Wheelchair-Bound Boy, Aide Share Special Bond
Terry Booth’s wheelchair is wheelie-proof, rear supports mounted to keep the Westview fifth-grader grounded.
But he manages a mini-wheelie, tipping the rubber tires a couple of inches off the floor by leaning back. He smiles, the elfin grin of melancholy.
“This is not much,” he said, nodding toward his chair. “Your arms are like legs, the chair is like a body.”
In some ways, the small red wheelchair is a body for Booth. Stricken with a rare genetic illness that makes his bones brittle as an icicle, Booth walks only when floating in a hot tub.
He once had three broken bones at once - two legs and an arm. His marrow is so delicate that he once broke an arm tossing a ball. He’s had 10 surgeries.
At school, his fragility is protected, in part, by Jeanne Munch, an aide who has escorted Booth around Westview’s halls for more than five years.
She understands the awkward silence accompanying the wheelchair-bound, and sees students do such absurd things as pet Booth’s hair.
But she understands better now, after recently spending three months in a wheelchair because of foot surgery.
“I though I was always pretty sympathetic,” said Munch. “Then I was in a wheelchair.”
She spends about two hours a day with Booth, helping him through exercises, scouting for pitfalls, conditioning his independence, defusing his tension. A kind of mother-son relationship.
“He’s one of the neatest people I’ve ever met,” said Munch.
In a wheelchair, curbs are as intimidating as a movie star, stairs as insurmountable as a movie star’s ego. Booth copes with challenges by exploiting the advantages - hills.
“I like summer in a wheelchair,” said Booth.
His physical challenges stimulate his mental agility. Booth, 10, hopes to be a genetic bio-engineer, splicing genes to unwind the corkscrew mysteries bound in the DNA helix.
His own disability is genetic, but no relative suffers from it. His parents, Joe and Betsy, are bewildered by its source and guard their son carefully.
“Letting a kid go off to kindergarten is hard, but with Terry’s special needs, it was traumatic,” said Betsy Booth.
Having Munch around as surrogate mother “is stabilizing,” said Joe.
Booth’s also been a good influence on his peers, says Munch. They virtually ignore his disability now. A friend, fellow fifth-grader Andi Bogue, plays wheelchair basketball with Booth in one of his spare chairs.
A blind girl recently started at Westview. Munch thinks her good treatment is the result of Booth, his wheelchair and his positive attitude.
“He’s just been a great ambassador to the people at Westview,” said Munch.
Historic school election
Recent student body officer elections set history at one North Side high school. But then, pretty much everything concerning Mount Spokane High is historic.
Officers for the high school, to open next September, will be juniors, giving them the run of the building for two years. Seniors voted to stay together, at Mead High, next year.
Mount Spokane officers are Josh Cowart, president; Brian Perks, vice president; Kayla Hutchinson, secretary; Heather Stone, treasurer; Jon Ferrell, public relations.
At Mead High, Eric Stutzman was elected president, Angela Ciabattari vice president, Courtney Wilkerson secretary, Amina Ansari treasurer and Stacey Drollinger to the public relations post.
‘Voice of Democracy’ winners
Winners of the Nine Mile Falls Veterans of Foreign Wars “Voice of Democracy” essay contest:
Third grade winners (all from Lake Spokane Elementary): Corey Morrow, first place; Kyle Yuki second place; Tristan Anderson, third place.
Fourth grade: Joel Graham Nine Mile Falls Elementary, first place; Dalan Norman of Lake Spokane, second; Summer Halwas-Morgan of Nine Mile Falls, third.
Fifth grade (all from Lake Spokane Elementary): Chelsea McCarthy, first; Katie Salisbury, second; Shannon Knuth, third.
Sixth grade (all from Lake Spokane Elementary): Katelyn Rice, first; Karissa Hensley, second; Ashlie McLauchlin, third.
Deja Rice of Lakeside Middle School was the eighth grade winner.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo