{"id":1318666,"date":"2020-03-10T22:12:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T04:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/valley-life-for-all-column-meet-ella\/"},"modified":"2020-03-10T22:12:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-11T04:12:00","slug":"valley-life-for-all-column-meet-ella","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/valley-life-for-all-column-meet-ella\/","title":{"rendered":"Valley Life for All column: Meet Ella"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Ella<\/strong>
<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Editor\u2019s note: The Post Independent, in conjunction with Valley Life For All, continues a monthly series of profiles about people in our community who have different abilities.<\/p>\n

Meet Ella:<\/p>\n

Were it not for ice cream, with the specific ingredients of coffee and cookie dough, Ella Munk\u2019s days would be much harder to handle. Her own ingredients of a can-do attitude and set goals also make living with Williams Syndrome not only tolerable but often exciting.<\/p>\n

Ella was born with Williams syndrome (WS), a genetic disorder. Facial features frequently have an appearance that has been described as \u201celfin,\u201d and those with WS have mild to moderate intellectual disability as well as emotional challenges. People with WS often have an outgoing personality and interact readily with strangers.<\/p>\n

This description is what Ella is going to relay during her high school Capstone project at the upcoming April health fairs in Carbondale and Glenwood Springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shrinks my world,\u201d says Munk from her home in Missouri Heights with an expansive view of the Roaring Fork Valley. \u201cIt makes me isolate because people don\u2019t understand, so with my Capstone project, that\u2019s what I\u2019m going for, to get people to understand. It\u2019s very important for people to know that people with disabilities have a right to freedom and not be discriminated against.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jill Pidcock from Arc of the Central Mountains is Ella\u2019s community representative for the Capstone project. Together, they\u2019re working on a PowerPoint and speech to educate people on this rare condition. Pidcock points out she only helps Munk reach her \u201cdeliverables\u201d for the Capstone. \u201cI am super impressed with Ella\u2019s technical writing skills and with her contacting people in the community,\u201d says Pidcock. \u201cShe is a very social and eloquent speaker. I\u2019m very pleased with her progress; she\u2019s delightful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ella is a senior at Glenwood Springs High School and is awaiting word to see if she is admitted to the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. It\u2019s a goal she\u2019s excited about, but says every day is a struggle in school with WS.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome days are good, some days are horrible. Sometimes I shut down. People don\u2019t understand my feelings. It\u2019s a lonely thing,\u201d she says. \u201cThey say, oh, she\u2019s really weird. It saddens me. I feel so much rejection, and I don\u2019t have many friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her WS makes emotional struggles all the harder. \u201cSome of us feel suicidal or have depression, but we are still as strong as wheatgrass in the wind.\u201d It\u2019s also hard for Ella to focus, especially with academics. \u201cSometimes there\u2019s triggers, like when a kid whistles, I think in my mind it\u2019s my mom whistling, but she\u2019s not there.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the good side, too. Ella has two very good friends who see Ella, not her WS. Ella recently won three gold medals at the Special Olympics held at Copper Mountain in February. She spoke at a Youth Leadership Forum where she learned about advocacy and disability rights. She loves to dance. \u201cIt makes me feel like I\u2019m in heaven in the moment and forgetting,\u201d she says, getting emotional. \u201cNo one knows how I deal with all this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where eating ice cream comes in. \u201cI get worked up and don\u2019t mean to \u2014 that\u2019s part of WS. I think of the worst things, and I don\u2019t stop myself. But I can turn it around, I eat ice cream every chance I can get!\u201d<\/p>\n

Skiing in the Special Olympics and winning helps, too. \u201cI\u2019m like a lightning bolt, and I shred!\u201d<\/p>\n

Her Capstone project, looking forward to college and setting goals are key to living with WS, along with a healthy dose of self-confidence. Says Ella, \u201cMy Capstone story is about my disability. Sometimes it\u2019s an evil thing, like it\u2019s a sin, but it isn\u2019t. It\u2019s a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The health fairs Ella Munk will be speaking at are April 4 in Carbondale at Roaring Fork High School and April 25 at Glenwood Springs High School.<\/p>\n

Local nonprofit Valley Life for All is working to build inclusive communities where people of all abilities belong and contribute. We want to hear your voice. Request a training or join the conversation at http:\/\/www.valleylifeforall.org<\/a> or #voicability4all. Help us redefine the perception of challenge.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ella Editor\u2019s note: The Post Independent, in conjunction with Valley Life For All, continues a monthly series of profiles about people in our community who have different abilities. Meet Ella: Were it not for ice cream, with the specific ingredients of coffee and cookie dough, Ella Munk\u2019s days would be much harder to handle. Her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1318666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-22 01:04:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318666\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}