Posted on April 12, 2007
As Marlena Jarboe sat in her hospital room, weak from the Cesarean section she underwent hours earlier, she was not surprised that the daughter she held tested positive for Down’s syndrome.
Jarboe had taken prenatal vitamins for a year before her pregnancy and had routinely visited her OB/GYN, yet at 16 weeks her alpha fetal protein test came back positive, indicating that the child she had already named Tori was at risk of developing a disability.
After the birth, Jarboe and her husband, Spencer, searched for support in the Harrisonburg community. While medical resources were abundant, there was no place for them to get the emotional backing they needed.
“The doctors had wonderful book smarts, but the difference between reading [medical jargon] and talking to someone is like the difference between talking to your girlfriend on the phone and going on a date,” Spencer said.
Two years later and out of options, the Jarboes did the one thing they had yet to try: they created a program themselves.
And so began WINGS, a Christian-based non-profit organization that offers support for parents of children with special needs. The group meets once a week to feature guest speakers knowledgeable on mental heath and provide time for parents to share their stories with one another.
The program has grown significantly in the three years since it opened and is currently 75 families strong. As WINGS is financed through donations, its influence depends heavily on student and family volunteers.
“We wanted to pass information on to parents so they didn’t have to go through what we went through,” Jarboe said. “We try to educate parents on all the options they have for their children.”
One option for parents is Precious Time, a program designed by WINGS in collaboration with the JMU nursing department. Cathy Webb, a faculty member in the school of nursing, created the program three semesters ago in an effort to help busy parents.
As children with special needs often require close supervision and care, it can be hard for the parents to find good help. Under Precious Time, parents are assigned two junior JMU nursing students who volunteer 18 hours each semester to help clean house, watch children and prepare meals.
“It’s a win-win situation,” Webb said. “The students get a chance to work with children of special needs while parents get some much-needed rest.”
Karen Casey-Winton, a 43-year-old student studying special education in the adult degree program at JMU, is both a Precious Time family member as well as a WINGS volunteer. Casey-Winton joined WINGS after her 5-year-old son, Donnie, tested positive for Down’s syndrome, and became a Precious Times member shortly after. Busy with work and school, she knows the hard work it takes to raise a child with special needs and enjoys the time she can spend talking with others who are undergoing the same struggles.
“Some people have a hard time coping,” she said, adding that it’s nice to be able to talk about life’s obstacles without a child pulling at her legs.
Thanks to the donations of parents and companies across the community, the group is also able provide financial aid for families with great medical expenses. When a WINGS child is undergoing treatment, the group can sometimes offer aid for hospital visits, hotels, eating out and other related costs. With so much support, parents can concentrate on their children instead of the cost.
“We’re there to lift each other up,” said Jarboe. “That’s what wings do.”
