GAME-CHANGER: Canton family helps equip sensory room for MSU’s Breslin Center
On a sunny Father’s Day morning, in a unusually quiet Jack Breslin Student Events Center on the campus of Michigan State University, five members of a Canton family diligently unpacked and assembled the accessories that will turn a little-used storage room into a life-changing sensory space for people who live with autism and their families.
The Bello family — father Fredi, mother Romina, daughters Alessandra and Adriana, and son Antonio — carefully removed $4,500 worth of calming equipment (ball pits, fidgets, bean bags, to name a few) and furnishings from a mountain of Amazon boxes that had been carefully stacked in the soon-to-be-transformed space near the arena’s Gilbert Entrance.
With the assistance of Danielle Matlick, the Associate Director, Student Life and Engagement Office of Philanthropy for Undergraduate Education at MSU, and her husband Matthew Dillon, the Bellos did what they do best: joyfully worked on a project aimed at making others’ lives better on a day designed for relaxation.
Helping from the heart
Fredi Bello is the founder of the Fredi The Pizzaman Foundation, a non-profit he created in 2016, not long after his 10-year-old son Antonio was diagnosed with autism.
The mission of the foundation is to “focus solely on equipping sensory rooms in schools, and spread Autism Awareness and Acceptance that make a long-lasting difference for the teachers, communities, schools, parents and most importantly, the children,” its website states.
Sensory rooms provide a calming space for people living with autism who may become over-stimulated in settings with large crowds and above-average noise levels.
As of Sunday, the foundation had raised over $100,000 and provided 62 schools throughout Michigan with sensory room equipment.
Fredi Bello hosts an annual golf outing that raises a large percentage of the funds for the foundation.
Breslin is first non-school venue foundation has helped
The soon-to-be available Breslin Center sensory room is the first one in a non-school setting the foundation has equipped — but not the last, as plans are in the works to place a sensory room in another large Michigan arena.
“To be honest, I’m blown away by what this foundation has been able to accomplish,” said Bello, the owner of Melvindale’s Fredi The Pizzaman pizzeria, which gained world-wide fame after Barstool Sports’ David Portnoy proclaimed that Fredi made “undoubtedly the best pizza in Detroit” on his insanely-popular Barstool One Bite Pizza Review podcast.
“We live this life every day. As parents of autistic children, we need help and this is our way of helping other parents, helping teachers and helping schools.
“I’m just a little guy – I’m not a big name — so I can’t believe how big this has become, but I’m happy we’ve been able to help so many schools and people.
“I think one of the reasons for the foundation’s success is that myself and my family are hands-on with it, just like I’m hands-on with my pizzeria.”
The foundation also assists in the equipping of smaller sensory rooms in actual homes of people who live with autism.
“We did four or five last Christmas and around 25 the Christmas before that,” Fredi said.
The foundation has also committed one $5,000 scholarship for the next two years to an incoming Michigan State University student who will be pursuing a degree in special education.
Bursting with pride
Pausing for a moment from inflating bouncy toys for the Breslin sensory room, Romina Bello said she’s proud of her family for being all-in on the satisfying work Fredi’s foundation delivers to communities.
“We’re definitely so proud of Fredi for venturing out and starting the foundation to improve the lives of families touched by autism, like we have been,” Romina said.
“The rooms like this one give parents a chance to go out and do things with their kids that they might not have done otherwise because they were afraid their child wouldn’t be able to handle a high-stimulation type of environment.”
Fittingly, the man who kick-started the Breslin Center sensory room was Anthony Ianni, a former MSU basketball player (his first basket as a Spartan was assisted by NBA star Draymond Green) who is believed to be the first autistic person to play Division 1 college basketball.
Former MSU player gets ball rolling
At the age of 4, Ianni was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder, a form of autism. Medical professionals warned the Iannis that Anthony would never graduate from high school, compete in athletics or attend college.
He proved them wrong every step of the way.
“I was visiting The Chase Center in San Francisco (home of the Golden State Warriors) and saw that they had two amazing sensory rooms for individuals living with autism, one on each level,” Ianni said. “I thought the Breslin Center needed something like this, so I got the ball rolling.”
Ianni ran the idea past Jeff Latinen, the Breslin Center’s manager, who shared Ianni’s passion for the plan.
“I give Jeff so much credit; he found a room and started the procedures to get it done,” Ianni said. “It turns out this room was formerly used to store 50/50 raffle items. When it came time to find a sponsor for the room — somebody to help equip it with the necessary accessories — it was a no-brainer: Fredi.”
Longtime friends, Ianni and Fredi initially discussed the steps needed to transform the room in August of 2022.
Less than a year later, the Bellos were assembling the items — and placing them in the freshly painted and carpeted sensory room — that will give people living with autism a space to decompress if the crowd noise in the arena is too much to handle.
Others who played instrumental roles in making the vision for sensory room reality, Bello added, were Matlick and Ryan Curtis, a Breslin Center sales manager.
Matlick said MSU’s Hall of Fame basketball coach Tom Izzo is thrilled with the idea of the sensory room addition.
While all the accessories in the new Breslin Center sensory room play a role in its purpose, one is most fitting: a bean bag chair shaped like a slice of pizza.
The slice/chair will serve as a subtle reminder to the parents of all those who utilize the room in the coming years that the space was brought to fruition by not just your average pizza maker; but by Fredi The Pizzaman — a difference-maker if there ever was one.
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