The SAU Buzz

Issue date: 12/4/08 Section: News

Media Credit: submitted The Grys house under construction.

Angie DeLost used her knowledge gained from St. Ambrose to enrich the lives of others. DeLost is a 1998 grad of SAU's Occupational Therapy Program. She worked with ABC to get her client's family chosen for Extreme Home Makeover. Her client is the Grys, a family of a boy she helps through her job at Easter Seals in Peoria. Angie worked with ABC for three years to help out this family. Her persistence paid off as the family's home went under construction in Pekin, IL.
DeLost played a big part in the dream come true for the Grys family. She supervised the home modification, did the fundraising, gave the speech and led the team down the street to begin demolition. Using her role as an OT, Angie provided all of the environmental modification recommendations used by the builders to suit this family's needs.
Jake, the 8-year-old boy Angie serves, has Osteogenesis Imperfecta and Dwarfism.

"The boy has never been able to wash his hands by himself," said Phyllis Wenthe, DeLost's professor at SAU. "He was so excited about the shorter sink for him. He washed his hands ten times the first night."
Jake's class from school came to see the home unveiled. His father coaches a Special Olympics team, who also came to the site. The Grys family has also hosted 300 foster kids.

Phyllis Wenthe and seven MOT students went to the "Move That Bus" revealing of the home on Tuesday, November 4. Two students, Meghan Barnett and Trista Hoover, went down to volunteer with the house for a weekend. They weren't able to help with the house because there were already so many volunteers, but they were able to raise money at a Pekin community grocery store to help pay for the family's existing mortgage. Barnett and Hoover also went to the revealing of the home on Tuesday.

"We arrived at 7:30 to the house and were there until 5:30 that night," Hoover said.
"It was ten hours of standing in the bitter cold, but completely worth it. It is amazing to know that an occupational therapist started the entire process and that she graduated from Ambrose.

"This was a great experience to be a part of," Barnett said. "It is just great to see an occupational therapist help this child gain functional independence in his daily life."

Wenthe and students got to the site at 7:30 a.m., and the home was not supposed to be unveiled until 2 that afternoon.

"All day they were still doing a lot of work on the house and adding the finishing touches," Wenthe said. "They do all the crowd shots before the family comes. The cameras are all focused on the family when they get there."

Wenthe said DeLost lifted Jake out of the limo when he and his family got there.
"She will probably have a lot to do with the episode," Wenthe said.

With DeLost's OT knowledge and dedication, she has made a family's dream come true. She is a great example of how students can take what they have learned at SAU and use it to do good things in the real world.

"I am anxious to see the episode on T.V. and really see how much it has changed the
family's everyday life," Barnett said. "This will help demonstrate the many opportunities in the field of occupational therapy."
This episode of Extreme Home Makeover will likely air in January.

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