Helping special needs families defined twins, changed lives
When twin sisters Lauren Specht and Melissa Peterson were 15 years old, they committed to join their church youth group to volunteer with a dance class for special needs children and adults. They had no idea how much the experience would alter their lives.
Every Monday, the girls helped the dancers learn their choreography and put on two shows per year each spring and during the holiday season.
More than a decade later, the sisters, now 28, are still in contact with many of the families they met during that volunteer project.
“That really defined us,” Specht said. “I knew when I got involved that this was my passion. I knew when I went to college I would focus on a special education major. This is what we were meant to be doing.”
Specht is an applied behavior analyst working with school children in Meridian, Mississippi, where her husband is stationed. Peterson is a zookeeper at Memphis Zoo. The two also run a nonprofit that teaches communities how to work with children and adults with special needs.
The nonprofit, Exceptional Connections International, brought them to a community in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2016 to teach educators and community members.
“There were so many families we got to meet, so many families the partners didn’t even know existed,” Peterson said. “All these parents came together to support each other... We helped them see they’re not alone.”
They have already started to work with community groups in other countries in Africa and Central America to plan future trips.
Memphis roots
Despite their global aspirations, it’s the Memphis community where their roots still inspire them.
After graduating high school, the sisters wanted to do something new for the special needs community. They decided on creating a week-long summer camp.
At the time, most of the summer camps that existed were often prohibitively expensive, focused on children, excluding special needs adults, and required attendees to be able to go to the bathroom on their own and feed themselves.
They wanted to create something that was free for parents and served a wider segment of the community regardless of age or ability.
They held their first camp the summer after graduating high school and continued each summer as a two-week camp while they were students at the University of Memphis with 25 to 30 attendees and a staff of volunteers.
“We were graduating high school and all these parents trusted us with their children,” Specht said. “It was amazing.”
By the time they graduated college and started working, it was difficult to continue the camp but they had already helped change the landscape, and several other groups had created camps that served a larger portion of the special needs community.
Most recently, the sisters held their first 5K race at Shelby Farms in September to benefit Exceptional Connections International. Specht said they wanted to manage their expectations for the event and were hoping to get about 50 participants. That would mean breaking even on the cost to host the race.
But by race day, they had 215 runners and had raised $6,000 to help fund the operations for the nonprofit. It will help them get a website up and fund futures trips at no cost to the communities they want to help.
“It was very successful,” Specht said. “There are hard days. To know that we have that support is encouraging.”
The sisters hope to make their 5K an annual event.
Desiree Stennett can be reached at desiree.stennett@commercialappeal. com, 901-529-2738 or on Twitter: @desi_stennett.