Meet Your Neighbor
Kristin Worgess
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER

Photo credit: Jake Lancaster

Date of birth:

Feb. 8, 1978

Likes most about Nantucket:

The community. "It's a great place to raise kids."

Likes least about Nantucket:

"Being away from family that lives on the mainland.

Favorite TV show:

"I don't watch too much TV." Kristin Worgess had a clear vision of her career ambition at a young age. She has remained true to that goal regardless of whatever else came into her life along the way - including a love interest.

Born in Springfield, Ma ss., Wo rgess was raised in Feeding Hills, Mass., a town which was once a farming community where many animals grazed. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in occupational therapy from American International College in Springfield in 2001. She worked for a brief period as an occupational therapist in Hartford and West Hartford, Conn., before moving to Nantucket in March 2002.

Worgess came to the island at the urging of a friend who had spent 11 summers working here. She was planning to be a waitress that summer, yet just one month after moving to Nantucket, she met her future husband, Brian, who is a carpenter.

"After I met him I said, 'I am not staying on Nantucket because of a man.' I decided if I didn't find a job here in my field by October, I would leave."

But it seemed Worgess' fate was sealed. She did, in fact, become hired that August by Early Intervention, a Hyannis-based organization, working with children from birth to three years of age, who have developmental delays. Worgess was named the agency's Nantucket representative.

She and her beau were married and Worgess was employed full-time with Early Intervention until the couple's first son, Landen, was born in 2004. While Landen was little, Worgess continued with the agency as a parttime consultant and also performed private pediatric occupational therapy on the island. Then, she was offered a consulting position with the Nantucket Public Schools as an occupational therapist. Worgess remained in that role for three years and in early 2004 became a board member of STAR as its secretary and as a therapist. STAR stands for Sports and Theraputic/ Accessible Recreation.

In June of 2007 Worgess resigned from the school system and was named executive director of STAR. Her second son, Liam, was born that September. Subsequently, Worgess was made program director for STAR's Adam's Camp, which began 21 years ago in Colorado as a camp for special needs children and was named after a boy born with cerebral palsy. The Nantucket camp, employing music, art and speech therapies, led by special education professionals, began June 23 and runs through June 28. It is the first 'seed' camp of the original project.

"We want [families] to walk away realizing all the things their kids can do, and not focus on their disabilities," said Worgess. "We all feel really lucky to be involved in this program because it will make a big difference in their lives. I feel blessed to be a part of this. I feel blessed that I am in a job that is giving back and making a difference. What is better than that?"

In her spare time, Worgess places her main focus on her family, but also enjoys reading, especially Ernest Hemingway, gardening, walking and bike riding and movies. Because of the island's high cost of living, she and her husband are not certain they will stay here indefinitely. They like the community and their work, but want to own a home and be closer to their families as their children get older. Other than the desire to be a homeowner and remain in her satisfying field, Worgess has simple wishes for the future.

"I want to be happy. I want my boys to be healthy and happy and I want to continue to do what I love." I