Our Mission
To kick off 2022, Alamo Heights students Sophie Sutherland, a high school sophomore, and her sister Sloane Sutherland, an 8th grader at Alamo Heights Junior High, formed a nonprofit called Friends of Special Friends in Alamo Heights.
The mission of Friends of Special Friends is to raise money to fund and create possibilities for children with disabilities by allowing them full access to opportunities and adventures that otherwise would not be available to them. We want to engage and empower not only students with special needs, but also those students who wish to support and befriend them, creating a legacy of inclusion that becomes the norm and lasts well into the future.
Both girls found a love of this community starting in Junior High by doing the peer tutor program and have continued through Junior High and into high school. The two sisters have so enjoyed participating in Unified activities and have a heart for helping their friends with different abilities so much so that the Sutherland family decided to create a 5013c nonprofit organization to help their special friends.
Both girls have worked hard along with founding board members, Michelle Harrison and Julie Pi Evans to get their non profit up and running.
Michelle Harrison has served as the Parent Liaison for Special Education in the Alamo Heights Independent School District since June 2018. Michelle’s goal is to help parents feel connected and informed, assist with communication between parents and staff and share pertinent resources and information for our special population. She has been an advocate for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities for over 10 years, was one of the Top Fundraising Teams for the Central Texas Autism Speaks Walk for Autism in 2012 and 2013, has served on the planning committee for the TAPPestry Conference, an annual conference sponsored by Region 20 for parents, teachers, caregivers and professionals who care for individuals with special needs in the greater San Antonio area. Michelle also served on the planning committee for Autism Community Network in 2018 and was the speaker for ACN’s signature fundraiser, Le Brunch des Chapeaux, in 2019. She has served on the Autism LifeLine Links Adult IDD Services Committee since 2018 and on the Morgan’s Wonderland Multi- Assistance Center Client and Caregiver Committee since 2021. Michelle and her husband, Trent, have three children, Meredith (AH Senior class of 2015), Jett (AH Senior class of 22) and Wyatt, a freshman at AHHS.
Julie Pi Evans is a 1997 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and a 2002 graduate of Rutgers Law School in New Jersey. She has been a member of the Texas State Bar since 2002. After moving to Houston, she worked for several small firms before starting her own firm, Julie Pi Evans Law Firm, PLLC in 2012. She was active in the Asian American Bar Association of Houston (AABA), serving as the Solo & Small Firm co-chair, and the Houston Bar Association (HBA), serving as chair of the Law Practice Management Section. She also co-chaired the HBA Special Olympics Committee and later received the Special Olympics Texas 2016 Outstanding Service from a Civic or Service Organization award. She was elected to become a fellow in the Texas Bar Foundation in 2013. In 2017, the family moved back to her hometown of San Antonio and settled in the Alamo Heights area. She currently serves on the boards of Special Reach and the Alamo Heights School Foundation. She is a member of the Bexar County Women's Bar and the San Antonio Bar Association. She and her husband, Chris Evans, have been married since 2005 and have two children, Benjamin & Caroline. Benjamin is loving his SST (Student Support Teams) classroom at Alamo Heights High School and Caroline attends Alamo Heights Junior School where she enjoys her Strings class and playing Soccer.
Together with Harrison and Evans, the Sutherland girls are hoping to grow their organization and get other classmates and community members involved so that they can create a lasting legacy long after they have graduated from Alamo Heights.
