BY KATIE MORROW, 2007 JUNIOR JOURNALIST
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| Madison Adams poses with her mare Don't Skip the Goods. |
“In my opinion, there is not much of a point to live if you are not connecting with other people,” says Madison Adams of Bainbridge Island, Washington. The 19-year-old, who is showing her 7-year-old sorrel mare Dont Skip The Goods at the year’s Ford Youth World Championship Show in the showmanship and western riding, has volunteered her time at the Island Health and Rehabilitation Center on Bainbridge Island to help Judy Keveitskauskas, a friend who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and has been paralyzed from the neck down since she was in her 30s.
“She is one of the smartest people I have ever met; mentally, she seems so much younger than she actually is,” Madison says.
Because Judy’s husband left her when she was diagnosed with MS and her kids live on the East Coast, Madison took it upon herself to help Judy cope with her disease. “I started to realize that kids are so disconnected with the problems of others, and teens really should get involved and try to help.”
Though Bainbridge is a very lucrative community, it is also one with serious drug problems. Teens in the area claim that, ‘they do not have enough to do.’ Madison, however, decided to help the area’s teens get involved in the community by having them volunteer at the rehab center. “Before we began improving it, the center was very white and boring,” Madison remembers. “After we applied for a $500 Do Something grant, we decided to replace all of the window boxes in the residents’ rooms because all of the plants and flowers in the window boxes were old and had died,” Madison says.
Not only did Madison help make the Center livelier, but she also organized social events and tea parties for the people throughout the year and an end of the year party. Though she helped out with some of the other residents, Madison mainly focused on Judy because, “she was in a really bad spot,” she recalls.
After competing at the Ford Youth World, Madison will attend Whitman College in August.
