Runner helps those with Down syndrome

When William Spickard was younger, his reading tutor would play Aretha Franklin in the car on the way home from school — a singer with whom he liked to groove.

At home, they would have a snack and then read a story.

Together, they worked on letter-sound awareness or counting or phonics using Beanie Babies.

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Every session ultimately culminated with sport activity outside.

“He’s always been great with movement,” said Andrea Sanders, a Vanderbilt University graduate who tutored Spickard — who has Down syndrome — while she was in school.

It’s fitting, then, that for nearly a decade, she has chosen an athletic way to support literacy and intellectual disabilities.

She began running the Country Music Marathon 10 years ago in honor of William to raise awareness and money for a scholarship endowment that would allow children with Down syndrome to attend the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center reading clinic. The endowment has generated more than $185,000 to raise literacy outcomes. On Saturday she will run toward the goal of $200,000.

Changing perception

It wasn’t long ago that educators and families believed individuals with Down syndrome did not have the ability to read. School lessons focused more on memorization of sight words.

The Spickards had greater goals for their son. They hired Sanders, who then went by Andrea McDermott, in 2004 to work with then 7-year-old William.

“They had almost an immediate connection,” said William’s mom, Margaret Spickard. “She just really took a tremendous ownership in her commitment to teach him and have him learn.”

Working with the Spickards showed Sanders that children with Down syndrome can read, and the student-teacher relationship transformed them both. While William began to grasp language and started “having things come alive,” Sanders realized there was more to learn beyond a textbook or a class. “You have to put ideas into practice,” she said, “and if they don’t work try something different.”

That understanding inspired Sanders to help found Team William. She set a goal to run the marathon as a way to fund raise and support children like William. The first year she collected more than $30,000 through the support of friends and family — enough to enable creation of the William Hart Spickard Andrea Blake McDermott Team William Endowment.

Last run

This will be the final year Sanders runs for Team William. Now 33 and living in Seattle, Sanders said preparing to pass the baton feels “surreal.”

William is now a 17-year-old freshman at Hillsboro High School.

The endowment is close to being able to provide three scholarships each year, but the impact on the Spickards has been so much more.

Sanders’ commitment “helped us jump outside of our box for the first time in a long time,” Margaret Spickard said. “I was incredibly blessed to having someone sharing that vision of learning for William and holding that standard high.”

Beyond that, Sanders inspired running. William’s mom and dad will participate in this weekend’s race.

Reach Jessica Bliss at 615-259-8253 or on Twitter @jlbliss.