iParent Magazine founder Tom LaPointe isn’t quite a modern-day Earnest Hemingway, but he certainly has a love of adventure. He started iParent because, “the area needs a parenting website and magazine that serves families from all demographics, and that have children of all kinds, with rich multimedia content and timely information, as well as a central information point for families that have children with special needs.”

The oldest of six children in a family with meager means, he played one year of football and two years of basketball in high school, and was an All-State Choir vocalist for three consecutive years. After attending the University of Nevada-Reno for a short time as a scholarship music major, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps, where he spent time in El Toro, California; Okinawa, Japan; and Washington, D.C. It was during this time that he met and married his wife of more than 20 years, Barbra (yes, it’s spelled correct).

During more than seven years as a decorated Marine photojournalist, he earned awards as a writer, photographer, and editor. Following his military career, he operated his own graphic design company and worked as a technical assistant at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. During the mid 90’s the couple moved to the Gulf Coast of Florida, where they could enjoy sun and surf. This is where Tom pursued his passion for racing and nice cars. He worked for a decade in the retail automotive industry, as a salesperson and manager in both sales and service.

He always dreamt of racing as a boy, and working in the car business afforded him a chance to follow this dream with enthusiasm. During his pursuit of this passion, he raced stock cars and sports cars, and competed in Land Rover off-road competitions in Vermont and Colorado. He has been a pit official for the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring, and a pit crewman for Indy Car and a Hooters Pro Cup stock car series races. Until recently, he was active as an off-road instructor for Land Rover and HUMMER dealers and owners.

But in 2003, he and Barbra took in his 5-year-old nephew, Kyle, who was in the foster system. Kyle had severe emotional issues that specialists weren’t able to accurately diagnose, and after several violent episodes and weeks of behavior camps and intensive therapeutic therapy sessions for Reactive Attachment Disorder, they had to return him to North Carolina for more intensive therapeutic help.

In 2005, Tom left the retail automotive car business to launch iParent Magazine corporate parent, Bartola Marketing Concepts, LLC, and become an exotic car broker with Sterns Automotive Strategies. This gave him the freedom to pursue one of his goals to become an automotive journalist. He had numerous articles and photographs published in numerous national magazines, including duPont Registry, Makes and Models magazine, and others. His writing career earned him a book contract in 2009 to write the exotic car book, Modern Sport Cars (see the listing) for Barnes & Noble, and he was also published in the 2010 Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Mom (view the story), edition. Even now, he is the automotive writer for the New York City wealth lifestyle magazine, Affluent Page Luxury Index (visit the website), and contributes to Examiner.com. In addition, worked for a time as the sales manager at Ferrari of Tampa Bay, as well as a wholesale luxury and exotic car buyer.

It was late in 2007 when he and Barbra were able to rearrange their lives to attempt to adopt Kyle, then 9 years old. Doctors had identified Kyle as suffering from high-functioning Autism / Autism Spectrum Disorder, which gave the couple more understanding of his emotional and behavior challenges, and they worked tirelessly to identify resources to ensure if the adoption was successful, they could provide him the care he needed. It took more than 100 hours of parenting classes before they were designated as his adoptive parents, and they picked him up to bring him home to Florida on the last day of school, in June, 2008. This ended more than two years of sorrow from his previous departure, and began a whole new journey with Autism.

The couple worked tirelessly to provide Kyle the care, resources, and extensive therapies he needed to catch up emotionally, as well as academically. For the first year, he made steady progress, but in fall 2008 he spiraled down emotionally and had to spend time in the hospital and a residential facility in Orlando. His conduct worsened during this stay, and he returned home in February 2009. Difficulties increased when Kyle was unable to cope with school and they had to work with officials to get him into a school better-suited to deal with his violent behavior.

Even as professionals, family members, and friends questioned Tom’s resolve to continue to keep Kyle in the house, he was determined to connect with the troubled 11-year-old. Barbra left the home for several months while Tom helped Kyle through his violent episodes and worked out challenges with school. The state of Florida allocated emergency funding for Kyle to receive service from the Medicaid Waiver program, which enabled a Behavior Analyst and Behavior Assistants to help settle his behavioral issues. During the next year, Kyle’s support team worked tirelessly to find solutions that helped him make better choices. It paid off, because by summer of 2010, he was authorized funding to attend a private school that would help him mainstream with regular classes in a small-class setting where he could get the support he needed.

The journey is ongoing, but Kyle’s improvement gives them hope he will meet his future goal to become a paleontologist, and gives hope to other parents with similar challenges with their children. Parents are often referred to Tom for moral support and coaching, as well as for help finding therapies and specialists for their children.

Because of the challenge finding resources and information to help Kyle and the difficulties other parents face in similar situations, Tom is determined to build iParent Magazine as not only a comprehensive parenting website for Tampa Bay, but a one-stop information source for Tampa Bay parents of children with special needs.