Pay It Forward: Stacy Varner of Montgomery
Stacy Varner is a special education facilitator, but she wanted to do more for her students once they graduated from high school.
And so she began the STAAR program, a non profit organization to help individuals with disabilities transition into the world.
“She has a background in special education. With that background, that makes her more experienced. She has the resources and she knows the people to talk to. She has the information that parents need that they may be afraid to ask for or they just don’t know. So that makes her so special to me, and she will always be a friend,” said her nominator Erica Willis.
Varner says she knew she wanted to work with special needs students while in high school.
“In high school, I went to a program where I worked with a child with a disability for six weeks, and my job was to help him spell his name to decide what I wanted to do after I graduated high school. I couldn’t get him to spell his name. His name was John J-O-H-N, by the end of the week, he had forgotten and would start all over again. As I was about to leave, they gave me a party and on the card he signed his name, and at that point, I knew that this was exactly what I was supposed to do,” said Varner.
