FILLING A NEED

FILLING A NEED

Our cover headline—“Special Needs, Very Special People”—surely applies to a wide variety of stories in this issue of Country ZEST.

That’s Molly Mosher pictured on the cover. She’s a dedicated teacher in the Loudoun County school system who specializes in working with autistic children. The precious little boy with the beaming smile in the photo is River Keen, the six-year-old son of ZEST photographer Tiffany Dillon Keen.

Molly and River, diagnosed with autism as a toddler, only met for the first time on the day of the photo shoot at photographer Doug Gehlsen’s studio off the St. Louis Road. But clearly it was a perfect match, as the final result from Doug’s camera will attest. On the inside, Vicky Moon completes the picture with an illuminating story on Molly’s remarkable career.

We have an intriguing piece on the innovative Middleburg Community Charter School by Linda Roberts, and that faculty has two gifted special needs teachers, as well—Anne Barlow and Kelsey Smith.

Middleburg’s A Place to Be helps its clients navigate and overcome life’s challenges using clinically based practices of music therapy. There’s a new executive director, Judy Hanley, and writer Peyton Tochterman, a fine musician and gifted Hill School teacher, has contributed a profile. And the Community Music School of the Piedmont also offers music therapy.

Lori Daly, a longtime Middleburg resident and president of Diversifi Consulting Group, recently held a workshop for local businesses on how to best serve disabled clients. Writer Carina Elgin attended and reported on the informative session.

Check out first-time contributor CatiAdele Slater’s piece on raising a puppy for a year of training to become a service dog. It’s under the auspices of Canine Companion for Independence (CCI), a nonprofit organization that breeds, trains, and pairs dogs with people living with disabilities, helping them lead a life of greater independence.

Humans have special needs, and so do horses. In this issue, we’ve profiled seven local equine veterinarians who care for a wide variety of patients, many of them athletes involved in racing, show jumping, eventing and fox chasing.

And we’re especially delighted to report on the return of our great friend, Dr. Norris Adams, a long-time and widely-regarded equine surgeon, to Virginia Tech’s Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg.

There’s plenty more to savor, including John Toler’s nostalgic look back at a sadly long-gone Warrenton institution, Ben & Mary’s restaurant. And John Sherman has another delightful Letter from Paris, (Virginia, of course) on his life as a serial gardener and ground hog warrior.

And so, as we bid adieu to a long, hot summer and welcome a far more refreshing fall, sit back and add a little ZEST to your reading pleasure, air conditioning not necessary.

Leonard Shapiro Editor Badgerlen@aol.com