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Thomas Vander Woude’s sacrifice honored with memorial fund

Katie Scott | Catholic Herald

Thomas S. Vander Woude, former head men’s basketball coach and athletics director at Christendom College in Front Royal, speaks to players during a game.

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Six and a half years ago,
Thomas S. Vander Woude died while trying to save his youngest
son
, Joseph, who had fallen into a septic tank on the
family’s farm. Joseph, who has Down syndrome, was
hospitalized but made a full recovery.

Now, this embodiment of sacrificial love will be honored with
a memorial fund that aims to improve the lives of individuals
with Down syndrome and save the lives of countless more.

The fund will be launched March 21, World Down Syndrome Day,
through the Jérôme Lejeune
Foundation USA
, which provides research, care and
advocacy for people with genetic intellectual disabilities.

“I think there’s a real compatibility in what Thomas Vander
Woude did, the sacrifice he made and our work,” said Mark
Bradford, president of the Philadelphia-based foundation. “We
believe in the value and inherent dignity of every human
person. Every person born with a disability should be
treasured.”

Rejecting a throwaway culture

Vander Woude wore numerous hats and touched many hearts in
the Arlington Diocese. The father of seven boys was a former
Vietnam fighter pilot and retired airline pilot who coached
basketball and soccer at Seton School in Manassas and served
as the men’s basketball coach and athletic director at
Christendom College in Front Royal.

Following his death in September 2008, Vander Woude’s story
spread beyond the diocese, all the way to Louisville, Ky.,
and to Penny Michalak, whose daughter Elena Rose was born
with Down syndrome earlier that year.

A donation by the organization created in Elena Rose’s honor,
Angels in Disguise,
established the Thomas S. Vander Woude Memorial Fund for
Research in Down Syndrome.

Vander Woude’s action “powerfully contradicts” how the world
sees Down syndrome children, said Michalak, whose nonprofit
promotes Down syndrome awareness and appreciation through
musical concerts and other events. “Here’s a man who
literally dies in the worst possible filth to save his son
with Down syndrome, and the world is just throwing these
children away.”

The new fund comes at a critical time, said Bradford.

A relatively new and noninvasive screening test for Down
syndrome at nine weeks gestation is leading more parents to
abort their child, he said. And unlike diagnostic tests, such
as amniocentesis, which are conducted later in pregnancy and
are more accurate, screenings often prove false.

Abortion rates following an in utero Down syndrome diagnosis
can be as high as 93 percent, depending on geographic
location, according to a 2012 study published in the journal
“Prenatal Diagnosis.”

“Every day people are making the decision to reject Down
syndrome children through abortion,” said Bradford.

Advocacy is important, he said, but “we also need to give
families hope that they can lead as typical lives as
possible. We can’t really stand in the breach (to prevent
abortions) until we do so.”

The memorial fund will focus on prenatal therapies, quality
of life and ways to improve speech and language capabilities.
Bradford hopes the fund eventually can disperse $250,000
annually.

They change ‘your outlook on life’

In 1958,
Jérôme Lejeune
, a devout Catholic who is
considered by many as the father of modern genetics,
discovered that the presence of an extra 21st chromosome
causes Down syndrome.

Ironically and tragically, Lejeune’s discovery allowed for a
prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome and subsequently to
countless abortions. Anticipating such a consequence, Lejeune
dedicated himself to improving the lives of those with
genetic intellectual disabilities.

“His outspoken belief in the value of every human life and
his opposition to abortion cost him the friendship of many of
his colleagues, his research funding and some believe a Nobel
Prize,” according to Bradford.

Lejeune’s personal holiness merited him the title “servant of
God,” and in 2012 the diocesan phase of his canonization
cause was concluded and the process was transferred to Rome.

Having his father’s name associated with Jérôme
Lejeune is “incredible,” said Father Thomas P. Vander Woude,
Thomas and Mary Ellen’s oldest son and pastor of Holy Trinity
Church in Gainesville.

Father Vander Woude said the fund is a beautiful tribute to
his father and to those with Down syndrome.

A family member with special needs “changes your outlook on
life,” he said. “When you talk to a family with a Down
syndrome child, they know love, forgiveness, joy.”

Individuals with Down syndrome “don’t put on airs; what you
see is what you get,” said Father Vander Woude. “It’s very
refreshing.”

“This fund will be a great good for the Down syndrome
community,” added Mary Ellen. “And it will honor my husband
for what he did. The love that he had for his son – that will
be manifested through his name being there.”

Bradford, who also has a son with Down syndrome, said
children with genetic intellectual disabilities teach you to
change your expectations and slow down. During a trip to Home
Depot, for example, Bradford said his son was walking up to
strangers and extending his arms for a hug. “They help you
get over any self-consciousness,” he said.

“Many fathers think they cannot love a child with special
needs,” said Bradford. “But Thomas Vander Woude’s actions are
an example of just how deep their love can be.”

To donate

Go here, call 267/403-2910 or
send a check to:

Jérôme Lejeune Foundation USA

Attention: Vander Woude Memorial Fund

6397 Drexel Road

Philadelphia, PA 19151

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