History lesson
Who are the DeBolts? And where did they get 19 kids?
This question was answered by the Academy Award winning documentary of the same name in 1977. It was answered again in 2013 for about 77 seventh grade students in teacher Wayne Luellen’s reading in the content area classes at Houston Middle School.
Sunee DeBolt, one of those 19 kids, told the seventh graders, “My mother, Dorothy, and her late husband, Ted, after having five biological children, adopted two Korean orphans, Kim and Marty. As a widow, she adopted two Vietnamese war-wounded boys, Tich and Ahn. She met and married my father, Robert DeBolt, who had one daughter, Doni, from a previous marriage. They adopted me in 1972 and the family grew from there.”
Reynaldo, adopted around 1981, was the last child added to the De- Bolt clan. His addition, as presented in the follow-up documentary, “Steppin’ Out: The DeBolt’s Grow Up,” actually brought the total to 20 kids. What makes the DeBolt story even more compelling is that many of the adopted kids were handicapped.
In his search for nonfiction literature for his class, Luellen found a biographical excerpt “Nineteen Steps Up the Mountain” about Sunee from Joseph Blank’s 1976 book “Nineteen Steps Up the Mountain: The Story of the Debolt Family” which inspired the documentary. This excerpt reveals that Sun Hee, which was shortened to Sunee, was the first child that Bob and Dorothy DeBolt adopted together after their honeymoon.
After reading a biographical excerpt with his students, Luellen discovered the documentaries on DVD. The films introduced the entire DeBolt clan to the students. Through the documentaries, the students also learned about AASK, Adopt A Special Kid, the agency started by Dorothy and Bob DeBolt in 1973. Still running strong, AASK is now helmed by executive director Doni DeBolt. In 40 years, AASK has aided in the adoption of 3,400 special needs kids.
Luellen contacted Sunee online and was surprised and pleased to get a call from her. Sunee told him that she didn’t think anyone remembered or cared about the DeBolts anymore. Luellen assured her that 77 kids cared. Sunee and Luellen set up a series of conference calls between her and his classes. The timing was also poignant as Dorothy DeBolt had passed away just a few months earlier.
One of her favorite memories growing up was a trip with her parents and her sister Karen to Las Vegas to meet Elvis who donated memorabilia to be auctioned to aid AASK. Unfortunately, Elvis was unable to meet with the sisters, but he did send each girl an autographed, stuffed hound dog making Sunee a lifelong Elvis fan. Luellen’s classes sent Sunee an HMS Mustang shirt and Elvis souvenirs from Graceland as a thank you. Nicole Kloek is the Houston Middle School PTA publicity chairwoman.