Since she was just 5 years old, Amy Moore knew that she wanted to work with individuals with disabilities — and for the past 25 years, she has been doing just that.

Amy, who works at ADEC Industries in the first aid room, was inspired by her cousin, who was diagnosed with a developmental disability. They grew close when Amy was about 9, and she can remember trying to teach her cousin to read. Her cousin’s mom saw and told Amy: “Oh, honey, she can never read.”

But that didn’t stop Amy from trying.

Years later, after the cousins had moved apart, Amy remembers receiving letters in the mail from her cousin.

“She started writing me because she could read,” Amy said. “I like to think I played a role in that, and it inspired me to help others to see what they can accomplish.”

Amy gets to spend her career watching others with intellectual and developmental disabilities break through barriers and realize their true potential.

“It’s not like working because I look forward to coming to work every day,” Amy said. “I feel really lucky.”

Amy grew up in Chicago but came to northern Indiana when her husband at the time was transferred to a new job in the area. She applied at ADEC and started as a direct support professional in ADEC’s Hawthorne group home in 1993. Within two years, she moved to ADEC Industries and has spent more than two decades there so far. She hopes to retire from ADEC.

Each day is different for Amy, whose primary responsibility at ADEC Industries is to lead the first aid room. She helps the employees at ADEC Industries with medications and updates their emergency plans as needed, working closely with ADEC nurses to ensure all employees are safe and healthy. But she is also quick to step up to help with other areas of work, a quality that Michelle McGuin, ADEC’s vice president of nonresidential operations, admires about her.

“She’s a gem,” Michelle said. “She is always willing to step in where needed and she just has the best attitude.”

Amy will often fill in as a group leader when there is an absence, leading ADEC Industries employees through the work of the day. She also picks up shifts in group homes as needed.

“I just love the high pace of it and getting to know the people we serve,” Amy said. “Every one of them is different and has a unique personality.”