Compassionate. Resourceful. Energetic. Kind. Spunky.
Those are words used to describe 71-year-old Betty McKim who retired July 20 from Pony Bird after 49 years of caring for people with severe disabilities that required intensive care.
McKim, who lives in Grubville, was the last of Pony Bird’s original employees.
Pony Bird began in 1977 in Mapaville as a residential facility serving 10 children. Now, the nonprofit serves 1,200 individuals through five programs – community living (residential), community support services, employment services, family support and leisure services. About 70 adults reside at Pony Bird in community living.
On Sept. 17, a retirement party was held in McKim’s honor.
“There are not enough words of appreciation or thanks for what Betty has done for Pony Bird – really for the individuals we serve,” Sara Sucharski, Pony Bird’s president and CEO, told the guests. “You meet people in your life who make an impact and leave footprints and a mark, and man, has Betty left a mark.”
She said McKim gave 100 percent until the day she retired. She said if she could clone Betty, she would.
“Betty has never stopped working at a high level of integrity, at a level of a strong advocate,” Sucharski said. “She would run circles around the young guys and sometimes they might have taken Betty the wrong way. She runs circles around them because it’s who (she is).
“You are a giver; you are a caregiver. Most of all, you’ve made us all better by being in your presence.”
Pony Bird board member Laura Hockensmith-Schlereth has known McKim her whole life. Laura is the daughter of Pony Bird founders Sue and Dana Hockensmith, and the sister of the first Pony Bird resident, Phillip, who died in 2001.
“Sue and Dana have a very special connection to Betty and that was my brother who was one of the first 10 (residents),” she said. “When my parents, back in 1977, had to make the choice to drop their child off with someone else, they handed Phillip off to Betty. None of them really knew what they were doing, but they worked together and they persevered.
“(Betty) loved all of the people at Pony Bird. She loved my brother, Phillip, so much, and we all loved her so much. There are not many people like you, Betty. All of us in our family and the Pony Bird board, we can’t thank you enough. If we could have all of our employees give us the level of commitment and dedication that we’ve gotten from you, we wouldn’t have any turnover.”
Jenny Steward, an executive assistant at Pony Bird, said McKim was individual-centered with residents.
“She didn’t really see the disability in an individual, but focused on their abilities,” she said. “She never felt bad for them, she made sure they were included, even if that meant adapting a toy, an activity, diapers, furniture, etc.”
Starting out
McKim said it was her mother who got her interested in working at Pony Bird. McKim was working at a state institution in northwestern Missouri and her mother, who lived in Hillsboro, kept sending her newspaper articles about how Pony Bird was being built for non-ambulatory children with severe developmental needs.
“One Christmas when I came home for the holidays, I met with someone who worked with the adult workshop program,” she said. “He knew who was going to be the director, which was Irene Steinbach. She happened to have been the school nurse when I was a child at Hillsboro. I called her and met with her and asked her to give me a call when they were going to get things going.”
McKim got that phone call and uprooted her family, which at the time included her husband, Mike and a young son. She was excited to get to work with young people rather than in an intense institution.
“Some (kids) came from home,” she said. “Some came from other institutions, but we (Pony Bird) were very unique. We would get them up in the mornings, gave them a bath. They went into the playroom, and we did therapies with them.”
McKim said the Hockensmiths showed the caregivers how to bathe patients and do range of motion exercises with homemade equipment.
“I think I made $2.65 an hour, and we got a $25 bonus at Christmas time,” she said. “No benefits at that time, so it’s really come a long way.”
As the years went by, McKim decided she should stay there until the original 10 residents were gone.
“I didn’t know if I was going to make it or not because when I got to be 50, my body was starting to feel it because we lifted them and they were getting heavy,” she said. “We’d do two-man lifts and from the floor up. The saving grace was the lift systems came in. Those and those doors that automatically open. Those were two of the greatest things that came because we’d be wrestling the doors trying to get the wheelchairs through.”
McKim stopped working full time in June 2020 when her husband and twin brother became ill. They have since died. In her retirement, she plans to continue in a role as caretaker, helping out other family members.