The Young Adult Stroke Survivors’ first meeting was June 1991 in Bellevue, WA. It was originally called “Evergreen something-or-other”. (Hey, we’ve all had strokes, what do you expect? 🙂 ) Carol was an early group leader with strong ties to the American Heart Association, and there were 10-15 group members.
The American Heart Association (AHA) has been our parent organization for most of the group’s history. They have been a great help in sending our monthly mailings and helping educate the community about stroke.
In 1991 the group moved to Bayview Manor, a retirement home at the foot of Queen Anne Hill in Seattle. Bayview allowed us to use a meeting room of theirs for our meetings. In about 2001 Carol moved to Oregon and Stan took over as group leader, and the group continued to grow.
In January 2005 Gerrit took over as leader when Stan stepped down. In January 2006 we had to find new facilities because of Bayview insurance restrictions, so the group moved to Northwest Hospital and began meeting in a classroom in the Rehab Center. This began a relationship with the hospital and therapists which has been mutually beneficial ever since.
In May 2006 Gerrit began publishing minutes after each meeting, so members who couldn’t attend could still learn about them. In September of that year Duane volunteered to start a library of books and DVDs which has been steadily growing.
In January 2009 we outgrew our classroom in the Rehab Center and moved to the Easy Street area.
In January 2010 Gerrit published this website for the first time, including member pictures, a minutes archive, meeting announcements, a map, etc. He has been adding to it ever since. (find the old website here: https://seattleyass.weebly.com/)
In January 2011 we moved to the Rehab Center E-Wing Auditorium, an excellent room with great acoustics, a mic and podium, and a computer projection system. In July Brad started our Facebook group, which has been steadily gathering members and photos.
In late 2014 Gerrit sent postcards and made phone calls to many on the group roster to move as many members as possible to email. This saved the AHA much monthly expense by greatly reducing our postal mailings.
In January 2016 we moved again, to Seattle Brain Works (Provail) due to a scheduling mixup at Northwest Hospital. This is a nice partnership and has worked out well.
As of May 2016 we are averaging 40 – 50 people in our monthly meetings with over 250 on the roster who receive mailings and meeting minutes. We continue to provide support and advice to newcomers, speakers and presentations of interest, and bonds of friendship for all.
In April of 2018, Gerrit handed leadership off to Bill Monroe.
Bill was an incredible leader of the group until his unexpected passing in the Spring of 2023. He is deeply missed.
Following his passing, Scott Brody, Andrew Malm, Mike Tran, Jessica Partnow, and a few others have been doing our best to fill his very big shoes!
Caregivers Group
In 2010 the UW began organizing a caregivers support group running in parallel with YASS. They split off from our meeting at 1:30, and also meet the first Saturday of each month at the UW Speech and Hearing Clinic. Caregivers often struggle as hard as stroke survivors, and the support and dedication of this caregiver’s group has been so helpful.