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PROFILE
* Name: Kate Hladky
* Age: 51
* Hometown: Cedar Rapids
* Address: Cedar Rapids
* Family: husband Joe III; daughters Elizabeth of Cedar
Rapids and Katie of Iowa City
* Education: bachelor's degree in social work and Spanish,
the University of Iowa, 1971; 1967 graduate, Cedar Rapids
Washington.
* Interests: horseback riding, playing with her
dogs
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Kate Hladky honored for volunteer work
Posted November 29, 2000 on The Gazette Online
By Ann Scholl Boyer, Gazette staff writer
(Gazette photo by Jim Slosiarek) Kate Hladky and one of
the many horses at the Miracles in Motion farm in
Swisher.
About 10 years ago, Kate Hladky spied an article in The
Gazette about a fledgling program called Miracles in
Motion.
At the time, her teen-age daughters were away at boarding
school, and Kate was experiencing empty-nest syndrome.
She decided to volunteer for Miracles, a non-profit group
aimed at teaching riding skills to people with mental and
physical disabilities. The facility is now located in rural
Swisher.
"It filled a huge void in my life," says Kate, 51.
Kate also has been good for the program. Recently, she was
named National Volunteer of the Year by North American
Riding for the Handicapped Association.
Kate learned of the award at the association's national
conference Nov. 11 in Minneapolis. As far as Kate knew, she
was there to receive the award for Volunteer of the Year for
Region 7, which encompasses Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois,
Missouri and Kansas.
"I've never had a standing ovation before. I have to tell
you, it's overwhelming," she says.
Quickly, though, she downplays receiving the award.
"It's not anything I've done, because we run Miracles as a
team. When they pick a national volunteer of the year, to
me, they've chosen a team. All the people I've worked with
are just as much a part of the award, but they didn't have
the embarrassment of standing up in front of all those
people" at the national conference.
Sue Bock, program director for Miracles, says the award is
long overdue and very well-deserved.
"She pretty much is responsible for everything the program
is today," Sue says. "Her leadership has been her main
contribution. She is a person who really makes things
happen."
To point out the significance of the national award, Sue
notes that, as of December 1998, there were 21,500
volunteers in North American Riding for the Handicapped
Association.
"A more appropriate award (for Kate) would be Volunteer of
the Decade for Miracles," Sue says.
Kate has always loved horses. A 1967 graduate of Cedar
Rapids Washington, Kate got her first horse when she was 10.
She was supposed to share it with her two sisters. When they
lost interest, the horse became Kate's.
Her husband Joe, CEO and publisher of Gazette
Communications, gave Kate a horse as an engagement
present.
"There isn't anything about a horse I don't like," Kate
says.
Kate also loves dogs. The couple's home, an acreage in
southeast Cedar Rapids, is home to Tug, a wire-haired
pointing griffon, and Emma, a 7-month-old leonberger. Dogs
and horses come first at their home, Kate says. People are
third.
Kate says she is continually amazed at the way the horses
interact with the riders at Miracles. "Horses have a spirit,
a sixth sense. We see that at Miracles all the time," she
says.
"These horses know when they have me on their back or they
have a person with disabilities on their back. They sense
it." One horse was a "wild man" when Kate took him fox
hunting, but at Miracles, the horse was very calm.
Kate also has witnessed some incredible moments with the
participants in the program.A little girl, who was about 4
years old, was atop a horse. The child had never spoken.
"She put her hands forward and she said `On,'" a command the
riders are taught to get the horse to move.
"We all just lost it," Kate remembers. "Her mother burst
into tears, I burst into tears."
Moments like that drive Kate to stay involved in
Miracles.
"I can't imagine not doing it, unless I'm physically
incapable. If I'm physically unable to teach, I'll find
something else to do" in the organization.
This article and photo are used with permission of The
Gazette.
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