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Steve Meader Rides Again

Steve Meader, 79, has gone on many rides, from those across Europe in his VW while stationed in Verdun to kayaking and skiing on family vacations. He takes bike rides whenever he can squeeze them in.

Now, he is working with the SARAH Foundation to fundraise for its upcoming event, the Summer Breeze Ride for Autism, on Sunday, July 16.

His involvement with the SARAH Foundation goes back to 1989, when Steve’s company moved the family to Connecticut. Steve, a civil engineer, and his wife, Helena, had been raising their son and daughter in the Philadelphia area.

“We have two children, a son, Mark, who lives in New Jersey and he is the father of our two grandchildren and we had a daughter, Susan, who was born with major heart problems and because of an oxygen problem at birth, she did have some learning disabilities,” says Steve.

Susan’s medical problems meant the family had strong ties to the local children’s hospital, which made relocating more challenging. Steve says the move to Connecticut was excellent for the family, however. When the family was house hunting, Steve says the realtor, after hearing about their daughter’s situation, told Helena about an organization called SARAH with which the family should connect.

SARAH is a conglomerate of agencies that raises funds and provides different programs and assistance for people that are living with disabilities in Connecticut. The branches of SARAH are SARAH Tuxis, SARAH SENECA, SARAH Inc., and the SARAH Foundation. As a whole, they work to make independence possible for people with disabilities.

“Helena had a meeting before we moved up here with Susan [and SARAH] and they hit it off well,” says Steve. “It was just what we needed.”

Just a few weeks after the move, SARAH set Susan up with a job; she was 23 at the time. Steve says Susan worked a few jobs during their time in Madison.

“She was born with major heart problems. The cardiologist at children’s hospital at three months old said—very nonchalant—to us that she wouldn’t live to be 18 and she lived to be 47,” says Steve. “She had three open heart surgeries, two closed heart surgeries, and she passed away in 2013 having a procedure done at Yale.

“It was tough,” says Steve.

SARAH helped Susan to have multiple jobs over the years including one at Stop & Shop where she worked about 18 hours per week for 10 years with a weekly visit from a job coach employed by SARAH.

Helena and Steve agreed that the experience with SARAH was positive and very helpful for Susan and themselves.

“There were actually three women whom I called angels,” says Helena. “The last year of Sue’s life was really quite difficult in that she was on disability and clearly she was failing and the three women, the three angels from SARAH...they visited her every day and helped her in all ways possible, which was a tremendous help to us because then we didn’t have to be at her apartment all the time.”

“It didn’t cost us out of pocket any cost. I really am willing to give my time and effort for the organization to help out,” says Steve.

Helena says she believes her husband’s involvement volunteering for the SARAH Foundation helps keep him connected with their daughter.

“We were lucky to have her, I learned a lot about life and living and what a parent is supposed to do and getting connected with the right people when you need to do that,” says Helena. “We’ve been very fortunate, I’m going to say blessed; we’ve had a lot of great people to help us.”

Steve says that working with SARAH is rewarding for him.

In addition to his work fundraising for the SARAH Foundation, Steve has spent time volunteering with the Madison Lions Club, the Madison High School Building Committee, and the First Congregational Church of Madison—he has even worked to link the church with SARAH on a project that the church fully funded to build an addition on one of SARAH’s living communities.

“When people ask me, ‘How’s retirement going?’ my usual answer is: I don’t know how I had time to go to work with what I do. Any gaps I try to fill in with cycling,” says Steve.

The SARAH Foundation Summer Breeze Ride for Autism on Sunday, July 16, will start at Polson Middle School with optional distances of 15, 22, 50, 62 or 100 miles. Registration opens at 6:30 a.m. Century riders must start by 8:30 a.m. Rider support will be available until 3p.m. For more information and to sign up, visit www.SummerBreezeRide.com.