Four months ago, 35-year-old Katy Alexander tirelessly searched Facebook Marketplace for the perfect vehicle: an old bus.
This would soon become her pride and joy, and from October 31, her full time job. As an occupational therapist in the Marion County public school district for the past 10 years, Alexander sensed there was a space of need in her community. She knew there were children with disabilities in the area without access to sensory services, especially home schooled students in more rural areas. This inspired her to start The Sensory Bus.
Alexander studied at Keiser University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to become an occupational therapy assistant and about five years later, went on to acquire her masters in occupational therapy at the University of St. Augustine in 2019. The Sensory Bus is north central Florida’s only mobile occupational therapy and sensory service led by a registered occupational therapist and certified autism specialist.
WUFT News reporter Reagan Poland sat down with Alexander to discuss her impact in the community.
Poland: How did the idea for a sensory bus come about?
Alexander: I felt there was a gap in our community. There's not enough services for our kids, especially our kids with disabilities. I talked to a family and they were frustrated by the lack of resources and I was like, ‘Yeah there's nothing around here.’ And then I was like, ‘Why don't I do something about that?’ I really feel that God led me to the bus. He helped me come up with the name, with what I was gonna do and it's been a fun ride since. That was last November, so almost a year.
Poland: With the sensory bus, is it to get to families in areas where they don't have access to occupational therapists?
Alexander: The sensory bus – it's to kind of bridge that gap of lack of services. We take the Step Up For Students scholarship, which is very popular for kids with disabilities. They can get the Unique Ability Scholarship and have access to the bus there. It's really for our kiddos who don't quite qualify for outpatient services or they're on waiting lists for outpatient services.
Poland: How do your services on the sensory bus differ from normal occupational or outpatient therapy?
Alexander: The very unique thing about me is I come to you, I bring the sensory experience to you, whereas home health you're pretty limited in the equipment that you can bring in. If I were to do a home health visit I'd have to rely on what the parents had for sensory equipment because a lot of my equipment is big.
Your kid gets the experience of an outpatient, if not more experience of an outpatient sensory clinic, in the comfort of their own front yard. And there's no waiting list for me.
Poland: The outside of your bus, you mentioned earlier, says veteran owned and operated. I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit more about that, and if that's really important to your identity?
Alexander: I joined the military right out of high school. I was like, well, I definitely need to do something. And I'm from Crystal River, Florida, so there's not much to do.
I did four and a half years in the United States Navy. I was stationed in Bremerton, Washington on the USS John C. Stennis. I did three tours and I was a supervisor. It really helped me become a leader, become somebody who was motivated, driven.
I met my husband in the military and we've been together for over 14 years now. After, I brought him down to Florida and we've been here ever since. And, we have a beautiful 2-year-old daughter that we adopted.
Poland: What made you decide to go back to school to get your degree for occupational therapy?
Alexander: I worked at Staples when I got out of the Navy and was like, I cannot work here forever. I thought physical therapy might be cool, but I've always been a creative person. And I was like, what is occupational therapy?
I started looking into that and it was just singing to me. I went and got my associate's degree as an occupational therapy assistant. I did my internships and I met my mentor, and she was like, ‘Hey, do you wanna come work in the school setting?’
And I was like, ‘Absolutely. That sounds awesome.’ I did that for about five years, loved it. But I wanted to do something bigger than myself, so I went back to school and got my master's in occupational therapy in 2019.
Poland: What does the typical day look like?
Alexander: The typical day is crazy, I don't even get lunch. But I love every minute of it honestly. I will start seeing my first client around eight o'clock. I'll go and grab them from their house, talk to their parents a little bit, see how the week has been, see if there's any changes, anything we need to work on specifically. Some of them are already waiting for me because they're so excited to come on the bus.
I see most of my clients for about an hour. I target my interventions to sensory integration and primitive reflex integration, those foundational things that the kiddos need in order to achieve higher level learning and motor skills.
But if I'm not seeing a family directly, I make it very known that I am available for resources. I do popup events as well. I have an agreement with the City of Ocala Parks and Rec. I will park the bus there, do a little event. So that's been really fun too.
Poland: What is your next venture?
Alexander: Those change on the daily. My five year plan would be to have a bigger bus, that I could have multiple therapists and be able to reach more families.
But also I'd love to have a brick and mortar gym, where families could come in, receive services, but also have an area where they could play on equipment that is appropriate for them.
The name of our gym is Milestones in Motion and we are currently searching for a space to open up. It will be a therapy gym guided by professionals who are trained to deal with multiple kids, and on disabilities and what to look out for and things like that as well.
We have a lot of kiddos in our community that can't do any playgrounds because they're not fenced in, they're not accessible for them, they don't have communication boards. We have families that can't go to Sky Zone because quite frankly, it's dangerous for some of our kiddos that don't have great motor control. So, I wanna create a space that's welcoming to all kids, but accessible to kids with disabilities or limitations.
Poland: Do you feel that the families that you've met in the school system and your connections will follow you to the gym?
Alexander: I hope so because I have made a lot of connections and friends in the school setting. The teachers who work with the special needs population, they know of the bus, they are very supportive and they see the need.
I think word of mouth and the support that I've already felt from the community, that's gonna help carry me to the gym.