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Jean Grabeel
By Kelly Burgess
Each month, iParenting.com spotlights a mother who inspires and moves us, who embodies the qualities that we all admire in a person, a woman and a mother. Above all, the Mom of the Month is dedicated to her children. Rich or poor, famous or not, she shines as an example of what mothering is all about.
Anyone with a preteen girl in their home knows Jean Grabeel as the mother of Lucas Grabeel, one of the stars of Disney's High School Musical juggernaut. Lucas plays the role of Ryan Evans, fraternal twin brother of Sharpay Evans. The two of them are the perennial stars of their school district's musical productions.
Lucas' mom, Jean, has her own important role to play – that of school nurse for a real school district with 24,000 students. She's also an executive committee member for the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) and she and Lucas are both working with the NASN this year to help raise awareness of the importance of whooping cough booster shots. Even beyond the issue of whooping cough, Grabeel says, is the larger issue of keeping up with your vaccines for life.
Jean Grabeel says that she, Lucas and her daughter, Autumn, now 26, had as traditional a family life as you could possibly imagine. They ate dinner together almost every night, the kids were in a variety of sports and activities and their parents were their taxi service and main cheering section. What was less usual was the Grabeel's commitment to serving others.
"Every year our family would take a mission trip to Guatemala," Grabeel says. "We thought it was important for the kids to have the experience of going to a country where people don't have a lot of possessions and yet are very happy. It helped them to appreciate what they have."
Grabeel also believed in supporting her children and their talents no matter where they led. In the sixth grade Lucas was in a high school production of The Secret Garden. He came off the stage and said to his mom, "I want to be an actor." He never wavered in his goal and his mom never stopped supporting his dream.
"From that moment on I made sure he had the opportunity to be involved in theater and performing art programs and he really worked hard at it," Grabeel says. "It was his dream to go to New York or Los Angeles after high school and I wanted him to be prepared. It's really hard when you're from Missouri to send your child off that way, but I knew I had to let him go."
Of course, Lucas' dream paid off, big time, and now he even has a doll in his image. Grabeel says it's a bit surreal to go to a store and see her son plastered on everything from book bags to lunch boxes, but she's just glad that he can do what he loves and that he loves what he does. To her, that's all a mom can ask for.
Jean Grabeel kind of fell into a career as a school nurse. She was working in a cardiovascular intensive care unit when a friend called her about an open position for a school nurse in a local district. She wasn't interested. Then another friend called. And another, and another.
"I had five different friends who called about this school nursing position," Grabeel says. "After the fifth one called I began to wonder if maybe God was trying to tell me something."
She laughs when recalling her job interview, saying that she asked for the job description and there were only two guidelines: One was to make sure the immunization guidelines were fulfilled, the other was to do whatever the principal deemed necessary. Later, Grabeel moved to a larger district, but she's never looked back from her decision to take on a career where she feels her primary guideline was to help children stay healthy.
"What school nurses across the nation see are kids who don't have access to health care; we're often their first access to care," Grabeel says. "One of our primary activities is to make sure they're connected to off-site and on-site resources. It's more than just handing out Band-aids."
Grabeel is still working to fulfill those immunization guidelines as well, and she thinks the Give Your Kids a Boost (www.giveyourkidsaboost.org) campaign has an important message for parents. "Parents need to understand that the need for vaccines doesn't end when a child gets their shots for kindergarten," Grabeel says. "The vaccines they got when they were 5 can wear off. Kids, preteens, teens and adults all need booster shots."
The NASN is focusing on whooping cough, Grabeel says, because it's not on most parents' radar, but it can have serious consequences for middle school and high school age children.
"It starts with cold symptoms and then the cough comes," Grabeel says. "The cough is severe and can last for 100 days or more. It makes the child miserable and makes everyone around them miserable. They have to miss school, so it can impact their grades and their long-term success in school."
Even Lucas is getting into the act by endorsing his mom's campaign. "I was able to pursue my dreams of becoming an actor because my mom did everything she could to help me stay healthy," he says. "She made sure my sister and I got our shots on time. I'm glad she did."
So are we, Lucas. And so are our daughters.
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