Great Falls mom finds her niche as an advocate

• The link between our Hometown Heroes%3ASchelli Bolta - Dr. Bryan MartinDr. Bryan Martin - Michelle ChenowethMichelle Chenoweth - Trina KnocheTrina Knoche - Joan RedeenJoan Redeen - Marilyn Hall %28read about her in April%29

Editor's note: This is part of a monthly series where we feature the stories behind inspiring Montanans. We're then requiring the person featured in the Tribune to nominate someone else from the region (not related to them) to be featured.

She may not have intended her life's work to be as an advocate, but Joan Redeen very much fits the title.

Whether it's advocating for Great Falls through her work with the Business Improvement District or advocating for people with intellectual disabilities because of her son, Jared, the 48-year-old mother of two seems to have found her place in the world.

It's why Trina Knoche nominated Redeen as her Hometown Hero.

"She's just so supportive of all kinds of different things," Knoche said. "She's just made Great Falls a better place."

Redeen, her husband, Jeff, and boys, Justin and Jared, moved to Great Falls 19 years ago, and she quickly grew to love her husband's home state and was eager to make Great Falls home.

"I wouldn't be who I am without my children," she said.

Redeen grew up all over the country as a Navy brat, but her family settled in California, where she finished high school and met Jeff.

She'd thought about going into cosmetology and was working as a real estate agent when Justin was little and she was pregnant with Jared. But when she went into labor three weeks early with Jared, who was immediately facing complications when he was born in 1992, everything in her life changed.

Doctors suspected shortly after delivery that Jared might have Down syndrome, but tests needed to be completed and procedures needed to be done to keep Jared alive. She knew nothing about Down syndrome and had no idea what sort of life Jared would have. She certainly hadn't prepared herself to be the mother of a son with special needs. But her instincts quickly kicked in.

"I said we can handle whatever," Redeen said.

Years later, she realizes perhaps she was more prepared than she originally thought. When she was 17, she mentored a 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome in her church and developed quite the bond. And her favorite television show from the late 1980s and early 1990s was "Life Goes On," which featured Chris Burke, one of the first television actors with Down syndrome.

"I've always had this belief there is a reason for everything in life," Redeen said. "The day Jared was born, I quit my job and never looked back."

Both of her boys were raised in the same manner with the same set of values. So Redeen said when the family was moving to Great Falls and they were shopping for homes, and therefore schools, she was adamant Jared would not be in a special education students-only classroom.

At Meadow Lark Elementary, Redeen said she worked with Jared's second-grade teacher to make sure that happened. It wasn't an easy process, and Redeen said there were several people who didn't believe it would work. But Jared was the first student with special needs in Great Falls to be fully included in a regular classroom and it stayed that way, with a few exceptions, throughout his years in Great Falls Public Schools.

"Jared was brought into this world to teach others," she said.

At the beginning of every school year, Redeen would visit Jared's classroom and talk to his fellow classmates about what made Jared different and what made him the same. There were a few students over the years who treated Jared differently, but for the most part, Redeen said the students embraced her son and hopefully he helped them develop respect and tolerance for others' differences.

Raising two boys also meant getting them involved in Cub Scouts, where she volunteered some with the state council. Eventually, Jared joined Special Olympics Montana. Like she had with Cub Scouts, Redeen took on a volunteer role, serving as the area finance coordinator, and was honored last September by Special Olympics Montana with the volunteer of the year award. It was an amazing and humbling moment, she said.

But Redeen's advocacy hasn't been reserved for just her children. More than six years ago, she was hired by the Business Improvement District's board of directors to serve as the executive assistant. It was a part-time gig that allowed her to keep up with her boys, too. The BID is comprised of 164 parcels of land primarily in the downtown area. The property owners have agreed to tax themselves more to help with improvements to the areas.

In her time there, she's helped with several beautification projects, including convincing local artists to paint scenes of Great Falls on the electric boxes, coordinating the mural that lines the 1st Avenue North underpass, providing grants to business owners and more. She coordinated the Montana Downtown Conference held in Great Falls in 2012 and saw others amazed with downtown Great Falls' potential.

"I'm really proud of our city and I'm really proud of our downtown," she said. "I'm ever the eternal optimist — annoyingly so."

Her work is nowhere near done — not with the BID, nor with her boys and her volunteer efforts. Justin is 25 and is living in Boston. He just got engaged and is going to graduate school. Jared, 23, lives with the Redeens, but does a lot of independent activities and is working with Easter Seals Goodwill to find a job.

A few years ago, she got Special Olympics athletes involved with the annual Dancing with the Stars Great Falls performances and fundraisers. Last year, she helped the athletes learn "Thriller" and even dressed up like a zombie and danced alongside them. She's not sure what song they'll dance to this year.

"I'm in a really good place," she said. "I'm happy with everything that's going on in my life."

Reach Tribune Staff Writer Kristen Cates at 791-1463. Follow her on Twitter @GFTrib_KCates.