In honor of National Special Education Day, RHA is celebrating Bonnie Robbins, a teacher working with medically fragile children at an RHA campus in North Carolina.
Ever since she was a young girl, Bonnie Robbins knew she wanted to teach children with special needs.
“When I was little, I was in Girl Scouts. We worked with the Special Olympics every year, and I knew after doing it for so many years that I wanted to teach kids with special needs.”
Bonnie has been an educator for 38 years, and for the past six years has been a member of the team at RHA’s Tar River large medical center in Greenville, North Carolina. Tar River provides care for children with the most challenging medical conditions. Like all of RHA’s large centers, Tar River offers an on-site public-school option for school-age people. At Tar River, Bonnie and others work to ensure that the children they support receive a quality education.
“We have 30 kids right now. Most are non-ambulatory, and all are non-verbal. I work with them like I would any other children. I dance with them; I sing with them. We do academics, and the ones who are old enough get testing – it’s like any other school.”
According to others, Bonnie’s passion for her job is easy to see. Roger Jones, Director of Operations at Tar River and Bonnie’s supervisor, said “[Bonnie] is dedicated to the people that she supports and always makes activities fun. For Halloween this year, she made sure the kids she supports had matching costumes. We are fortunate to have Bonnie and glad she is a part of the Tar River team.”
Bonnie hopes that her passion for education and special needs children will inspire others. “Once you get in here this will become your happy place. These kids are happy…and they can do anything that they want to do.”
Thank you, Bonnie, for your passion and your commitment! We are so grateful to have you on our team at RHA.