Barbara Sackett credits her very survival to keen organization skills. Now 76, she looks back on her life as the mother of eight, a full-time worker and a volunteer, and shakes her head.

“I’m a good plate-spinner” she said with a husky laugh.

Simply being mom to eight kids might have been daunting enough, but when Barbara and Harry Sackett’s daughter Lee Ann was born in 1956, the world became instantly more challenging. Lee Ann was born with Down syndrome, which was known in those days as Mongoloidism.

The term reflected a different era and different attitudes toward people with developmental disabilities. At that time, the prevailing treatment of children born with any type of physical or mental disability was to send them away from their families to be raised and live their lives in mental institutions.

The Sacketts didn’t see it that way. They wondered why Lee Ann couldn’t do the same things as her siblings, such as attend school, live at home and perhaps go on to live a thriving adult life. So like some other “radical” parents in the mid-1950s, they said no to the conventional wisdom of the day. They started working for change.

After Lee Ann’s birth, Sackett went back to school to get a master’s degree in special education. She helped found the Benton County Arc program, which originally was known as the Associated for Retarded Citizens and enrolled Lee Ann into the Arc’s first school for the disabled.

At the time, the law did not allow children with disabilities to attend public schools. She lobbied the Legislature through multiple sessions until that law was changed in 1969 to allow public schools finally open their doors to children like Lee Ann.

In 1971, she became the state’s first coordinator of services for the disabled in a pioneering program for Benton County. She later moved on to a similar statewide position.

“We didn’t have much in the way of services,” she said. “We didn’t have anything residential.” That has since changed, as institutions disappeared. Now, integration into society and small assisted-living, community-based housing is the norm for people with disabilities.

At the same time that she was working fulltime for Benton County and then the state, Sackett also remained a dedicated volunteer. She not only was she the president of The Arc’s state and national organizations, she also served as organizer of groups such as the United Way, campaigning door-to-door after work.

Sackett retired just over 10 years ago from a series of state-level jobs, all related to services for people with disabilities. But retirement hasn’t slowed her down. She volunteers on the board of Willamette Neighborhood Housing Services, works behind the counter of the Arc Thrift Store in Philomath, serves as the chairwoman of Benton County’s Special Transportation Advisory Committee and is the treasurer for State Rep. Sara Gelser’s campaign. She still advocates for the disabled at every opportunity.

Earlier this month, she was named winner of the 2008 Oregon Governor’s Volunteer Awards Outstanding Senior Volunteer Award. She is both humbled and embarrassed by the honor — one of many such awards she’s received during her lifetime of service.

“There are so many people who do so much more than I do,” she said. “They just don’t have the cheering squad I have.”

Her daughter Lee Ann is now 51, and many of her mother’s hopes for her have come true: Lee Ann lives in her own apartment, has a part-time job and volunteers to help others — just like her mom. She is thriving, just as her mother had hoped.

Sackett, who suffered a mild stroke in December, said this gives her peace. She knows that if she passes away before her daughter does, network of resources are now in place to support Lee Ann — a network formed in large part through the efforts of Sackett and other parents who weren’t willing to lock their children away.

At a glance

Who: Barbara Sackett, 76

What: Full-time volunteer

Hometown: Lived in Corvallis more than 40 years

Most recent honor: Named 2008 Oregon Governor’s Volunteer Awards Outstanding Senior Volunteer Award winner

Family: Eight adult children, many grandchildren

Biggest challenge: Finding time to do just about anything