As part of our 50th Anniversary year, we will be sharing stories of the people we serve, staff and volunteers that have made Systems an amazing agency. This week we are telling the story of the Gorham family. Don Gorham began services in 1980 when he was thirty-two years old in Washington, IA. Prior to that, Don resided with his parents Mable and Gene until his father had a devastating stroke. As his brother Jim described it, this was a life altering time for the family. Mable needed to concentrate on their dad’s care so she made Jim Don’s guardian.
When Don was born, the doctor told Mable to send Don to a state institution and forget about him. She did the brave thing and decided to bring him home. The family did not have any resources to help care for Don. Schools did not educate kids with disabilities so the family was on their own. As Karen (Jim’s wife) described it, the institutions for kids with Down Syndrome were awful. They were put in rooms with no programming and many people with Down Syndrome did not live long. The family was determined that not be Don’s fate.
When Jim and Karen became responsible for his care, they looked to the only other service provider besides institutions to help them, Systems Unlimited. Jim was on the Systems Unlimited Board of Directors from 1980-1991. He served as Board President from 1983-1985. While on the board, he worked to get five of our HUD homes built in Washington, Williamsburg, Monticello and two in Iowa City. Karen was also an advocate for change and was very active with the local ARC organization. There were four families in the Washington area that had decided to keep their loved ones with them. They worked together to start WCDC which is an employment and day program service for people with disabilities in Washington. Through WCDC, Don was able to get a job.
When asked what the main struggle was when getting all of these things started, Jim talked about the attitudes from the community at the time. When looking to open a home in Washington, the County Board of Supervisors tried to pass a resolution that no one could stay in a group home for longer than three years. Jim hired a lawyer to come to the next meeting to talk about how that was illegal. It took a ten-minute conversation between Jim’s lawyer and the County Attorney General before the recommendation was to drop the resolution due to its illegality.
All of the original struggles has resulted in Don accomplishing a lot these past forty-one years of receiving services. He worked at his job for twenty-two years through WCDC until he retired. He has been an usher at the Presbyterian Church where people have been so welcoming to him. He was close to the local football team and would often wave hello to the kids on their way home from school.
Don is a swimmer and has competed in Special Olympics meets. He has traveled extensively and even got to swim with dolphins while on vacation in Florida. Don used to ride in airplanes to visit his brothers in Colorado Springs and Kansas for many years, until it was no longer safe for him to do so.
Mainly, Jim and Karen talked about how proud they are of Don and all of his accomplishments. They talked about how he continues to do what he can even though he is now seventy-two years old. They all enjoy going out to eat on Mondays together and hope to start doing that again soon. They also talked about how they cannot say enough good things about Systems Unlimited and the role the agency has played in making Don’s life a good one. They are thankful that even though we have grown so much, that they still feel there is a personal touch with his caring staff.
Honestly, we are the ones that are incredibly grateful to all the pioneers like the Gorhams that helped to form the foundation of this agency. After fifty years, Systems still has the belief of advocating for people to live their best lives possible. The spirit of our founding families makes us the agency we are today.
If you would like to share a story about how Systems services has impacted you or your family, please contact Jolene Sorenson at jolene.sorenson@sui.org.
