Setting an exceptional example
It all started with a vacuum cleaner. One day as she talked about her vacuum with friends, stay-at-home mom Tricia Kirk was struck by a feeling of emptiness. Looking to fill this space in her life, she started assisting a young boy with autism as a volunteer at her children’s school in Mountain Brook.
Fifteen years later, Kirk is the highly respected executive director of Homewood’s Exceptional Foundation, a center for adults with special needs, and could not imagine life being any different.
“My mission is for everyone to have an understanding that my people are real and have the same wants and needs as everyone else and deserve to live a meaningful life,” Kirk said of her goals for the Foundation. “I want caregivers to know they have a place for their loved ones to go that is safe and maintains the highest quality of life.”
Kirk draws on her Bachelor of Science in Special Education from The University of Alabama for her work at the Foundation. Her personal experience adds to how she connects with parents who face the realization that their child was born with special needs.
“Everyone wants a typical child,” she said. “I understand, I have a child who battled cancer. I know what it’s like in that moment to have the air knocked out of you.”
Kirk credits Homewood for the success of the organization, which is located on Oxmoor Road. She notes the joyful attitude police, firefighters and paramedics have when responding to stressful situations there. Members of the community themselves are generous with both time and money, she said.
She recalls an instance when the Exceptional Foundation Scout trailer disappeared from the parking lot. Community members replaced all the scouting equipment so the troop could continue as before, with Rep. Paul DeMarco donating the troop’s Alabama and American flags.
Kirk’s commitment to community service was inspired by her grandmother Ruth Harris of Homewood, a generous philanthropist who volunteered in the community.
Much like her grandmother, Kirk’s connection to the community doesn’t stop at the Foundation. She and her husband have acted as foster parents and hosted international students from the UAB tennis team for Thanksgiving.
Fifteen years after her wake-up call, Kirk works hard to educate the community and raise awareness for those with disabilities. And residents like Stephanie Romeo inspire her.
“I like [the Exceptional Foundation] better than going to school because I don’t have to worry what anyone thinks about me,” Romeo said to a group of Birmingham-Southern students she and Kirk spoke to recently.
Today Kirk realizes her former sense of emptiness was never about the vacuum. It was about realizing and fulfilling a sense of higher purpose.