Mary began taking Nick to weekly infant stimulation classes. She came to know other children with special needs and discovered her gift of connecting with these special children. She knew then she wanted to work with children with disabilities. Going back to college as an adult, Mary soon received her degree and teaching credentials.
Mary’s fi rst job with MESD was in the program then called the “multi-handicapped” program, now known by the more positive name of Functional Living Skills. Over time, MESD established classrooms for students who aremedically fragile. For high school age students, the classroom is located at Pathways Community School.
Now, 20 years later, Mary has settled in and built her nest. “I feel like it’s a privilege to work with these students,” Mary said with a smile on her face. “I have 20 years of the most wonderful memories. I am so close to the staff and students here that it feels like they’re family to me.”
When I fi rst walked in to the sensory classroom at Pathways, I felt an overwhelming feeling of joy. It’s hard not to feel theliveliness with which the staff members infuse the room. The students are non verbal and non ambulatory, they may be sleeping or simply still and quiet, yet their happiness shines from inside because they are embraced with love and treasured by Mary and her assistants.
Mary and her two assistants, William (Willie) Brainard and Martina Gornick, always think of new and creative ideas thatare sensory-focused for the students. Judy Tilton, the one-on-one nurse works in the classroom and helps Mary with craft projects and story time. “Judy has a very expressive, dramatic style she projects when reading to the students. She can change the pitch in her voice to make the story come alive and entertaining to the students. They just love story time.”
“I have compassionate, great assistants who pitch in and are very helpful to me. I’m lucky to have them. They are here because they love the children,” Mary said about Willie and Martina. “We have a full schedule here in the classroom. We have story time in the morning, calendar, attendance (with special cards that has a photo of each student on it), crafts, social activities such as fi nd the photo and touch the identical photo and special fi eld trips like the one we recently went on, visiting the Gresham library,” explained Mary.
“We also have daily medical procedures that are done on schedule,” says Mary “We have set schedules for feeding (both orally and through special feeding tubes) and we distribute medication to our students. Our Registered Nurse at Pathways, Michelle McCall spent time training us in how to properly administer specific medications to individual students.”
Mary’s room is full of her student’s artwork that hangs on the walls all around the room. “I love using lots and lots of color for the students,” Mary explained. “It really grabs their attention and is so stimulating to them. I love to sew. I designed an apron that had multiple activities on it for one of my students. I noticed she was always trying to grab something to play with so I sewed on fun activities to stimulate her and keep her busy and happy. She loved it.”
Something special has been added to the classroom too, music with Mark Skolnick on Wednesdays. Mark always travels to Pathways on Fridays to sing to all the students in the cafeteria but it can be challenging for Mary’s students to get upstairs to the cafeteria to be apart of the music and because some of the students who attend on Fridays become over-excited, the sudden movements had a tendency to startle students of Mary’s so a new idea had to come to life.
Brett Bigham of Pathways suggested to Mary to ask Mark if he would make a special trip to Pathways on Wednesdays to play his guitar and sing. Mark happily agreed. This music is in a familiar, quieter, more intimate setting. It’s music in the comfort of the student’s own classroom. “The children love it when Mark plays his guitar and sings to them. It really is a treat to have him come and do this for the students” Says Mary.
“I want people to know,” Mary said. “People shouldn’t be afraid to interact with a low-functioning person. They’re just like you and me. Even though someone is in a wheelchair they still have interests, preferences, hobbies, body language that’s understood, facial expressions that show their feelings, and most of all they have individual personalities. Their actions may be subtle, but they are very much aware of the world happening around them.”
Employees of MESD are welcome to drop by and meet the students of the Sensory High School classroom at Pathways. Music by Mark Skolnick in Mary’s class is on Wednesdays at 10:00am and music by Mark upstairs in the cafeteria is on Fridays at 1:00pm. Grab an instrument, pull up a chair, and sing with the students. “These children love interacting with people and these children are why we’re here.”
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