“I love to inspire kids.” - Jessica
For Jessica, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital is her second home. Social and gregarious, Jessica knows just about everyone at the Hospital and Foundation. She loves to volunteer for the organization that has given her so much over the years.
Jessica especially loves to see the kids who come to Holland Bloorview as in-patients and those attending Bloorview School Authority. She enjoys playing wheelchair tennis and basketball with the kids.
“I find myself being a kid again when I play with them,” she says.
Jessica, who is 21 years old, first came to Holland Bloorview when she was a year old. She has cerebral palsy which affects her mobility and vision. After her hip and knee surgeries, she received orthopedic services, as well as therapy, at Holland Bloorview to improve her mobility.
For a time, Jessica could not get out of bed without assistance. While she started to use a walker at age four, her big breakthrough came when she was 10.
Rather than wait for her mother to help her to her walker, Jessica decided to do it on her own.
“I thought ‘OK, I’m going to try and get up and if I fall, I fall’, says Jessica. She had never stood up by herself until that point.
“Next thing I knew, I was up and at the walker,” she says. “Because of Holland Bloorview, I learned that I could actually get up and walk and not break myself.”
Holland Bloorview continued to foster her confidence when, at age 16, Jessica participated in its Skills for Transition Program. This experience-based program helps teens with disabilities learn life skills, such as using public transit and preparing meals. Teens develop skills using discussion, role playing, problem-solving, peer teaching and experiential learning techniques.
For her parents, David and Lynn, Skills for Transition was critical in helping Jessica lead an active and independent life.
Now Jessica dreams of becoming a Recreational Therapist. This role has many requirements. For Jessica, the primary one is compassion for the kids, which she has in abundance.
