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5/6/2021

Celebrating Mom! Easterseals former Ambassador Carolyn McGahan shares a loving tribute to the Advocate Mom that pushed her to always reach for the stars

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Carolyn (Harris) McGahan represented Easterseals publicly twice, as a child Ambassador for Easterseals in 1974, and an adult Ambassador in Walk With Me Daytona 2016! For Carolyn, early intervention as a child was important, and later she earned a Master's degree and has enjoyed a long career with our friends at the Conklin Davis Center for the Blind and the Florida Rehab Center for the Blind. This woman is impressive! But, what Carolyn wants people to know is that her lifelong drive and determination was instilled in her from an early age from her Mom, Carolyn Harris. Ms. Harris passed away in 2020, just a few short weeks before her daughter was hoping to impress her by going Over the Edge At ONE DAYTONA as one of Easterseals champion Edgers.

Carolyn desires to pay tribute to her Mom, but also to inspire other Moms to never give up on helping your child - of any ability - to reach for their dreams and to always feel confident that Mom is your biggest cheerleader.

Carolyn shared with us some words that she offered at her Mom's Celebration of Life this past winter.

Thank you for coming to celebrate my mom’s life and for all your love and support.
As you all know, my mom was a kind, caring, compassionate, sensitive and non judgmental person.
She was athletic, competitive, creative, and spiritual
Although my mom just attended one semester of college and held entry level work as a single mom, she had amazing instincts and perspective raising her only child with a disability. She didn’t have a practice run on a "typical kid."
The best way to honor her and to offer you a window into her character is to tell stories from my upbringing. She had a unconventional approach to OT and PT.
When I was born, her best friend had a brother with CP and simply advised my mom to not “baby” me and make sure I did as much as possible on my own.
As a toddler, my mom described instances in which I would whine to look out the window behind the couch. Instead of picking me up, she gently said if you want to look out the window, you need to climb on the couch (she wonders why I was adventurous my whole life).
Before my dad left, I was riding my tricycle and tipped over. I started to cry. My dad gave her the business for not rushing over to pick me up. She set him straight. “if she wants to ride a bike, I won’t always be there when she falls. She has to figure out how to get up”.
At a young age, my mom realized only my muscles and motor skills were affected, my cognitive skills were strong. She started teaching me aspects of pinnacle and the names/moves of chess pieces at age 2.
My mom frequently took me to the beach to “play” in the sand and ocean. Her theory was if I could stand up and balance in the current, what better PT was there.
By the time I was 5, I was mainstreamed into first grade pre IEP. With her advocacy and my will, I had to figure out how to keep up.
At age 6, it was time for me to learn to ride a bike without training wheels. My mom tried all day going up and down the street but could not let go of my seat. She sat me down and explained if I wanted to learn to ride the bike, I’d have to work through it myself. She said “I just can’t let go”. The next day she returned from work and I was cruising the street on my bike with confidence.
At age 8, we had to run a obstacle course in PE. My teacher called my mom because I didn’t want to climb the wood wall. After work, she took me to school to meet the teacher. We approached the wall. She said “Do you want to climb that wall”? I made the mistake to say “yes, but I’m scared”. If I said “no”, that would have been the end of it. My mom said ok let’s climb that wall. She climbed on the opposite side and coached me up and over. I always had choices but can’t or afraid wasn’t gonna cut it.
Age 10, I had a savings account and would ride my bike to the bank drive through to deposit small amounts of allowance or earnings from odd neighborhood jobs. As a result all my life I’ve been great with budgeting and finances. Since we were poor, if I wanted something I had to work.
Age 13, I asked my mom for a motorcycle. Instead of saying No Way! She said I’ll get a small one and we will work on teaching you. I learned on the beach and baseball field. For years she looked for reasons to deny my request to drive it to the store and school. She followed me for months and couldn’t find a reason why it was more risky for me than any other teenager. Soon I was riding everywhere.
On grocery days throughout my childhood, I would take cans from the bag and throw them to her to put away. Then she would throw soft or light packages to me to put away. Humm Hand eye coordination practice.
I often joked and asked my mom if she realized she had a kid with CP. Some of the toys she bought me: pick up sticks, operation, pogo stick, roller skates. No wonder I don’t see barriers.
As my mom’s health declined - I was still joking and giving her the business. I said “even in your final days, you are still screwing with my fine motor” as I figured out how to feed her, give her drinks, draw liquid morphine in a syringe, and empty a catheter (yikes!).
I am the strong, educated, proactive, confident and successful person because of who my mom was and her impact on the community.

Carolyn, you had the best Easterseals Mom! You can ensure that children at Easterseals TODAY can still receive advocacy, treatment, intervention, services and support by donating today in honor of Carolyn's Mom.

1974- Carolyn as Ambassador. Great smile!

Easterseals graduation 1974

Rappelling - just because!

Rappelling 102 feet in 2020 for Easterseals and The NASCAR Foundation!

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5/3/2021

Meet Gabriella Goeke, M.S., CCC-SLP, Easterseals Speech-Language Pathologist

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Gabriella Goeke, M.S., CCC-SLP

My name is Gabriella Goeke and I have been a speech language pathologist with Easterseals for two and a half years. I service clients in our Easterseals charter school and work in the Autism Center of Excellence. I provide evaluations as a part of a multi disciplinary team. I supervise our speech therapists during their clinical fellowship as well as provide resources for our classroom teachers, staff and clients.

I enjoy the opportunity to educate and guide families through the assessment process. Working as a part of the multi disciplinary team allows me to see the child as a whole while giving valuable input regarding a child’s speech and language development. I believe when a child has a comprehensive evaluation, the parent can receive all evaluations for every area of development in one place which in turn saves them valuable time.

I feel that everyday my skills as a speech language pathologist grow tremendously through continuing education and my everyday experiences in our Autism Center of Excellence and Charter School. I have received extensive training in the areas of articulation, language, feeding and oral motor therapies. I also learn so much from my clients and their families. As I educate them, they educate me as well and help me grow as a therapist.

As a “speech therapist” most people think that I only work on helping children pronounce sounds/words. However, I am a speech-language pathologist and I do work on helping a child pronounce their sounds as well as supporting language development.

When people think about Easterseals, I hope they think we are a place they can turn to in a time of need and uncertainty to gain answers and guidance regarding their child. I love my job as a speech language pathologist and I love coming to work everyday knowing that I am making a difference in helping children find their voice.

One last thing I would say to parents, guardians and caregivers...Early intervention is key! If you have any uncertainty about the development of your child, don’t wait! We are here to help you and the earlier the better.

You can reach Gabriella through Easterseals Specialty Clinic at 386-944-7800 or email ggoeke@esnecfl.org.

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Celebrating Mom! Easterseals former Ambassador Carolyn McGahan shares a loving tribute to the Advocate Mom that pushed her to always reach for the stars

Meet Gabriella Goeke, M.S., CCC-SLP, Easterseals Speech-Language Pathologist

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