NEWS

Granville woman broke barriers for those with disabilities

Maria DeVito
Reporter

GRANVILLE- Sarah Burkett has the kind of smile that makes you smile right back.

She radiates warmth and happiness.

And even though Sarah's life isn't always easy, her positive attitude remains steady.

"Whenever I see a problem ... I figure out what to do and that’s how I try to stay positive," she said.

Sarah, 31, has Down syndrome, but she doesn't let it stop her from living her life. And as Sarah grew up, her parents, Patti and Tom Burkett, advocated for Sarah's needs which led to change not only for her, but others with developmental disabilities in Licking County.

She loves doing all kinds of crafts, especially painting and drawing, and writing scripts for Nickelodeon shows. She's involved in her church and enjoys giving back to the community.

"It’s hard to put into words exactly, but she brings something to every circumstance," her mother Patti Burkett said.

Sarah is kind as well as intuitive and emphatic.

"If somebody’s upset or hurt or needs something, she almost has like a sixth sense about that and she’s isn’t inhibited about reaching out to that person," Patti said.

Sarah has persevered to master skills and do activities that parents never would had guessed she do. She played string bass in the high school orchestra and took French in middle school.

Sarah also loves theater. On a family vacation to England in 2000, Sarah, Patti, Sarah's father Tom and her two sisters saw one of William Shakespeare's tragic plays.

Sarah Burkett rests her head on her sister Anna's shoulder while singing "A Companion on the Road" at the close of a Sunday service at United Church of Granville. The two sisters were more tired than usual during service after the daylight saving time change.

"I believe she understood what was going on better than I did. I truly do," Patti said. "I got kind of bored and thought I have no idea what’s going on here and … I don’t know that she understood the words more, but she got the message of it better than I did."

Sarah's diverse interests and abilities make her parents proud.

"They end up being kind of wonderful and exciting because they weren’t guaranteed," Patti said. "You didn’t know for sure what you were going to get."

Challenging the norm

Getting a diagnosis like Down syndrome, Patti said, takes away the image a parent has of how their child will grow up.

"I think with all your kids you tend to have this sort of glorified view of maybe they’ll be President of United States or maybe they’ll be the first woman to the moon," Patti said. "What happens with your other kids is typically those things get taken away bit by bit. When she was born, it was more like all of that was taken away because we had no idea what to expect and then we had to build back from there," she said.

And that's what they did.

When Sarah was going through school, kids with developmental disabilities usually didn't attend their normal school district. Kids went to a classroom specifically for students with those disabilities. Even though Sarah lived in Granville, she went to Heath for kindergarten.

Sarah Burkett and boyfriend Jordan Boring eat lunch together during a break in Dine and Dash service at First Presbyterian Church in Newark. The two meet through the program.

But Granville was the community the Burketts chose to live. Tom had grown up in Granville and was a teacher in the district. That's where they wanted her to attend. It was also upsetting to the Burketts that Sarah wouldn't go to school in the same district as her two younger sisters, Maggie and Anna.

"What we were hoping for her to do was grow up and be a full member of society," Patti said. "To be in a self-contained classroom where she wasn’t learning how to be with her peers and with people that are not disabled wasn’t going to be preparing her to be a full member of the community."

The Burketts had heard of the inclusion model, a technique that places kids with developmental disabilities in a regular classroom. The model was gaining popularity in other places in the country, but had not been implemented in Licking County.

The Burketts went to the school district and worked with them to get Sarah into a regular classroom because they thought it would be better for her development.

School is one of the first places people learn how to be members of society, Patti said. It's where people learn communication and friendship skills in addition to academics.

Associate director for the Alford Center Susie Kalinoski gets out volunteer t-shirts as Sarah Burkett organizes the shirts by size for an upcoming event while working at Denison University in Granville. Sarah works for the Campus Leadership and Involvement Center at Denison.

"All of those things, if you’re in an overly protective experience then you don’t have a chance to learn those skills," Patti said. "What we felt like was in her case is she needed more practice at that than less."

Sarah was the first person in Granville schools to have a developmental disability and be in a regular classroom.

"She was kind of on the front edge of that wave of students who got to do that," she said.

The district embraced it and other students with disabilities in Sarah's grade opted to be in the regular classroom as well, but every year Sarah was the first person with developmental disabilities any teacher had ever taught. It required educating Sarah's teachers as well.

Sarah faced struggles in school, but overall the experience worked out well.

Patti said the family had a goal that Sarah would have job after she finished school, but she graduated during the Great Recession. Despite looking for jobs for about two years, nothing ever came from Sarah's persistent efforts.

However, Sarah has found her place with different groups in the county.

"She is known and loved in all of those places," Patti said.

Staying active

Sarah's life is packed with different activities. She spends a few days a week in Granville with SPARK, which offers a variety of activities and vocational programs for people with developmental disabilities around central Ohio. She does crafts, learns to cook, takes field trips and more.

Through SPARK, Sarah and her longtime boyfriend Jordan Boring, who also has Down syndrome, participate in Dine and Dash, which provides a free, hot lunch each Tuesday at the First Presbyterian Church on North Third Street to anyone in the community. SPARK members prepare the food, set the table and handle clean up.

Sarah Burkett with herboyfriend Jordan Boring during a break in Dine and Dash service at First Presbyterian Church in Newark. The two meet through the program.

"I like to work here because it makes people happy," Sarah said.

Sarah can also be seen working out on the weight lifting machines or stationary bike at the Licking County Family YMCA with her service provider Lauren Cummerlander one or two days a week.

Cummerlander also goes with Sarah and Boring on dates to movies, restaurants and wherever else Sarah and Boring feel like doing.

Sarah works on Fridays at Denison University. Her boss, Susie Kalinoski, associate director of the Alford Center at Denison University, said Sarah helps the staff plan major events at the university by making posters, organizing crafts, typing up lists and going shopping with Kalinoski for event supplies.

Kalinoski said everyone loves Sarah and very little upsets her.

"You can be really stressed out with your day and Sarah will invariably notice something like 'isn’t the grass pretty with frost on it,' " she said.

Impacting others

While there is no set model for how a person with disabilities should live his or her life, Jason Umstot, Superintendent of the Licking County Board of Developmental Disabilities, said the goal is for each person to live the best life he or she can live.

"Everyone’s outcomes in what they want in life is different and it’s all based upon what they’re interests are," Umstot said. "We just listen and then we react based upon that."

Patti wishes there had been more support for Sarah as she transitioned from high school to adulthood to help her get a job and prepare for the next phase of her life.

And now there is. Umstot said since 2013 transitional teams work with students with developmental disabilities at every high school in the county to help them prepare for life after school.

Umstot said that team exists because of parents like Patti and Tom who have continued to push for change.

"All this change happened not because of county boards alone, it was about the individuals we’re supporting and parents and advocates and providers and county boards all together really driving these initiatives, which change policy," he said. "That’s what gets stuff done."

The developmental disabilities advocacy community just wants people with disabilities to be included with everyone else. They don't want people hidden in day programs or workshops, but members of the community as a whole.

"When you segregate people, then you label the disability," Umstot said. "Then the outside community then focuses on the disability not the strength and skills that people have."

What does Sarah want people to know about her?

"That I’m kind of leading a wonderful life."

mdevito@gannett.com

740-328-8513

Twitter: @MariaDeVito13