Melanie Roth: The Rest of the Story--Energized by Providence

by Jane Stahl

Melanie Roth has been inspiring me personally since I first saw her perform at a dance recital as a young girl. Only a few years older than she, I found her energy and smile to be magnetic, and I was determined to radiate the type of positive spirit in my own life that she tapped into that afternoon.

I have imagined in the decades since how that same infectious energy has fueled her life’s journey and affected those around her in the various roles she has assumed throughout her life.

What I couldn’t know or imagine was the faith that sustained her following the event that turned her family’s world upside down: the automobile accident that paralyzed her son Chase, a gifted athlete, who shared her magnetic energy and, as I’ve come to learn, his mother’s positive spirit.

While the diagnosis that Chase will never walk again is dire, her faith sustains her today in the hope that one day she will need to get on her toes to put her arms around his neck for a hug and a kiss, one day when he will stand and take steps again.

In our conversation for a “B Inspired” podcast recording, she shares that she holds onto the hope that, “Something good will happen; with all the research going on today, I know that such a miracle in the future is possible.”

(As I wrote this article, Elon Musk announces the implantation of the Neuralink wireless brain chip that may one day allow the miracle of her hopes to happen.)

Until then, she recalls explaining to Chase that God had a different plan for him. Chase’s plan at that time, a senior in high school, was to become a major league pitcher. God’s plan, however, was that he’d make a difference in people’s lives some other way. She told him, “You are in a chair; you are limited, yet, you are showing people not to be afraid of people in a chair, who are disabled. Knowing you will change their lives.”

Today she sees that happening in the lives of Chase’s nieces and nephews whom he adores. “Chad’s three kids are Chase’s pride and joy. He’s so proud of his nieces and nephew. And they’re wonderful with him. And, we realize, their experience with him will change their lives and all the lives they touch.”

The Roth family celebrates the 50th wedding anniversary of Mel and Gene.

Chase himself recognized the difference he would make in the lives of others during his initial rehab. “God has been at work,” Mel offers. “Since his accident—24 years ago—from all accounts—he has never felt sorry for himself. He’s taken a horrific accident and made the best of it. He graduated from Penn State Berks, drove himself to college every day. He got a job at BASD. He loves to cook.

“One of his nurses at rehab shared that while giving him a shower, she was privy to an in-depth conversation with him. She offered that over her 17-year career, she’d never met anyone like Chase and asked him what he does differently from other young people in his condition.

“The nurse said that most have their friends come; but, in her experience, they come only once to visit. But with Chase, she saw the same faces come over and over, some came twice a week. Sometimes even new faces showed up.

“What, she wondered, was different about him. And what he told her was remarkably wise for a 17-year-old. He said that if I don’t make them laugh, if they don’t have a good time when they visit me, they won’t come back.

“He recognized how much he needed friends to help him through the ordeal. When we got home, they’d hang at the house, sometimes stay overnight; they’d play video games for hours. They were so important to his rehab, to his attitude,” she concludes.

What they needed—from him and from us all--was positive energy, the willingness—despite the circumstances—to embrace life, to have fun and enjoy one another in the moment—just as his mother had demonstrated in that small-town auditorium decades ago.

What I’m reminded of is Maya Angelou’s oft-quoted observation: “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Early Influences & Unexpected Opportunities
Mel credits her faith for the many opportunities she’s been afforded and for getting through the extraordinarily tough challenges life has brought her. Surprisingly, she credits an early love of twirling as the singular activity that led to her lifetime of success.

“I loved to twirl; I’d practice twirling in the middle of Rhoads Avenue where I lived. I wanted to be just like Linda Gresh, the captain of the twirling corps at the time. And so, I tried out for captain as an eighth grader and was selected.

Melanie's role model Linda Gresh Ferraro as a young twirler. 

A few years later at the senior high, she felt blessed to be chosen as co-captain and given the chance to practice leadership skills: bringing people together, building consistency and team loyalty during marches, parades, and as part of the band front on the football fields.

Twirlers at practice, on the field, in parades. Photos compliments of Linda Gresh Ferraro.

At West Chester State College, realizing that there was no band front and that girls were not even allowed to participate in the band, she was given an opportunity to develop a band front to include rifles and twirlers and eventually, with the establishment of Title IX, see girls become part of the band. She loved being part of the Golden Rams Marching Band and, again, regards her twirling career as the force that shaped her character, that developed the person she became.

Melanie as featured twirler at West Chester University (then called State College -‘71 or ‘72

Becoming an elementary physical education teacher after college in the Boyertown School District was “the best job in the world,” she exclaims. “I’d always dreamed of becoming a teacher. As a kid I’d study for tests by pretending to teach using a blackboard I’d attached to the chest freezer in my home. Sometimes I held class; some of my students weren’t the best behaved.

“But I loved teaching; Boyertown [School District] was wonderful, and here I was—being paid to play with kids—to teach the kindergartners to hop and skip and jump rope, the older kids to play basketball, dodge ball, volleyball, and even square dancing. My goal was always to have kids understand the importance of exercise and taking care of their bodies.”

And yet, she knew she was destined for more.

The YMCA Calling
The opportunity arrived when a friend invited her to consider instructing aerobics for the YMCA. And while the Y at that time had no building of its own—much less a swimming pool--soon after, she was asked to provide swimming lessons in her own backyard inground pool. Knowing how important learning to swim was, that lives could be saved having that skill, she said “yes.”

Additional opportunities followed the births of her sons. She agreed to be the director of summer day camp knowing she could bring her first-born. Starting a pre-school program and a gymnastics program fit the skills she’d developed from teaching and lesson planning.

Berks-Mont photo by Harold Hoch shows Mel dancing to "YMCA" during a dance marathon. 

Soon, she was asked to chair fundraising committees toward building the current YMCA. The years of bringing people together, developing teams, building loyalty—those leadership skills she honed as twirling captain—provided the tools she needed.

After the opening of the Boyertown YMCA building, she became part-time wellness director—“the best of all worlds” she claims—allowing her to work and also be with her two boys. When the director left, she was again invited to take on a higher position--the job of running the YMCA.

“I was now looking at a fulltime position with less pay, and I didn’t feel I had the knowledge or skills—particularly in budgeting; but with the family’s support and the guidance of several of Boyertown’s leaders in finance, I realized that others saw a potential in me that I had not yet realized,” Mel admits. “I took the job.”

Mel begins her career as executive director of Boyertown YMCA in 1983. Photo from the Boyertown Times archives. 

Higher-ups, seeing all that she could offer more people, tapped her for a position to serve the YMCA of the USA, a life-changing position requiring her to commute to Manhattan.

It was at this time that the family’s life changed. Chase’s accident brought her back to Pennsylvania for the next 18 years to consult with area YMCA’s. “It was great fun. Every Y is different. Every community is different with different assets and different needs. The volunteers are different and bring different skills which changed how we raised funds and made plans,” she shares. “I loved strategic planning, figuring out what each Y could offer their community,” she explains.

Returning Home
Yet one Sunday when her mother showed serious signs of dementia, she knew it was time to “give back” to those who had given her everything throughout her life.

Resigning from her position to help her father was her logical step—but not the last. Her replacement needed help transitioning and then she was tapped from the Washington D.C. office to work with state alliances on a walkability grant and continue her own learning until COVID eliminated the position and presented another with the Pennsylvania State Alliances to assist Y’s across the state to survive the effects of the pandemic.

Presently, Mel continues in that role but has added others. Today she serves on the Board of Boyertown’s Community Ambulance, passionate about the need to keep the local ambulance service alive.

“People take for granted that when they call 911 for an ambulance that one will be available. But the community’s needs are so great—sometimes there are six calls for help, and we have three ambulances.

“Plus, the costs of ambulance service are never covered by the insurance payments; we rely on our residents to subscribe to the ambulance to keep us running. We need to develop a respect for the needs of local ambulance service,” she adds.

Serving on St. John’s Lutheran Church Council— and for six years as president—is yet another of Mel’s passions. “Declining attendance is a concern; attending church is not as important to folks today, but the church can fill other roles in the community, and I’m eager to find a way to be a part of that kind of ministry.”

Mel is set for a role in that kind of strategic planning—that kind of consulting—that kind of programming—building loyalty and teams that she has accomplished throughout her life.

Will Mel ever retire? “I don’t know,” she laughs. What she does know is that opportunities occur when you least expect them. Tragedies, too. And she knows too that, like Chase, in one way or the other, we need one another.

“Chase will need help—four or five hours each morning, three or four hours each night—to get out in and out of bed and in and out of his chair—for the rest of his life…until that miracle happens, of course,” she admits.

Reflecting
In reviewing her career during our podcast episode, the “hand of God” was clearly evident and apparent that her faith has carried her throughout her career. Opportunities she never imagined or actively sought came to her at just the right moments. People in her life saw potential in her that she’d not considered.

Looking at her life from this faith perspective, one sees, as Hamlet says to his friend Horatio preceding a sword fight he was not sure he’d survive, “There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow”—that is, whatever God intends, will happen—not even a sparrow falls to the ground without God’s intention.

“What goes around, comes around” remains true for me. As I was long ago inspired by a young girl’s energizing smile, today I am inspired in the acceptance and serenity I find in Mel Roth.

No one gets out of this life alive; our destiny is merely to fulfill whatever potential we’re afforded in making a positive difference in the lives of others. As the expression goes, “Man plans, and God laughs.” And Hamlet adds: “We defy augury…. The readiness is all.”

*****
The conversation with Melanie Roth from which this article was created can be found on the "B Inspired" podcast, available on your favorite podcast platform including Spotify, Google, Castbox, Breaker, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and RadioPublic, and Apple.

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