'A huge responsibility:' Jim Shamel tries to set good example for his three children

DENNISON ? Jim Shamel juggles many roles in his life ? assistant fire chief of Dennison and part-time pastor of St. Paul's United Church of Christ in Port Washington, but one of his favorite roles is being the father of three children, including a special needs son.

"It's a great feeling," he said. "It's a huge responsibility just trying to set that example for them to be good, responsible, decent human beings and treat everybody with kindness. My mom and dad always taught us that. I had a good example with my mom and dad, treating everybody with respect and being kind to everybody. It didn't matter who they were, where they were from, what poverty level they came from, where they lived. I try to pass that on to my kids."

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He and his wife, Marcia, are the parents of Carson, 30, Emma, 20, and Jackson, 13.

Born two months early

Carson was born two months early, weighing 2 pounds, 4 ounces. He spent 56 days at Akron Children's Hospital after he was born. They family made multiple trips back there after that.

Carson has cerebral palsy and is non-verbal. He is also on medication for a seizure disorder.

"He's been through it, but he's doing really well for everything he's been through. He's a happy kid," Shamel said. "He put a little scare into us. We kind of hesitated having another after that ordeal. They didn't think he was going to make it for a while. They told us on the second day after he was born if we wanted to have him baptized, we better do it. That next day he just made a turn around and things started getting better."

Daughter Emma came early too. She weighed 4 pounds, 2 ounces and spent nine days in Aultman Hospital in Canton. But she has had no health problems since then. She recently graduated from Aultman College with a degree in radiology and works at Trinity Hospital Twin City in Dennison.

Choosing to adopt

Their youngest, Jackson, is adopted.

"We wanted to have another one, but we didn't want to do it the natural way because of the issues we had with the first two," Shamel said. "So, we actually started the process of adopting through China. But then that process got so waylaid. The waiting list got up to two years, three years. Then we found out about an adoption agency in Columbus. They called us on Sept. 23, 2010, and said they had a boy up for adoption and wanted to know if we were interested, so we said yes. That's how we ended up with Jackson. He was 5 weeks old when we got him."

Jackson has some behavioral issues but is receiving services through Tuscarawas County Family & Children First.

Services available locally

In addition to his other roles, Shamel also serves as a family representative for Family & Children First. He wants parents to know about the services available for children in this area.

"There's so many people that need services of all kinds ? doctors' appointments, counseling appointments, all kinds of different things where they don't know where to go. It's just trying to get that information out to people that there are people out there to help them. It's just a matter of finding them," he said.

They include mental health services, counseling services, day camps for kids and camps for troubled kids.

His advice to parents with special needs children?

"Don't quit. There's a lot of people out there to help. It's just a matter of making some phone calls. Physicians know a lot of things. Your family doctor would be able to point you in a good direction. Once you get hooked up with one of the services in the county, ask questions. What's available? Who can I turn for this? Where can I go to for this? The people know. It's just a matter of asking those questions and getting the answers and following up on that."

Help from wife, family and friends

Shamel has been a firefighter for 24 years, 14 of them as chief. He has been the pastor of St. Paul's United Church of Christ for nearly two years.

He credits his wife in helping his life work.

"Without her, I don't know where I'd be. She's kind of been the thing that holds this whole family together, more than I do," he said.

His extended family and people at church also play an important role.

"It's all about the people around you more than anything," Shamel said. "I don't think you could do it by yourself. I don't think I could do it by myself. You try to do the best you can, but you need people around you to help build you up and encourage and move you forward. I'm lucky. I've got a lot of that."

Reflecting on his life, Shamel said, "It's been an interesting ride. Didn't expect to have a special needs son. Didn't expect to adopt and didn't expect to be a pastor. All of these things kind of came up. But it's been a good life. It's been fun."

Reach Jon at 330-364-8415 or at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Jim Shamel of Dennison enjoys being the father of three children