City Council honors 10-year-old dragon master

SIX WEEKS AGO, Lisa and Mario Sagliano were worried. Their son Santino, 10, wouldn't speak or sleep, and had trouble expressing his emotions. But soon after, something clicked, Lisa said.

Yesterday morning, standing at a lectern in City Council chambers, Santino told a crowd of reporters and Council members that he was honored and grateful. Councilman Dennis O'Brien presented Santino with a certificate of recognition for his successful T-shirt business and also for his work as an ambassador of hope for the autistic community.

Known in his South Philly neighborhood as "The Dragon Master," Santino first began his business with simple, colorful drawings of dragons on a few T-shirts. After the first T-shirt was advertised on Autism Awareness Day, April 14, Lisa began receiving requests from people who wanted their own. She had no idea that within a few weeks, they'd receive almost 1,500 orders from as far away as Australia and Italy.

The family launched santinosdragon.myshopify.com Wednesday night due to the overwhelming amount of orders sent through the Facebook page. Their rowhouse on Wolf Street near 3rd in South Philadelphia has since turned into a full-blown T-shirt shop, Lisa said.

Lisa said she was more excited than Santino when she learned he would receive an award at City Hall. Santino was just humbled by the recognition, she said.

"What I'm trying to say is, thank you everybody and I love you all for liking my shirts," Santino said behind the lectern draped with one of his "double dragon" T-shirts - a special design that only he and O'Brien have.

To Santino's right stood his parents and his younger brother, Luciano, 9. Lisa and Mario got teary as their son spoke to the crowd with ease. Santino will get another chance to showcase his work this weekend at the Art is Life Spring Street Festival in Roxborough.

The shirts will be on sale at the festival, with half the proceeds donated to Philadelphia's Center for Autism, where Santino receives outpatient care. Beyond supporting the center, Lisa said, she and Mario hope to help other families with autistic children.

"I just wish every parent can feel what we're feeling right now," Lisa said. "We used to get excited over every little step - if he tried a new food, if he made a new friend. This is just more than we can ever ask for or hope for."

Although he's not a dragon fan, Luciano said, he's thrilled to see his brother's business grow. When he found out that his brother was autistic, he didn't understand what it meant.

But now he realizes that the dragons allow Santino to express himself in his own way.

"I love that he's getting so far just because of dragons," Luciano said. Even though Santino didn't outwardly show it, Lisa said she's sure he understood the honor he had received. The signal might come later on, by way of one of his dragons.

"Maybe he'll go home and draw a dragon about this, and that's how he shows it," Lisa said. "With a smile on his face and the fact that he didn't run out of the room makes me feel like he enjoyed it."