Feast your eyes upon the OG-the runway famous (and occasionally infamous) Al Hunt! Al is pretty like his mother, and outgoing like his mother-he's also stubborn and dramatic like his mother! He has modelled in every Fashion Event since its original-almost twenty years ago-held in a tent, in a local parking lot!
Therapists from Easterseals Arkansas (ESA) started coming to our house and working with Al shortly after his birth, and diagnosis with Down syndrome, as part of ESA's High-Risk Infant Monitoring Program. He started attending ESA's Developmental Preschool and outpatient therapy about six months later, and has continuously received occupational, physical, and/or speech therapy from ESA since. He attended ESA's Academy, and now participates in the new ESA young adult program, Phase 2, where he is busy learning vocational and independent living skills. We also utilize ESA as our waiver service provider for Al's direct support services-he has an awesome (and much cooler than Mom & Dad) direct support person assigned to help him independently manage daily living and social activities. Al very much wants to enroll in ESA's ACCE program at UALR, and move into his own place-perhaps through ESA's Roommate Housing. In all, we've been involved with ESA since the first month after Al's birth-now over 23 years!
Part of the joy of new parenthood is the hope of unlimited possibilities for our babies-the involuntary and unbounded dreaming of what might be. Part of the grief over life-altering diagnoses (such as Down syndrome, autism, or cerebral palsy) in our loved ones is the sense of loss for those unlimited possibilities-an involuntary stripping away of hope. We were fortunate that the teams of therapists and teachers at ESA encouraged us to hope again-and then helped us rebuild our hope through Al's successes. Then, the more involved we became in the organization, the more we learned that Al's story, our story, is only one of thousands of similar stories in Arkansas-stories of rebuilding, of re-hoping, families through the amazing educational, therapy, habilitation and rehabilitation, housing, and direct support services offered by ESA.
Al, like his peers-like the other ESA models you'll see on the runway-seems to carry mountains of courage and oceans of determination as easily as most of us carry peanut butter in our lunchboxes. Also like so many of his peers, he is determined to learn new things, to build new skills, to be more independent-and to be more engaged in community and community service. Al is a living master class in courage, hard work, and yes...hope. It's okay to stand up and cheer when you see him-and his peers-on stage. He is, after all, the OG runway rockstar...just ask him!