The Can-Do Kangaroo Brings to Life ‘The Wyandot Way’

“Joey the Can-Do Kangaroo” and his creator, author Chad Caddell, hopped over to Wyandot Early Childhood School during Disability Awareness Month with an inspiring message about inclusion, determination and empathy.

The school’s commitment to “The Wyandot Way” is a year-round effort that emphasizes strong character traits like respectfulness, responsibility, acceptance and positivity. It was in this spirit that the school’s PTO, in partnership with building leadership, invited The Nuxhall Foundation to share its message with the entire student body.

“We really just wanted to remind students that their words and actions matter and just what a difference an attitude of inclusion can make,” said PTO President Callie Rom, who also serves as the school’s representative for Lakota CARES, a support group for parents and families of children with disabilities and learning differences. 

“These values align perfectly with our mission to promote good character and inclusion and to inspire individuals to dream big,” said Tyler Bradshaw, executive director of The Nuxhall Foundation. The Foundation fuels the “Joe Nuxhall Miracle League Fields,” which gives athletes of all ages and with special abilities the opportunity to experience the joy and excitement of big-league-level baseball in an accessible and inclusive way. 

Born from this mission is the organization’s mascot, Joey, who wears special leg braces for a little extra support to help him run and play in spite of his physical challenges. “Joey reminds us all that with an attitude of inclusion, there’s absolutely no dream or achievement that is too big,” Bradshaw explained. “We love sharing that story because it has the ability to transform our perspective on individuals who live with disabilities.” 

The program, which also made an appearance at Heritage ECS, shared an interactive reading of the children’s book that features Joey overcoming his physical limitations when picked to play in the community Kickball-a-Palooza. Joey makes a surprise appearance during the assembly to act out the story from cover to cover. 

But the real magic of the assembly seemed to be in the fun and interactive activities weaved into the main storyline. Students played a game of heads versus tails, where people were eliminated based on what they picked versus the outcome of each coin toss. The activity demonstrated a message of empathy, helping “winning” students realize the opposite emotions in their “losing” classmates. 

Students and staff, alike, also played a game of “Mirror Mirror,” taking turns imitating each other as if they were the mirror for the person facing them. The activity challenged students to look for the good in others. With each activity, students were empowered to live out different “I can” statements like “I can use my words to build others up,” for example. 

For Rom, who has a daughter at Wyandot receiving special education services (who also happens to play in an adaptive baseball league and wears orthotic braces just like Joey), the program hit especially close to home. “The whole idea is to make it normal to see people like my daughter and some of her classmates at school and all around our community,” she said. “And to realize that just because something might be different, you can help bridge that gap of inclusion.”

Like other school-wide programs and events at Wyandot, Rom worked with administrators to plan for special accommodations. This included a few special visits to the school’s Multiple Disabilities and Social Communication classrooms to bring Joey to students in a way that wasn’t as overwhelming as an all-school assembly. 

“To see the love and excitement they had for Joey was an awe-inspiring moment,” Bradshaw reflected about these special classroom visits. 

“We hope that students walk away from this program realizing that there is so much more that connects us than divides us,” he concluded. “We hope they choose to encourage and support the individuals in their lives who live with disabilities.”