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The Pam Gannis Story
Two Cakes and a Wealth of First-hand Experience By Charlene Torkelson
Pam Gannis of Golden Valley, Minn., is a bundle of energy. Whether it is hurrying down the hallways of Meadowbrook Elementary School to volunteer in a classroom or cheering at a son's football game, she is a hard person to keep up with. It could be because she has her hands full with twin fourth grade sons and an older son in junior high school in addition to her at-home job in medical transcription. But many parents could easily say that they also have their hands full with several children, a job and volunteer responsibilities. What's so special about that?
Pam Gannis is also blind.
Gannis views the only inconvenience of blindness to be her inability to drive her kids around herself to all their activities. "That would be the only disadvantage I have," says Gannis. Otherwise she is just like any other parent with a set of twins.
After attending public high school and graduating from college, Gannis is now the mother of three boys and her own set of twins. She has drawn from her own experience as a twin to make a few parenting changes. First, she named her sons with un-twin-sounding names. Chad and Todd each have their own rooms and from the age of 3 on were not dressed alike. They also get their own birthday cake. Their own birthday cake!