Jenna Van Fossen grew up just like many other kids. Having fun. She was fortunate enough to have a great family, good education, and a world of opportunity. Admittedly growing up as a bit of a tomboy, she spent most of her childhood days playing outside, never lacking in willing participants to run around and play games with.
Not wanting the fun to stop, Jenna eventually found her way to her career as a recreation therapist, which she has done for ten years, the last three and a half with the city of Fort Collins. It’s a career that allows her to use recreation to help people in a unique way, fittingly utilizing sports and games to expand people’s motor skills.
“I truly appreciate my childhood,” Jenna said. “And I’m so grateful for all of the opportunities I had. Which, later on in life, I feel has given me an awareness of what other people go through; that they may not have been as fortunate.”
Always looking for new people to have fun with, Jenna heard about the Partners Mentoring Youth program and knew it would be a good fit.
“After hearing about Partners, I figured that, hey, I’m single, and I have time… so why not?” Jenna said. “I went into the whole thing open-minded, really just wanting to take a kid out to have some fun and hang out with. One who maybe didn’t have that chance.”
After going through the screening process, she met eleven-year-old Star, who, over the last eleven months, has become one of Jenna’s new recreation buddies. While Jenna’s initial goal was just to give a kid someone to hang out and have fun with on a regular basis, the long-reaching impacts for them both are hard to ignore.
“When I first met her, she was a little awkward,” Jenna said. “She wouldn’t initiate physical activity, she would have problems with kids at school, and she just didn’t get to do a lot of the things that other little girls get to do. Like, really just being a little girl… getting to play and run around.”
And that’s where, utilizing her unique skill-set and passion for activity, Jenna has had the opportunity to broaden Star’s horizons. Most of their time is spent recreating around Fort Collins. Be it games, playing outside, going on hikes, eating and cooking, or going to work with Jenna, Star has had a chance to experience some of the day-to-day things that she was missing. And Jenna has seen the improvements.
“It’s been rewarding for me to see her grow,” Jenna said. “She has gone from that awkward little girl, into one who actually initiates activity. Something like hopscotch… months ago, she would have never done that. And now that is something we do regularly. She can just run around and be free. And, for me, it’s a good feeling to see that, through the activity, her motor skills have improved. Her interactions with other youth have improved. She’s physically, and emotionally, a different person.”
It’s in the simple things that Jenna enjoyed while she was growing up that she has found the most value; in the ability to give a little bit of her childhood experience to a girl who’s own life has been a little different.
Seeing Star benefit is a bonus.
“It’s no problem at all for me,” Jenna said. “I look forward to it every week. It just makes me happy, and gives me another person in my life. And I don’t see that ending any time soon.”
