a t-shirt that would be sold with the proceeds from sales being donated to Pathway to Work. From there, Antonelli submitted the plan to Carvana’s Passion Projects team. Meanwhile, Brown, submitted her own request for Carvana to give back during Autism Awareness Month only to discover that something was already underway!

“I wrote to Carvana Cares and someone reached out to me and told me they had been working all month on an autism awareness project,” said Brown.

“It was coincidence,” Antonelli said.

“When we sent the tickets out to the Passion Projects team we got a response saying, ‘Hey, someone else is reaching out to do something similar!’ People were throwing out random ideas and the shirt idea came around and that’s what we ended up sticking with. We were going to originally just pick an arbitrary autism fundraiser and we thought we’d rather pick something that is going to impact Carvana employees.”

When Brown found out that the proceeds from the t-shirt sales would be going to Pathway to Work, she was thrilled at the potential for modest success. As it turns out, she underestimated the power of the cause.

“They said that they would donate the proceeds to Pathway to Work,” said Brown. “And I was thinking, ‘Wow! This could be $500!’ It turned out to be even more successful.”

“When it closed, it was over $4,000 that we raised,” confirmed Antonelli.

The money is a huge boon for Pathway to Work, as Silva revealed that the hope is to put the money towards a second Pathway to Work vehicle to help expand their community outreach.

“The fundraiser received a lot of feedback from Carvana employees who are affected by autism,” said Brown. “When they found out about the fundraiser, everybody was really excited that it was getting some attention and that autism was getting some attention.”