At your Y, Jack is part of something special
Katie and Jack* are a superstar mother-son duo.
Jack, 22, has a huge, bright smile, an excellent memory and an intense love for social interactions. His mom Katie is fiercely supportive of her son and his abilities and is the best combination of positive and realistic. They are a dynamic team.
“We had a lot of specialists tell us what he wouldn’t be able to do,” says Katie, recalling Jack’s childhood. “He has physical limitations and intellectual limitations but that is all they are: limitations.”
Jack was diagnosed with an unspecified intellectual disability when he was a toddler. He learned to cope with seizures and overcome a speech impairment and low muscle tone.
Katie’s support meant that he learned to talk, even though he didn’t say his first words until he was 7. He learned to walk and build strength in his muscles, even though the low muscle tone meant he didn’t walk until almost 19 months old. Jack learned to say his sister’s name, despite specialists telling Katie he would not be able to enunciate difficult sounds.
“I was told, “He may never be able to say her name properly’,” Katie recalls. “I would get upset and think, ‘Don’t tell me he is not going to walk around and say his sister’s name!’”
Katie’s determination and focus on what Jack could accomplish set the stage for a remarkable young adulthood. Jack continued to push himself and extend his abilities far beyond what was expected of him.
In addition to finding his place in school, Jack found a comfortable place to workout consistently at the Y. He built up his endurance on the treadmill and rowing machine from 12 minutes to 30 minutes. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, he came to the Y three times a week and rewarded his hard work with a soak in the hot tub.
In May 2020, Jack graduated from a local program that taught independent living skills and offered community vocational experiences. Graduation was in the midst of Oregon’s closures due to COVID-19. For someone as social as Jack, not having the opportunity to graduate in an in-person ceremony was anticlimactic.
“I’m a people person,” he says, smiling.
It’s true: He is joyful, interested in other people and excited to interact with others.
“One of the places he could come and feel part of the community is the Y,” says Katie. “It’s really important for him and it feels like he is part of something special.”
Jack’s godmother, Christina, says that Jack was often dismissed when out in the community.
“That doesn’t happen at the Y because the Y has a membership culture that is safe, kind, warm and inviting,” she says. “That’s Jack—and these are his people.”
*At the Eugene Family YMCA, we respect everyone, particularly the most vulnerable in our population. So while this story is true, their names have been changed to protect their privacy. Thank you for understanding.
