Jackie Moran has worked with children and adults with disabilities for decades
Jackie Moran is hugged by Bayfield Town Manager Katie Sickles at Moody's on Mill Street in Bayfield on Saturday. Bayfield proclaimed May 6, 2024, “Jackie Morgan Day” in recognition of her efforts in early childhood education and other community contributions. (Matt Hollinshead/Durango Herald)
BAYFIELD – Jackie Moran has spent decades improving opportunities for children and adults with disabilities in the Durango-Bayfield area.
From 1982 to 2011, she worked as the early childhood education director for Community Connections, which supports people with disabilities.
As the years passed, she wanted children and adults with special needs to continue learning and living life like everyone else.
Her influence was so great that Bayfield officials honored her work at Moody's on Mill Street on Saturday. During the event, Town Manager Katie Sickles presented Moran with a plaque officially declaring May 6, 2024, as “Jackie Moran Day.”
“I'm shaking and getting goosebumps,” Moran said.
Ms. Moran, who now lives in Littleton, was the first recreation director in Bayfield's history and worked as a preschool educator working with children with disabilities. She also initiated a grant to open a drop-in center for at-risk teens.
She said she enjoyed watching the students learn and interact with each other.
“I was actually involved in curriculum development, and there was nothing at that time in early childhood,” Moran said, adding that her background in special education allows her to teach anyone.
Mr Moran said people with disabilities were not integrated into general society in the 1980s, but attitudes began to change in the 1990s.
Although some people are afraid of people with disabilities due to prejudice, the situation is very different today.
Despite the challenges the students may have faced, Moran said the key to helping them learn is to help them learn individually, whether it's learning about music or remembering the names of the players on their National Football League teams. He said the key is to focus on his strengths.
In 1995, Moran became co-founder of BEEP, a non-profit preschool in Bayfield. From 2017 she launched and operated Mill Street Her Inn Airbnb in downtown Bayfield until 2022, and in 2016 she helped establish Bayfield's annual summer Block Her Party. did.
In retrospect, Moran is proud of her efforts to make the area a better, more inclusive place.
mhollinshead@durangoherald.com
