Meet Gillette Children’s Jessie’s Club Ambassador Adelynn McCoy

Adelynn McCoy has boundless energy and brims with enthusiasm when she talks about anything – from a favorite toy camera to her love of figure skating. "Adelynn is a spitfire little seven-year-old with fire-red hair,” laughs her mom, Lynn. “That hair I think describes her personality. She is so outgoing and the kindest-hearted person I've ever met."  

Adelynn is bringing all her joy and exuberance to this year’s team of Gillette Children’s Jessie’s Club Ambassadors. Named for Jessie Haskins, who played a critical role in establishing Gillette with Dr. Arthur Gillette in 1897, Jessie’s Club Ambassadors share their personal care journeys to create connections to and build philanthropic support for the hospital’s role as a Children’s Miracle Network Hospital.  

Adelynn was born at just 33 weeks and had several complications at birth, including an intraventricular hemorrhage (bleeding into the brain tissue or the ventricles of the brain) when she was about eight days old. She underwent brain surgery at 11 days old and spent 44 days in the NICU. As she grew, Adelynn showed signs of developmental delays, which eventually led to a diagnosis of cerebral palsy (CP) at age two. Just after receiving Adelynn’s diagnosis, her family experienced the tragic loss of Lynn’s husband and Adelynn’s father, prompting their move back to their home state of Minnesota from Colorado.   

It was during this difficult time when they first connected to Gillette Children's. Gillette’s Cerebral Palsy Institute is a global leader in clinical excellence, research, and advocacy. 

"It was daunting to think about how to switch her medical care from the systems that we had set in place out in Colorado," Lynn shares. "Knowing the reputation that Gillette had and the access that we were going to be able to have with Gillette so close to home in Minnesota made that transition so much easier."  

Since moving back to Minnesota, Adelynn has received ongoing care at Gillette including physical and occupational therapies, orthotics, and neuropsychology. When asked what she appreciates about Gillette as a parent, Lynn reflects “I think that Gillette, it's the follow-through that they have. Calling to check and make sure that things are working well. When we've had to get new orthotic equipment, it's making sure that they fit perfectly.”   

Seeing Adelynn thrive with the help of her providers at Gillette has been especially meaningful to Lynn, who remembers receiving an intimidating prognosis early in Adelynn’s life, “If you can work with your team and you're able to make those connections with the providers and the therapies and the interventions, you can go so far,” she reflects. “What I was told of Adelynn when she was born, there wasn't a whole lot of hope that she would be able to walk and talk, but she proved them wrong, and she will prove everyone wrong her whole life. I think that’s what is important for parents to know: That initial diagnosis or that initial conversation you have is so scary, but that's not actually what their life has to be because there's so much hope and there's so much potential. Gillette offers that for them.”   

That potential was realized at a big milestone for Adelynn last winter – her first figure skating competition. It was a culmination of years of hard work for Adelynn both on and off the ice. “Through all of the interventions with physical therapy and occupational therapy and the orthotics teams and all of the doctors and medical providers, they have really helped push her and treat her and give her strategies for her to be able to move her body the way that she can now,” says Lynn, “but then she got to compete, to wear the cute dress, have the people cheer for her and get the trophy at the end. She was so proud of herself.”  

When you see Adelynn on the ice, you can see that sense of pride – the feeling of living a life defined by dreams, not a diagnosis. "She has been able to take what she has learned and taken the support of all of her providers and is writing her own story," notes Lynn. "She is thriving at school and in all of her activities and getting to experience life in a way that I would've never thought possible six years ago."  

If you want to learn more about Gillette’s Jessie’s Club Ambassador program, visit gillette.mn/jessies-club.  

More information on the Gillette Children’s Cerebral Palsy Institute and our commitment to excellence and innovation in CP care is available at gillette.mn/cerebral-palsy-institute.