Autism center has proud moment at RR opening

RIO RANCHO — Rio Rancho now has its own autism center as Proud Moments ABA held its grand opening April 12 on the corner of Unser Boulevard and Spring Road.

Proud Moments Rio Rancho Director Angel Kopacka was glowing with pride.

“Rio Rancho chose me,” she said when asked why she was the person to lead the Rio Rancho location.

It was a proud moment for her because she came from Rio Rancho and returned to direct for Proud Moments.

Kopacka had another proud moment to share. One of her success stories, Andy, was there to support her at the opening. She said that a little over 20 years ago, as a 16-year-old, she was tasked with working with Andy. He was nonverbal autistic at the time.

“So when I was 16, I worked for the city of Albuquerque. My old bosses were there for Therapeutic Recreation, and I was really fortunate to move up in the ranks and become a supervisor for TR. Andy has been with me this whole journey. When he turned 16, he came and worked as one of my employees at Therapeutic Recreation, and I was so happy that he could come today because he really gave me the inspiration. I always loved people, but he made me want to learn more about autism,” she said.

Andy now functions very well in the world, verbal and singing when he can.

ABA, or applied behavioral analysis, didn’t exist when she started, but the therapeutic recreation was as close as it got to that kind of therapy.

“We just kind of did it together. What’s really neat is knowing that this therapy works before it was even a therapy. It blows my mind because what we did is we took big things and we made them smaller,” she said. “That’s what we do here, we take big things that may be hard, and we break them up into small, easy steps. Then everything’s positive reinforcement, and so you hear a lot of dancing and singing in this place.”

She said Andy’s sister, who is also autistic and was nonverbal, is now a graduate of University of New Mexico and advocates for people with disabilities.

People will notice a common theme when they walk into the Proud Moments space in Rio Rancho: There are butterflies everywhere. Kopacka has a reason for that.

“I’ve always had this story ever since I was younger, how we all start off as this caterpillar and we’re kind of low on the ground. We don’t know much of anything, and we’re kind of dirty, but that’s the place that we have to be. We have to be down in the ground to learn the things that we don’t know, but eventually we have to go into seclusion. We have to get by ourselves, and we have to do the hard things, and once we do the hard things, then we emerge and we get our wings,” she said.

She added that butterflies have always been the “essence” of who she is. After working with more than 1,000 people with autism, that mantra has only become more prevalent for her.

Another “butterfly” was flapping its wings after taking photos with the Easter Bunny, who was present at the opening.

Laura Maestas, a Rio Ranchoan and mom of that butterfly with autism, has been with the program for three years at Proud Moments’ location on the West Side of Albuquerque.

“It’s been amazing because at first, finding out that he was diagnosed, it was hard. No parent wants to hear something’s different with their child, and so proud moments helped us get go through all the steps,” she said.

She said the board-certified behavior analysts her son Emiliano has relied have been helpful in taking both her and her son through every step.

“Without them, I don’t know where we would be, and he’s bloomed into a butterfly. So it’s been amazing, and it’s definitely been hard, but we’ve all been a great team and worked through it,” she said.

She added that her relationship with her son has improved, too. The stigma around autism forces people with the disorder to adapt to the world, but Maestas said Proud Moments has shown her that people can adapt to the disorder, too.

Sharing the proud moment, Mayor Gregg Hull and New Mexico Rep. Josh Hernandez made an appearance to tour the facility and recognize the addition to the city. State Sen. Harold Pope, while out of his district, came to show support after dedicating legislative funding to Proud Moments ABA at the West Side location, which is in his district. A large portion of funding for ABA comes from both state and federal government funding, though their are fees for parents and guardians to get their children involved.

For more information, visit proudmomentsaba.com/rio-rancho-aba-therapy.