Piotr Szczesny - 2026 Apex Care Professional of the Year Award Nominee
I remember a call with our local APEX director of Care & Development in October 2025, where, when she asked me how things were going with our current Care Professional, Piotr, I couldn’t stop raving about him and that I am writing his ‘Care Professional of the Year’ nomination every day in my head. So I finally get to put to paper what a wonderful family member Piotr has become!
Piotr has been a tremendous support for our family and our son, Kai, whose symptoms include epilepsy, autism spectrum, ADHD, and delays in several areas. Before Piotr even arrived, we had great hopes that he would be perfect for our son’s needs. But it turns out that Piotr is there for our entire family, which is so important for us these days as we are spread out over 2 continents a lot of the time, and very much appreciate the extra set of eyes on things and his thinking along with day-to-day tasks. Being helpful to all of us beyond his work with our Kai is the most normal thing for Piotr since he is part of the family.
Piotr’s unwavering enthusiasm for making the best out of any day for our son has been a game-changer. Piotr’s background as a special needs caregiver (Heilerziehungspfleger) and the experiences he has made during his training proved to be a great fit for our son’s needs.
Specifically, Piotr is very much in tune with Kai’s mood and behaviors and can instantly pivot activities to adapt when needed. When something bothers Kai and he gets frustrated, Piotr is super patient in helping Kai express his emotions and work through them with him. Kai can get stuck in repetitive behavior, but Piotr already recognizes that before burnout happens, and initiates redirecting to different activities.
From the get-go, Piotr wanted to know what Kai has been working on and what we would like for him to continue to work on. Every day, Piotr builds a plan with Kai that pictures the tasks that Kai should focus on, and they work through it together, such as writing letters within the lines, and reading out sight words, rather than having memorized them. This is something that Kai has struggled with for quite some time, but with Piotr’s patience and expert approach to getting the task done, Kai now actually focuses on reading more so than memorization.
On the non-educational level, we got really lucky that Piotr loves sports and moving around a lot, since that totally matches Kai’s high energy and desire for activity. Piotr and Kai spend a lot of time playing soccer or basketball in the yard or on the fields in our area, as well as scootering, and Kai loves it when Piotr cheers for him when he succeeds.
What really impressed us, outside of Piotr’s work with Kai and interacting with us on a daily basis, is how Piotr tried to connect with our other child, Soren, who lives in Germany. Even though Piotr and Soren had literally only spent 1 day under the same roof, Piotr has gone above and beyond making a connection with Soren, texting, sending pictures of what he’s doing with Kai, and truly wanting to know how Soren is doing abroad. The kindness he carries in his heart is wonderful.
Besides all the day-to-day work with Kai, it is so wonderful to have Piotr around for the person that he is; to us, he’s like a grown-up ‘son’ we absolutely love to have as part of our family. Whatever it is, Piotr will throw himself into any new challenge with all his heart and make things happen, always wanting to grow himself, literally every single day! When we’re around together, we talk a lot about everything that’s going on in our and his life, and it’s great to hear Piotr talk about his various future plans, as well as his plans for his time while he’s with us.
We’ve been the lucky recipients of Piotr’s kindness, consideration, expertise in working with Kai, and very mature thinking. It’s really hard to think that he won’t be around our family forever. Piotr is our rock star care professional from a professional and personal perspective.
The Riedt Family
