MILL CREEK — He’s overcoming the odds to the beat of his own drum.
Brandan Gelo has broken the glass ceiling at Mill Creek’s Jackson High, exceeding expectations for special education students. Now, the school culture is changing as others follow the senior’s lead.
Doctors told Brandan’s adoptive parents, Julie and Lynn Gelo, of Bothell, he probably would not live to the age of 1. He was not expected to walk, talk, tie his shoes, use the bathroom on his own or respond to people.
Now, at 19, Brandan is shows off his musical talent — strumming his guitar, playing piano and keeping the beat on drums — every chance he gets. He’s gone beyond responding to people, making many friends and becoming a leader in the school band.
“He’s a miracle,” Julie Gelo said. “Special ed kids often get shoved off to the side. Music has saved his life.”
As a freshman, Brandan was the first musician with developmental disabilities to play in the school band. This year, more than a dozen others with special needs are playing percussion and performing at games with Jackson’s drumline.
Parents and teachers agree that connecting those with special needs to the rest of the student body has benefited both groups. There aren’t many other chances for them to take classes together.
“It’s kind of like a family,” Brandan said of his bandmates. “They keep me safe and protected. They’re always there for me.”
Brandan’s rise to school-rockstar status wasn’t easy.
He was born on the streets of Seattle, with several serious medical problems from fetal alcohol syndrome. Unable to care for him, Brandan’s birth mother, a victim of domestic violence who was homeless during her pregnancy, put him in foster care.
Julie and Lynn Gelo have six children. They’ve also adopted Brandan and nine others with special needs through the foster care system. The family is planning a “small Christmas” this year with at least 16 people coming for dinner.
Julie Gelo, 61, works as a child welfare training manager and in the fetal alcohol clinic at the University of Washington. Lynn, 71, is a machinist.
When the Gelos got Brandan at 10 days old, he weighed four-and-a-half pounds and was suffering with severe medical issues. If he survived, doctors expected him to need round-the-clock care.
“If we would have given up on him, the world would have been deprived this amazing individual,” Julie Gelo said. “Just look at his social ability and his musical talent.”
When he would cry as a baby, Gelo soothed him by playing a pow-wow drum, honoring his birth family’s Northern Cheyenne roots. As Brandan grew, he would turn most anything into an instrument, beating on pots, pans, his car seat — anything that made noise.
When he started band in high school, Brandan had trouble with sensory overload from the loud sounds. He sometimes would get so overwhelmed that he’d curl up in a fetal position on the floor. He was shy about talking to people, let alone performing in front of an audience.
But he stuck with it. Band Director Lesley Moffat helped Brandan find ways to work around his problems.
“This kid, through music, has overcome so many obstacles,” she said.
Moffat uses music to help special needs students face challenges in ways other activities cannot. She started by having Brandan play quieter percussion instruments so his mistakes wouldn’t be obvious. He progressed to playing the bass drum, keeping the band’s heartbeat alongside all the other drummers.
With the work, Brandan’s confidence improved, he made friends and found ways to fit in at school. He now plays guitar, banjo and piano. Since he doesn’t read music, he learns by listening.
“It takes me a while,” he said, holding a 1957 Huntington guitar at his home on Saturday. “I like to play old music, like bluegrass and rock-and-roll.”
As he strummed his red-and-black guitar, he wore a matching plaid shirt with denim jeans and cowboy boots. Brandan said his western style was a tribute to his grandfather, who died a few weeks ago in North Dakota.
Gene Lund introduced his grandson to country musicians such as Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline. They became his favorites.
Now, Brandan is a teaching assistant for the school concert band. He played with the wind ensemble at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in 2012. As Gelo watched that performance, she thought of her son’s birth mother, who died at 28.
“I hope she can see what a cool kid he really is,” she said.
Brandan’s grit most often comes with a smile and a positive attitude.
“He always looks at the bright side,” said Graydon Gunthardt, a friend and former bandmate. “His spirit has inspired me.”
Gunthardt spent time with Brandan, playing in the Jackson Four, a swing and oldies group they created with two other classmates. Through their friendship, Gunthardt said, he’s learned not to make assumptions about people before getting to know them.
With more special and general education students making friends, Moffat said, she and other educators have noticed changes at school. Students are sitting together at lunch, exchanging high-fives in the hallways and helping each other. Brandan’s bandmates, for example, signal him when it’s time to play.
“They’re not just being nice because he has special needs,” Moffat said. “They’ve built genuine friendships.”
Principal Dave Peters credits a decrease in bullying over the past three years to band and other programs that get students to interact.
“Students are treating each other better,” said Peters, who occasionally jams with Brandan on his own banjo. “Special needs kids are not only included but celebrated.”
With more special education students joining band, Alex Carlson-Helo was hired this year to help teach music. As a student at Jackson, she set her sights on teaching special education when she and Brandan became friends in band.
Another friend, Meagan Moffat, wrote her college essay about how playing music with Brandan changed her life. She’s now majoring in musical theater at Central Washington University.
Brandan calls Moffat and Carlson-Helo his bodyguards. They used to walk him to class to make sure he didn’t get picked on.
“It made it cool for special ed kids to be in general education with us,” Carlson-Helo said. “Now, Brandan leads my team. And he is capable of doing so much more.”
When Carlson-Helo was crowned Miss Washington Teen USA in 2012, she took Brandan to homecoming. She was his date to the dance again in 2013 but this time Moffat came along.
“He certainly had bragging rights and he was not shy about telling people,” Carlson-Helo said
Now, other special education students look up to Brandan. Cathy Moore, of Everett, said her son Anthony, 16, has made strides socially because of the friends he’s made in band. Now he feels he fits in.
Beyond the social benefits, Lisa Grossman, also of Everett, said including students with disabilities in band has helped her son, Scott, improve his hand-eye coordination. He’s also learning to read music. “I play drums,” Scott, 16, said. “We make some noise.”
At their Christmas concert last week, the special education musicians played boomwhackers by tapping the colorful, tuned-percussion tubes on their thighs to keep the beat. The audience sang along as they played “Jingle Bells.” After the show, students exchanged smiles and high-fives, before taking a bow.
“It’s really cool. I want to be in the band,” said Brandan’s brother, Cody Gelo, 9.
After high school — special needs students may attend until they are 21 — Brandan hopes to work at a music store and continue playing music. No matter what happens with his music or his life, he said, one thing is for certain. He’ll never stop striving to beat expectations.
“You have to keep on going,” Brandan said. “You just roll on through.”
Amy Nile: 425-339-3192; anile@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @AmyNileReports
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