The Arc's director of 50 years reflects on her advocacy for those with disabilities

When Karen Smith took her first job at The Arc of Greater Prince William, she found herself wrangling stray livestock outside her small schoolhouse at the intersection of Minnieville and Smoketown roads.

It's safe to say that the area looks a bit different now, standing as an emblem of the county's suburban character and serving as a good illustration of just how long Smith has called Prince William home.

This fall will mark Smith's 50th year working with The Arc to help the county's disabled community, an experience that's given her an unparalleled chance to both chart Prince William's progress over the last few decades and work to drive change in the county herself.

"It's been fun to see this place grow the way it has," said Smith, now the group's executive director. "It's been a rich, rich 50 years."

Smith joined The Arc, an offshoot of a national organization working on behalf of people with disabilities, just three years after it opened in 1964 and has worked there ever since.

Though she's loathe to take too much credit or trumpet her accomplishments over the ensuing years, her co-workers are eager to stress just how much Smith has helped transform The Arc over her lengthy tenure. The group now serves roughly 2,500 people around the county, operating a total of 30 childcare centers and group homes, an achievement Smith's staff calls a testament to her steady, dogged leadership.

"Her passion for folks with disabilities throughout Prince William County is unmatched," said Chris Caseman, the Arc's director of resource development. "The Arc has just evolved from this little school to something she probably didn't even envision when she first came here."

Smith says The Arc was simply a small, private school for children with developmental disabilities when she first heard about it.

Just after getting her degree from the University of Wisconsin, Smith moved to the area only because her husband was stationed at Quantico Marine Corps base. Though she had earned a minor in special education, she didn't exactly seek out a job with The Arc for grand, high-minded reasons.

"I heard this small little school needed a principal, and I was fresh out of college, hadn't worked at all," Smith said. "Someone said, 'You only have to work from 8:30 to 2:45, you get to go home real early, and the last director was able to do her grocery shopping and read the paper.'"

Smith jokes that "I would never hire me today," given her naiveté back then. Nevertheless, she got the job as head of what was then known as the Muriel Humphrey School in Woodbridge, tasked with managing the one-room schoolhouse at Smoketown and Minnieville roads.

Back then, she said, her biggest hassle was chasing errant horses and cows out of the school's playground or making sure the building's water pump didn't freeze, quite the far cry from her role these days.

"It was craziness, but it was a journey," Smith said.

Smith said she never planned on sticking with the job but found herself drawn to the relationships she built with her students and their families. It helped, too, that the organization (back then known as the Association for Retarded Children) was growing and changing, and "there was always something new going on," Smith said.

By the early 1970s, the group started offering programs for adults with disabilities as well, even though many families simply sent disabled children to state institutions. But Smith and others with The Arc were insistent on better integration of people with disabilities into the Prince William community, and they won a victory in 1975 that transformed the group's mission: convincing the county school division to offer special education classes.

"We gave two of our school buildings to the county and said, 'Now, you must educate everybody,' about a year before the federal government did," Smith said. "We got out of the business of education."

Caseman credits Smith for building a relationship with the school division that is "second to none" after that big shift, but also for her relentless advocacy on a whole host of other issues affecting disabled people in the county.

Smith is particularly proud of her work with Prince William'sBoard of County Supervisors in 1979 to get an ordinance passed allowing The Arc to set up group homes for disabled people in residential neighborhoods, which she says was "just unheard of at the time." She was also able to convince the county to donate land for the group's headquarters and main childcare facility along Hillendale Drive by the late 1980s, and she has worked to scrounge up funding from both the county and private benefactors to expand and renovate the building over the years.

"It's been amazing what kind of support we've gotten from our political leaders, both at the state level, but especially from the Board of County Supervisors," Smith said. "It's been a great ride."

But Joy Ocetnik, The Arc's director of recreational services and 23-year veteran of the organization herself, noted that Smith's tireless advocacy and work on county advisory boards helped "pull along" The Arc and make that county support possible.

"It's very important that people with disabilities are included in the conversation, because so often they're not. And that's the part that really bothers me," Smith said. "We have to be there to remind people."

Yet Ocetnik said Smith never lost her focus on the softer side of things either, beefing up The Arc's recreation department to offer fun programs for adults and kids alike--the group organizes bowling leagues, seasonal dances and movie nights to help people with disabilities feel like they are part of the community.

"She's really given me the flexibility to be creative, to venture out and do things," Ocetnik said. "She's like a mother to me."

Indeed, Smith said she's been "tempted," at times, to leave The Arc over the years, but her bond with longtime staffers like Ocetnik has helped keep her in Prince William. It doesn't hurt, either, that she has come to think of some of The Arc's clients as a "second family."

"We call it The Arc family, because families feel comfortable coming back," Smith said. "Some of our folks we've supported since I've been here, even before I was here."

Even still, Smith acknowledges that she "won't be here forever," given her age. But she still feels she has plenty yet to accomplish, like expanding The Arc's services on the western end of the county.

"I see myself helping out for a couple more years," Smith said. "It's still fun. I've been given good enough health to carry on, and I hope I'm still making a difference and am good to work with."

Caseman and Ocetnik are certainly in no hurry to see her go, but Smith is still thinking about a future for The Arc that won't include her for the first time in five decades. While she will surely be missed after 50 years, she isn't too worried about handing off the reins.

"It's been a whole team effort. It's not just me," Smith said. "It should be a bright future for anybody."