Virginia Episcopalian Magazine Summer 2013 Issue | Page 12

People Profiles

‘God’s Hand’ at Work: Jennifer Lassiter
Emily Cherry
When Jennifer Lassiter and her family
moved to Virginia from California
in 2000, two years after her eldest
daughter, Katelyn, had been diagnosed
with autism, she was a woman on a
mission: to locate resources to support
her daughter’s learning disability.
“Working with the public school
system, they just didn’t have a lot of
answers for me,” said Lassiter. The
school administrators recommended
that Katelyn enroll in a private school
– but Lassiter couldn’t find one that
would suit her daughter’s needs.
By that time, Lassiter had joined
the board of the Arc of Loudon, an
organization dedicated to serving
people with disabilities. And it just so
happened that the organization had
some experience that spoke directly
to Lassiter’s problem. The Arc was
founded in 1967 by parents who were
looking to create a school for their
children with intellectual disabilities.
Lassiter posed the question to the
board: “Should we do it again?”
And so Aurora School was born.

A member of St. James’, Leesburg,
Lassiter is a woman who’s passionate:
about her work, about her family, about
God. Looking back at the founding of
the Aurora School, “I see God’s hand in
all of it,” said Lassiter. “All of the things
that led me to Aurora School, God kind
of gave me all the tools I needed.” With
a bachelor’s degree in education (she
had plans to become a teacher before
her first child was born) and a law
degree from George Mason (which she
attended to learn how to be a better
advocate for her child), Lassiter had the
skill set required to take on the project
of starting a special needs school.

The Aurora School started in 2003,
after a good deal of hard work and
grant writing, in a building shared with
a daycare center. Within two years, the
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school, with a one-to-one teacher ratio,
had outgrown the space. Lassiter started
praying for a solution to the problem.

While listening to the Sunday
announcements at St. James’, the
prayer was answered. The Rev.
John Ohmer, then-rector of the
congregation, spoke of a 17-acre
property in historic downtown
Leesburg, originally owned by a
parishioner by the name of Rachel
Paxton. Upon her death in 1922, Mrs.
Paxton left her property, in the care of
trustees, to the use of needy children.
And, Ohmer explained, the trustees
were looking for a group of people to
make that mission come to life again.

And so started what came to be
known as the “Paxton Magic,” a principle
coined by Lassiter and the other leaders
of the school. Things seemed to fall into
place to make their vision a reality. “It
was one of the most inspirational times
ever of getting to watch God at work,”
said Lassiter. She’d say, “We need an

Virginia Episcopalian / Summer 2013

Jennifer Lassiter (right) and Darcy
Cunningham, the Paxton Campus
advocacy coordinator, join JP at Maggie’s
Closet, a thrift shop run by people with
disabilities where families in need can
shop for free.

Students join Kristen Umstattd (center),
mayor of Leesburg, and Lassiter
(second from right) for the grand opening
and ribbon cutting ceremony of the
Paxton Attraction, a store run by people
with disabilities.