Mikey Strickland
For nearly 10 years, Alena Strickland has provided a home to some 80 special needs children through foster care and adoption, often rescuing them from an institution.
One of those children is nine-year-old Mikey, a student at the Special Education School.
Alena began at age 19 by fostering terminally ill children, then took in children with emotional and physical challenges such as autism, bipolar disorder and deafness – all as a single mom. Why? “Because I can,” says Alena, a freelance interpreter for the deaf.
In 1999, she married Phil Pedone, who retired from Pedone’s Pizza to share the family duties. Together, they adopted Mikey, whose blindness and severe developmental disabilities are a result of Shaken Baby Syndrome, which left him with multiple head fractures and a detached retina.
Mikey is the last child to join the busy household of 11 children, which includes Alena’s three biological children and nine children still at home.
Alena and Phil tried school after school for Mikey – so many she’s lost count – but each one sent him home, saying he was too hard to handle, often throwing or destroying things, as well as biting and kicking.
When he came to the Special Education School, he banged his head on the floor and was unable to sit still. After nearly two years, “he’s a totally different kid,” says his mom. Mikey can sit through mealtimes, brush his teeth and is learning to communicate through hand-signs and a voice output device. He enjoys riding a two-seated bike and using the treadmill.
“I can relax and know he’s taken care of,” says his mother. “The staff never talks about what he can’t do – they talk about his goals. Best of all, they treat him like a person, not a burden. No one else ever did that.”
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