February 14, 2008
A long time ago someone suggested that you can make a lot of money at your job and be miserable, or you can love your job and not make lots of money. While out and about this week, I learned of a special lady doing special things for special people. The best part is that she is making a living doing what she loves. She does not compromise happiness for security.
Stephanie Hayashi, a single parent of three children, is the owner of Fitness Connection in Cary. The business caters to clients with special needs, including brain trauma, stroke, M.S., spina bifida or attention deficit disorder. Many are mobility challenged. Hayashi helps them all.
While taking classes at McHenry County College a few years ago, Hayashi observed Northern Illinois Special Recreation Association students and dreamed up some ways to make exercises fun and challenging for them. For the past two years, as an American Certified in Sports Medicine personal trainer, Hayashi puts her training and her ideas to good use working with her own special needs clients. Hayashi has also been an instructor at Focus Martial Arts in Lake in the Hills for the past five years. She runs after-school programs, works with autistic children and on Saturdays helps run the NISRA program at Focus.
Her goal with Fitness Connections is to offer her clients a life plan. She feels that people with special needs are often given therapy for a brief period. Their problems may be ongoing, but their therapy is not. For example, people in wheelchairs may have stiffness in their shoulders. If they gain weight, it may be harder for them to maintain an independent lifestyle, which can ultimately lead to depression.
Hayashi sees many clients in their own homes. She shows them how to use simple household items to aid in their therapy. Along with tailoring long term workout regimens and exercises to fit her client's specific disability, she will also work out emergency plans to aid them escape their homes in the case of a fire or some other disaster.
Hayashi says she is in the beginning stages of putting a book together. She feels there are no books available to address the needs of physically or mentally challenged people that offer an easy-to-read format and good pictures.
For now, Hayashi gains new clients strictly through word-of-mouth. Her Web address is www.specialneedsfitness.com.
If you have fun or interesting news about our Algonquin and Lake in the Hills residents, please contact Marcia Smith at Marcilynn2004@yahoo.com.