Karen Dorynek looks forward to continuing to raise disability awareness at WEGO after starting in September 2023.
Dorynek, a West Chicago alum, initially began working in the Special Ed department because she wanted to see how West Chicago’s transition program was and how to better it for her sons, Jimmy and Luke. She also believes that she will learn skills at WEGO that will help her with Jimmy and Luke as they continue to grow up.
She enjoys working in her department because every day is different. The main focus of the transition program is to help those with special needs enter the “real world” and find jobs or volunteering opportunities in the future, so they are on trips or learning new skills every day.
“It is literally chaos all day because we are on the go, going to job sites, or helping them,” Dorynek said.
Dorynek enjoys participating in fundraising events for organizations such as Uplifting Athletes. This program joins college sports with special needs families for fun events and raises money for disability research. Even though Dorynek’s sons have a rare disability, Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation (CDG), she believes donating to larger organizations is more helpful because one cure could be the cure to many types of disabilities.
She also promotes Wego Buddies as much as she can. Wego Buddies is a club at West Chicago where students can volunteer to go on fun group outings and field trips with the special needs department. They have an annual Valentine’s Dance and often go on field trips, such as bowling.
“Everybody in life wants a friend, right? So if you could be that one friend to somebody, even for a couple hours, you would make their day,” Dorynek said.
Even though Dorynek spends much of her time supporting such a serious cause and being a mother to all three of her kids, she says she loves a good time. She often spends time with her friends and keeps an active lifestyle.
Dorynek wants people to know they can work hard and enjoy life.
“Fun comes first, everything else comes later,” Dorynek said.
