Hometown Hero

To be unable to talk or walk correctly, or to take care of oneself with the most simple and rudimentary skills is the everyday life of those who are developmentally disabled. Some were afflicted by polio. Others with Down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, and on down the list. And the difficulties of taking care of people so afflicted can be overwhelming, and some families, unable or unwilling to take care of them, opt to put them in the care of the state.

In the New York state Family Care program, people take persons with developmental disabilities into their homes and care for them in a family setting, as members of the family. Kay Abbott, in New York's Schoharie County is one of these family care providers.

Abbott became a family care provider about 26 years ago. She quickly learned that there were no social opportunities for the disabled in the community. To develop such opportunities, she organized what became known as the Friendship Club. The club consisted of a large number of developmentally disabled persons in the county, together with some volunteers who worked with them.

When the members of the Friendship Club wanted to have their very own Christmas pageant, Abbott approached the state Developmental Disabilities Services Office (DDSO) for permission to stage one. She was told it couldn't be done because of the limitations of the people she was working with, but permission to try was granted.

The show was an outstanding success. The cast consisted of 41 disabled people, ranging in age from their teens all the way up into their nineties. The show had an audience of more than 100 and was good enough to rate a big story in the Cobleskill Times Journal newspaper. This event took place in the early 1980s.

Later, the members of the Friendship Club wanted to participate in a parade in the Village of Schoharie. Once again, despite the DDSO's insistence that it couldn't be done, Abbott was given permission. Under Abbott's direction, Friendship Club members designed and built their own float using a wagon borrowed from a local farmer, and pulled the float in the parade with a borrowed tractor. The float won first prize.

Currently, the official title given to the developmentally disabled person by the state is "consumer." Every year for many years, Abbott, assisted by her husband, went around to the community residences run by the state and by the ARC (Association for Retarded Children) and picked up idle consumers. They brought them to their home, usually in groups of near 20 at a time, and gave them a record hop and dinner.

For nine years, Abbott brought a group of eight to her home every week. She taught them to act out stories for church. They also made gifts and took them to nursing homes for the patients. From this, they learned there were others whose lives and circumstances were not as fortunate as their own. It took six months to get this program started, but Abbott doesn't give up or go away.

Abbott has taken a number of consumers to places they lived after they were born, to answer their questions, "Where did I come from, and what is it like there?" On many holidays, she has transported consumers from community residences to her home for dinner. Once she entertained a group of 20 developmentally disabled senior citizens at her home for a spaghetti dinner. For years, on a weekly basis, as literacy volunteer, she has taught consumers how to read and write their names. She also taught a group of female consumers how to use cosmetics. The list goes on and on.

Kay Abbot never tires of helping and doing things for others, and she never turns down a person in need.

In a breakfast ceremony in Albany, New York, on May 7, 2004, co-hosted by Don Weeks of radio station WGY and television station WRGB, Kay Abbott was presented with the annual HOMETOWN HERO award given jointly by the North Eastern Chapter of the American Red Cross, and the two stations.

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