Kit was born into an Army family at Ft Carson, Colorado March 26, 1970. He spent his early years traveling with his family as they moved throughout the USA and the Middle East. The Callahan’s moved to Burke, VA in 1983 where Kit’s Dad, Rick, retired from the U.S. Army. They stayed in the area until 2008 when Rick retired from his job with Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. His Mom, Kim, was an active volunteer with Brain Injury Services and the Northern Virginia Brain Injury Association following Kit’s Traumatic Brain Injury in 1993 . Kit has an older sister, Laura Elkin, brother-in-law Clyde Elkin, two nephews, Connor and Mason Elkin, a niece, Addison Elkin, and a younger brother, Sean.
Kit enjoyed each place he lived. But, by the time he was 13 and in 8th grade he was ready to stay put. He joined the local youth soccer league in Burke where he made some of his life long friends. He began 8th grade at J.W. Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax, Virginia in the fall of 1983, and graduated in 1988. He then went on to Virginia Tech where he joined Kappa Sigma fraternity. His degree from VT was in Finance and he was ready to take on the world.
After living at home for a year while he considered his options, he moved to Chicago to join some of his VT friends who were working on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Kit joined them at Refco and started working as a “runner” on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in August 1993. On October 23, 1993, the nightmare began, when he was found unresponsive behind a building not far from his apartment. No one knows what happened, but the doctors said he received a blow to the back of the head, which resulted in a brain stem injury. We almost lost him, but defying terrible odds, and the doctor’s dire prediction; he gradually emerged from his coma.
The journey back from near death to where he is today took tremendous courage and fortitude. He was in the hospital in Chicago for 4 months before he could be air evacuated closer to his family in Virginia. The staff at National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, DC had many reservations about taking on such a low-level patient, but they did. While there, Kit learned to think and talk again, sit up and stand, and had begun to take a few steps with the help of leg braces and a walker by the time he was moved again in August 1994. The next stop for Kit was Learning Services in Manassas, Virginia. There his therapy continued, but not on such an intense level as it was at NRH. He did some volunteer data entry work for the Manassas Sheriffs Department before he came home in March 1995.
The next challenge was to find something meaningful for Kit to do that would take into account his background and his acquired physical and cognitive disabilities. He struggled with some volunteer jobs, again doing data entry while his therapies continued on an outpatient basis. Eventually, through a friend, he found an internship with Dean Witter Reynolds, which brought him back into the world of finance. He found that in order to work in the competitive environment of the finance world, he needed more background and structure to his day. This time he went down to Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center in Fishersville, Virginia. He was there for 18 long months where he pushed himself to finish quickly and get to come home again and look for “a real job”. From Woodrow Wilson, the next stop was Winchester, Virginia where he lived in a group home with others with disabilities. He worked at Northwestern Workshop and spent his free time trying to find another job which was more challenging. Finally, after a year on his own in Winchester, in May 1999 he interviewed for a position with Logicon Information Systems here in Fairfax County. A fraternity brother, from Kappa Sigma knew of the position and after talking to Kit and his family, submitted Kit’s resume. Kit moved back home, and began working as a clerk in the Accounting department. He held various jobs after that, and learned that the consequences of his brain injury kept him from moving up and realizing the dreams and goals he had prior to his injury.
Since the last Miracle Mile, things have continued to get better for Kit. He and his Case Manager at BIS worked hard to apply for an accessible apartment and Kit was one of the first to move in to Coppermine Place in Herndon. He loved his new home, and with his new “bike” had the freedom to get himself to the local gym and shopping center. Once he knew that his Dad was going to retire again, and his parents’ dream of moving to Colorado started to become a reality, he and his Case Manager from BIS spent the next 6 months researching the Fort Collins area looking for supports for Kit out there. They were very successful! In September 2008 – just 2 years after moving into Coppermine Place, Kit moved into another independent living apartment building in Fort Collins, CO. He and his family are finding the brain injury community out there and are working to keep Kit active and involved in his new community. Brain Injury Services taught his family how to be case managers and search for the right supports for Kit and for them in their new community. Brain Injury Services has been and will always be the support we all needed to move forward after Kit’s traumatic injury. We are all grateful! Then in January 2010, Kit moved into another accessible apartment in Ft. Collins with a 24/7/365 day staff that is wonderful! He really loves being on his own so to speak but still very much enjoys seeing his family each week and weekend.
The long road back from his initial injury has taught us all not to take our good health for granted. It has also shown us how powerful the desire to recover is and what tremendous courage it takes. Every day is still a challenge, but Kit wakes up every day saying that “it’s another great day to be alive!”
Please join us for the Eighth Annual Kit Callahan’s Miracle Mile in September, 2012. We all look forward to seeing you there!
