Schools

Educator's View: Donna Hart on Special Education, the Brandon Family YMCA

Donna Hart started as a counselor at the Brandon Family YMCA in Seffner as a student at Brandon High School. Twenty-one years later she still works there, and at Burns Middle School, targeting the needs of kids with developmental disabilities.

Donna Hart is passionate about teaching, about continuing her association with the Brandon Family YMCA in Seffner and in working with her students at Burns Middle School.

“The good thing about working with kids with disabilities is that you celebrate every moment,” said Hart, in an interview at the Brandon YMCA on Aug. 3, after a for special needs campers.

“You celebrate everything that with a typical child you take for granted,” she added. “Everything is a milestone. You get a smile from them and that totally makes your day."

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Hart began her association with the Brandon Family YMCA as a student at Brandon High School. She thought her job as a camp counselor would last a summer or two.

It has lasted decades.

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At the Y, and later as a student at the University of South Florida, Hart discovered and confirmed that she had a heart for working with children who have physical and developmental impairments.

“These students give in return as much as we give to them,” she said.

Their inspiration is beyond measure, Hart added, noting as an example a child with cerebral palsy.

“Her body does not work for her, and yet she still finds ways to communicate,” Hart said. “She’s a fighter. She’s that ray of light. You come in every day and say, ‘This is what I do.’ She is an inspiration."

Hart said she works with a majority of students “across the Autism spectrum.” She also deals with children who have cerebral palsy and developmental delays. As she put it: “Pretty much any kind of developmental disability."

What makes the job fulfilling on a day-to-day basis?

“No two days are alike,” she said. “No two kids are the same. And it’s fun, because you never know what they’re going to come up with. Every day is a new challenge."

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