Howard Hampton "Hamp" Rasco was born in November of 1973; he was a long, scrawny baby weighing barely four pounds; he could not suck a bottle and his parents were told he would probably be in the intensive care nursery there at St. Vincent Infirmary for several months. From the beginning, Hamp was a fighter: within a week he pulled the tubes from his nose and mouth (accidentally of course), and he was quickly sucking a bottle! At the end of three weeks his parents were called to come take him home to celebrate Christmas!
Hamp was diagnosed within that first year with cerebral palsy and moderate brain damage; the family began the journey with wonderful guidance and education from his pediatrician, neurologist and orthopedic surgeons the journey to do all that could be done to help Hamp develop to the fullest of his ability. There were no Infant Intervention Programs available to us at that point...but as the family started reaching out to organizations to assist Hamp they learned of a new facility based program coupled with home visitation in North Little Rock that accepted Hamp; and a couple of years later Hamp entered the new Easterseals Infant Intervention Program initiated in Little Rock under the leadership of former Executive Director Jim Butler. For 49 years now Hamp has progressed through the various programs at Easterseals even while in the Little Rock Public Schools as his school therapists were Easterseals-based. At each level of public school the Little Rock Public School District was initiating innovative programming where teachers had Hamp well prepared to go to work after graduating with a Certificate of Attendance from Hall High School where he gave a graduation speech at the request of the Student Council Officers!
In 1982 Hamp was the Poster Child for Easterseals and thoroughly enjoyed going to events and giving little "speeches" about Easterseals and flashing his big smile. Similarly, he relished appearing for several years on the annual Telethon for the organization; he formed ongoing friendships with telethon hosts Tom Bonner and Craig O'Neill that continue today.
In the second semester of his senior year in high school Hamp moved to Easterseals Butler Adult Living Center (named after Jim Butler, the person who first welcomed the Rasco family to Easterseals) to start the transition to the world of work following graduation; he continues to reside there today. He worked in state government primarily in the mail rooms at the Department of Health and at the Department of Human Services where he delivered the mail office to office. Hamp has always had a winning smile and outgoing personality that attracts people to conversations with him and he loved the social interaction the job afforded him! In "retirement" Hamp now attends daily the Easterseals Center for Training and Wellness (CTW).
Hamp has been active at his church, First United Methodist of Little Rock, and he has many friends young and old from the church who stay in touch with him. One of the best gifts that entered Hamp's life was Michael Hargett who actually started in the early intervention program with Hamp due to physical disability; they remained friends and after Michael graduated from college and returned to Little Rock he started work as a teacher at the Children's Rehabilitation Rehabilitation (CRC), and the two gentlemen became reacquainted out in the Easterseals parking lot. They now have a weekly pizza supper and see a movie. Hamp is a proud Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International which was awarded by Club 99 in Little Rock.
Hamp has been honored by the American Speech Hearing Association at their annual honors gala in Washington, DC; then he and his mother were invited to make a joint presentation at the organization's Annual Convention plenary session on his 21st birthday talking about Hamp's journey from non-verbal to quite verbal and his educational and work experiences. In meeting Hamp earlier the organization had wondered if he would agree to miss school/work for the convention session; he let them know he would gladly come to New Orleans on his 21st birthday!
Hamp loves people, and he has touched the lives of many. Family and friends continue to learn from him and his friends at Easterseals about the enormous capabilities of people with disabilities. Hamp's parents give large credit for Hamp's successes to Easterseals Arkansas - the administrators, teachers, therapists and staff - for the incredible foresight and energy expended on the programming provided.
In memory of Andrew Kilgore:
