Faces of Laradon: Grace’s Story

October 25, 2024

As we step into the season of gratitude, we are excited to launch our “Grateful & Thankful” series, celebrating the Faces of Laradon—our participants, staff, volunteers, and supporters who bring life to our mission every day. Throughout November, we’ll be sharing stories that highlight the unique contributions and inspiring journeys of those who make Laradon a true community of inclusion and compassion. From overcoming challenges to achieving dreams, these stories are a reminder of the strength in unity and the power of gratitude. Join us each week as we honor the individuals who embody Laradon’s spirit of resilience, dedication, and heart.

Inside the halls of Laradon there is a room that is freckled with vibrant sports equipment— life-sized building blocks, balls, rackets, and more.

In the middle of it all is Grace, the Laradon school’s energetic P.E. coach. Dressed in running shoes and workout clothes, she moves around the space, carefully setting up the equipment for her next class. She’s not just preparing the room, but is transforming it into an engaging and active environment for the students

Grace has been with Laradon almost for a year. Coming from Minnesota, her background is deeply rooted with the Intellectual Developmental Disabilities (IDD) community. Grace’s training helped her understand the importance of physical education for those within the IDD community.

From Pokémon Go to riding a bike, Grace’s motto is as long as you’re moving physically and can get blood pumping through your body, her students can be successful physically.

“P.E. is hugely important for physical movement. It’s so important to present different ways for P.E. to be fun to our students,” Grace shares.
Within the gym, Grace works with each student’s unique physical and mental needs to make P.E. more enjoyable. An example she gave was racquetball, where they use different equipment for each student.
“With different physical abilities you can use different tools like smaller lighter rackets or heavier ones. You can help the students a lot more with like one-on-one support where you’re helping facilitate their bodies through the movements,” Grace emphasizes.

Through these movements, students learn physical activity can be fun and enjoyable.

Each student at the Laradon school has an individualized education program staff members and Grace follow.

Within that plan, P.E. can be listed as a requirement to reach a student’s specific goals. Those goals can include anything involving P.E., whether that includes being active for five minutes or the entire blocked off P.E. period.

Understanding these specific behaviors allows everyone, especially the students, to have a more positive experience within each P.E. class.

“Maybe there’s a student who is super sensitive to light and the gym has the giant light across the whole ceiling. Maybe it’s been a struggle working with that student. You can go and say, ‘Hey I am having trouble engaging with this with this student what do we think?’ Then that staff can provide, ‘Hey so they’re actually really sensitive to light maybe if we dim one of those lights,” explains Grace.

Grace’s expertise with P.E. has been instrumental for Laradon School Students. Her long-term goals are to get the students out in the community more during her P.E. classes, like going to the rec center or being a part of Special Olympics. She believes that there are so many opportunities out in the world for those apart of the IDD community to stay active that don’t necessarily happen in a gym. This can broaden a student’s understanding of activities and possibilities outside of P.E. classes.

We want to thank Grace for all the hard work she puts into our students. Grace’s push for physical movement has emotionally moved the Laradon community. We are thankful for the continued hard work she has and plans to do.

Written by: Laradon’s Communications Coordinator Parker Gordon