Brooke, right, with Joe Pete and Roxy at Fenway Park last month. “We had a blast.”
Brooke served as a mechanic in the Army Reserves, repairing five-ton trucks. In New York, she managed a house with 10 individuals with disabilities, with a large staff including a chef for the multiple and complex feeding plans. She also ran a Day Habilitation Program in Columbia County. She studied marketing and management at the Sage Colleges in Albany, and spent six years at a veterinarian clinic to shift focus from humans to animals, before bringing her wide range of experiences to BCArc.
“The house I direct here is a pretty calm house, not a lot of medical issues, for example,” she said, praising the support she receives from her regular and relief staff. “My favorite part is going out with the individuals and doing fun things.”
Last month she went to Fenway Park with Joe Pete, an individual in her home, and Roxy, a staff member. “We had a blast.”
She tried to plan vacations this summer – like overnight in Lake George – but the planning and timing took longer than expected. Next year she hopes to take her program to the beach for a full vacation.
Brooke says that compared to the agencies she has worked at, “BCArc feels much less like a workplace, less formal than other Agencies, more like a place for families.”
With her history of trying new areas of work, and learning new fields, Brooke expects to settle into BCArc for a while, raise her kids and enjoy the region.
