Caroline Thomas was addicted to cocaine and alcohol at birth. At the age of 5, she was diagnosed with brain cancer.
“She’s my miracle girl,” Mabel Menadier-Thomas said of Thomas, her adopted daughter.
Now as a young adolescent, Thomas is able to attend school, and Menadier-Thomas said she is an incredibly outgoing individual. During the Friends for Inclusive Sport Halloween scavenger hunt on Sunday, Thomas continuously talked with FIS volunteers about Spongebob, shopping and the scavenger hunt. Yet Thomas doesn’t always get social opportunities such as this.
Menadier-Thomas also has a son who is on the autism spectrum, and she has seen first-hand how her children are ostracized because they are different.
“They are the kids who don’t get invited, the kids who don’t get included,” Menadier-Thomas said.
She said she believes FIS is important because it reaches out to young adults like Thomas and make them feel included. Menadier-Thomas said the scavenger hunt gave Thomas a chance to make a social connection outside of school, and the community could do a lot more to reach out to others like her.
That is exactly what FIS is striving to do. Special education senior Meggie Meter , the founder of the group, said FIS seeks to bring communities of all abilities together through physical activity to promote physical and social growth. The long-term goal is to raise funds for a big event at the end of the year, but for the short term, FIS will be hosting “mini” events such as the Halloween scavenger hunt.
Graduate student Ricky Price , the director for Camp PALS, a summer camp for kids with Down syndrome, came up with the idea for FIS and contacted the Capital Area Down Syndrome Association to get it started.
Meter, who interns at CADSA, said she bonded with Price over their love of people. Meter said that she and every member of FIS care about affecting even just one individual.
“I don’t want to change statistics, I want to change lives,” Meter said.
She said she believes that everybody deserves to reach their highest potential, whether they have a disability or not.
“We’re afraid to push kids because we’re afraid they’re soft,” Meter said. “But you’ll never know what someone can do until you give them the chance to do it.”
Meter’s first experience with special needs was as a counselor at a YMCA summer camp. A young child was floating in an inner tube on a hot day and no one could get him out. When Meter saw his fascination with her freckles, she told him he could count a freckle for every step he took.
This is why Meter believes it doesn’t take a special person to work with special needs.
“It’s the kid that is special, and they deserve someone who just has a little more patience,” Meter said.
FIS secretary and microbiology junior Sarah Mourtada said she likes the idea of keeping kids, with or without disabilities, active.
“If I’m going to get involved in a club I’d rather it be one that helps the community as well as MSU,” Mourtada said.
FIS will kick off their fundraising with a fundraiser this Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Tropical Smoothie, followed by another from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Nov. 19 at Firehouse Subs.
