Helping those with disabilities

By Timothy Cox

In 1983, a group of Maryland parents who wanted better services for their children with intellectual and developmental disabilities founded a nonprofit called Target Community & Educational Services.

The late Milton M. Harris of Lutherville was one of those parents. He and his wife, the late Mary Charlotte Wooden Harris, sought a better life for their youngest daughter, Linda Ann, who was born with intellectual challenges.

The Harrises longed for an environment where their daughter would be able to grow and develop into the free spirit that she became, thanks to her 30-plus years as a client of the Westminster-based Target Community.

It was thanks to the Harris’ hard work and commitment — not only to their daughter, but to the entire group — that the Target program has survived and thrived throughout its 40 years of existence.

Recently, Target held a gala event for staff, clients and their family members to celebrate the organization’s 40-year anniversary.

A special guest at the gala was Judy Woodruff, beloved longtime anchor of PBS NewsHour, and her husband, Al Hunt Jr., journalist and panelist on CNN’s The Capital Gang.

Their son is one of 300 clients who benefits from Target’s services, which include group-home living arrangements and independent employment services. Jeffrey Hunt, now 43, lives in one of Target’s seven group homes in Carroll County.

“He’s doing remarkably well,” Woodruff told the Washington Post in 2020, noting that her son has a job and friends. “He manages to have a remarkably positive outlook.”

Harris family’s story

Linda Ann Harris also lives in one of Target’s group homes in Maryland. She and her only sister, Dr. Mary Harris Kesselring, Ph.D., a Westminster resident, also attended the gala in March. [Ed. Note: Writer Tim Cox married Dr. Kesselring in 2021.]

Their father was instrumental in making sure that Target, in its infancy, was well funded with financial endowments to sustain the organization’s future. Though she cannot cite an exact figure, Kesselring notes that her father’s financial contributions were “quite significant.”

Kesselring and her sister, who are about 18 months apart, attended elementary through high school together.

“Those were tough times for Linda and I,” Kesselring recalled. “Grade-school kids were relentless when it came to teasing me because of Linda’s obvious intellectual shortcomings…but our parents didn’t really know to what extent or how cruel our neighborhood and area school kids could be,” she said.

Kesselring eventually married a West Point Army officer and became the mother of three sons. When her children were young, her then-husband was stationed overseas and constantly faced deployment or relocation. She was grateful for Target, since she would be ill equipped to be her sister’s caregiver.

“It would not have been fair to Linda, nor to my young children,” Kesselring explained. “[Linda] wouldn’t have had a chance to enjoy the long-term living arrangements that she has enjoyed while existing in the Target environment,” she said.

Fortunately, Target provided Linda an opportunity to live with two housemates, overseen by two professional caretakers.

See GROUP HOMES, page 7

& Homecare Options following page 10

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