Jared Wareham, age 21, makes his final turn in the pool of Loma Linda University’s excercise facility, Drayson Center. He has just completed four laps of the Olympic medley with his freestyle sprint. He swims one more complete lap of the sidestroke to cool down, then comes to the edge of the pool with a big smile on his face.

What makes this remarkable is not the fact that Jared is an accomplished swimmer—as well as an accomplished cyclist, racquetball player, archer and pianist—but that Jared was born with the condition known as Down syndrome.

“Jared has had to learn to do things that most children naturally acquire,” says his mother, Dorothy Matar-Wareham. “For instance, the reflex to put his hands down when he fell forward wasn’t there.”

Dorothy has spent most of Jared’s life encouraging him to do things that many Down syndrome kids never accomplish.

“We put a pillow on the bed and had Jared fall into it,” she remembers. “Eventually, he realized he didn’t like the helpless feel of falling. Then we taught him to put his hands down to stop his fall.”

This is but one example of the efforts required over the years to push Jared to reach his current level of ability and accomplishment.

“He didn’t have the innate ability to grasp an object with his thumb and index finger,” Dorothy explains. “We had to literally take his fingers and pinch them together to grasp things until he got the idea and did it by himself.”

At the age of 3, Jared was already understanding sign language. “He learned 50 basic signs,” Dorothy details, “which helped us to communicate with him until his verbal skills developed.”

Jared is fully integrated into the Wareham family of five. His father, Gerald Wareham, M.D., is a practicing radiologist in the Inland Empire, as well as an accomplished organist and conductor of the well-known Loma Linda Men’s Chorus.

Dorothy, his mother, is a professional pianist, as well as an arranger and composer. Many of her arrangements feature the piano and organ in duet, which she and her husband regularly perform. She also serves as accompanist, and writes and arranges for the Men’s Chorus.

Jared affectionately refers to both of his sisters as his “pipsqueaks.”

Rachelle, Jared’s older sister, graduated from Loma Linda University School of Medicine this past year, and has begun her residency in the specialty of ear, nose and throat (ENT). With both parents so musically gifted, Rachelle followed their lead and took up the cello.

Lauren Joy, Jared’s younger sister, is completing her senior year at Mesa Grande Academy in Calimesa. She plans to attend La Sierra University, Riverside, in the fall and will study both nursing and music—the latter as a voice and cello major.

The entire family makes it a point to treat Jared as any normal son or brother. His household chores include emptying the trash and helping in the kitchen. Jared has also taken it upon himself to not only make his own bed, but every other bed in the household as well.

Dorothy has dedicated her life to her children. Jared, with his special needs, has perhaps required a higher percentage of her time, but she has made a special effort to be there for her daughters as well.

Jared has received his “certificate of completion” from Redlands Adventist Academy, where he attended through the 12th grade. Presently, he is being tutored by his parents.

He is learning to read and particularly enjoys reading the Bible. Several pastors in the area have invited Jared to read the Scriptures for church from time to time. Jared has also had the opportunity to perform on the piano for church members, as well as in regular recitals.

“He really wanted to play the piano,” Dorothy recalls. “However, Jared didn’t even have the basic dexterity to push down the keys—especially one after another, such as in a scale.

“I prayed to God that He would give Jared this one thing—to let Jared hear what I hear,” she continues. “Then we went to work.”

Again, it was a matter of teaching him the mechanics literally “from scratch.” Dorothy feels that God has answered her prayers on so many occasions—particularly in helping Jared to master piano technique.

Jared leads an amazingly active life. He volunteers in the kitchen at some local eating facilities and helps out at some local grocery stores. He has also been working with a local swim coach, Walt Anderson, for some time now.

A former Olympic coach and member of the U.S. Swimming Hall of Fame since 1992, Anderson works with Jared in his own personal backyard pool at his home in Redlands.

Jared has completed his Level 7 swimming certificate and mastered most of the strokes necessary to pass the American Red Cross advanced swimmer program. He has earned and been issued the Basic Water Rescue Red Cross Certificate. He is mastering his basic dives from the one-meter board.

Jared enjoys typing on the computer (at about 15 to 20 words per minute with 100 percent accuracy), learning to speak and understand Spanish, working on his cursive writing workbooks, snow-skiing, ice-skating, archery, riding his bike and doing gymnastics.

In archery, he has trained with Olympic gold medalist Mark West, and earned his own gold medal in archery for being the pioneer at the event’s premiere during a recent Special Olympics.

Dorothy attributes much of her personal understanding for dealing with a Down syndrome child to Jared’s teachers at his first elementary school in Texas.

One of his teachers there asked her one time why she was carrying Jared’s school things. “I really couldn’t answer her,” she recounts. “His teacher told me, ‘Jared is fully capable of carrying his own things.’ That statement set the pattern for the rest of our lives.”

Jared has joined Loma Linda University’s PossAbilities Program and takes full advantage of the possibilities and opportunities it provides him.

The staff at Drayson Center are honored to have Jared as a member of the facility. Several have gone out of their way to teach him such sports as racquetball and basketball.

His typical exercise routine includes jogging, working out on the stationary bike and other machines in the cardio room, a little racquetball, and of course swimming.