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Thirty-eighth Job of Bob - Disabled college students' assistant; van driver
This entry was posted on 8/10/2011 1:30 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob.
The summer of 2003 saw a couple of job failures on my part, one with my detour into the grocery store world as a "lettuce cutter" and then, that bleak experience with the private ambulance service.
At the end of the school year in May of 2003, I graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice, Be that era of my life as it may, one small conversation with another older classmate had stuck in the back of my mind all that summer. A couple weeks before graduation, my pal Dan asked me if I might be interested in driving for the Students with Disabilities office. There would always be a student worker turn-over, of course. As it turns out UW-Whitewater has quite a well-known rubric to accommodate handicapped students. Of course, I was aware of their famous wheelchair basketball program. However, when ever ol' Danno mentioned his campus job as a van driver for handicapped students, it went in one ear and out the other.
I had already secured a job in the Adult Resources Center back around Christmas. And, I would be back as a graduate student. But, my abysmal summer job experiences, left me hunting more work hours. Being around campus during the summer for a summer class, Dan finally got me into visit the van office. They had three or four old vans with wheel chair ramps, and a new bus-van was on the to-get list. The arrival of said new van that could hold 30 people or so including several wheel chairs, was pending. The old standard vans could only hold three or four students in wheel chairs.
The office was a catacomb of different enclaves set up to accommodate different handicap needs. The obvious one was transportation. Other services included various counseling, academic help, and a computer lab.
The computer lab was helpful to a guy like me. I would use it while waiting between classes or before taking a driver shift. The monitor screens were extra large. I never belabored the perk to others, but it was getting harder for me to see text on smaller screens, so I found myself quietly gravitating to that lab even when I was not working there.
There was another thing. These 19 and 20 year old handicapped students knew how to talk to old bastards like me. Think about it. For some of them with handicaps and disabilities ("challenges" was the new word that had entered the language) from birth, their whole lives they have had to talk and maneuver through their situations...., with adults - doctors, parents, care givers, wheelchair repairmen, drivers, teachers, counselors, and tutors.
In fact, I found myself having to bump up my usual guy-beer-talking self while around some of these students that I was carting around campus in those rusty vans. Continually, they picked my brain about politics, Vietnam, farming, law, journalism, ambulance work, and my Army experiences - to name just a few.
For five graduate semesters and some summer work, I spent a couple two to three hour shifts per school day driving around students. Some of the driving took me to neighboring towns to take students to events, work, and internships. Mostly, the task required students to be transported around campus from their dorm rooms to class. Some of the older students lived off campus in apartments.
In the summers the vans were hot. In the Wisconsin winters the vans were ice boxes. The roads by campus were crowded and narrow. Ice and snow bound streets were a challenge. Mechanical lifts froze up in the arctic Wisconsin winters. We did finally get our new high tech van. And, it was nice; just a bit big to get around small campus roads and up to handicapped drop points. But all that was tempered by the people I got to meet.
There was one small variable that kept me in the right frame of mind. The job never allowed me to forget that I myself had spent almost a year in a wheel chair back in the year 2000. It kept my mind straight. My year of living in a wheel chair only paled in comparison to what some of the kids endured for their entire lives.
Other than grumbling about politics, work, and school, I do not remember one single complaint concerning their health situations from any of the dozens of students I transported around in their wheel chairs during that time period.
It was an extraordinary lesson...., for an old bastard like me.
Note: This blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Army Private First Class Jacob Alexander Gassen, 21, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, was killed on Monday, November 29, 2010, at Combat Outpost Lonestar in the Pachir Wa Agam district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. An insurgent wearing an Afghan border policeman uniform attacked his unit with small arms fire. Gassen was one of six soldiers killed. Private First Class Gassen was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Troop,1st Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes Private First Class Gassen was an Army medic. Jacob graduated from Beaver Dam in 2008. He studied for a year at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh before joining the Army. He had aspirations to someday be a nurse. Gassen had just turned 21 on November 19 before his death. The Journal Sentinel went on to mention he had been a swimmer for the YMCA's Sea Dragons swim team; he was later hired on to be a swim instructor and lifeguard. He had played viola in his high school orchestra. Jacob Gassen is the third Beaver Dam student to be killed in the Afghan and Iraq wars: Kirk Straseskie was the first Wisconsin military service person to die in Iraq, in May of 2003; Ryan Cantafio was killed in Iraq on Thanksgiving Day in 2004.
The Web site wiscnews.com in a series of articles from the Beaver Dam Daily Citizen notes Gassen was on his first overseas tour of duty. He he enjoyed playing golf and liked fishing. He had participated in the Academic Decathlon. In addition to the YMCA he had also been a lifeguard at the Columbus Aquatic Center. Jacob was born on November 19, 1989, in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. He joined the Army in September of 2009.
At the time of his death Army Private First Class Jacob Gassen was survived by his birth mother Lisa Genardo; her children Samantha, Sara, Emily, Steven, and Jennifer; by parents Gregory and Barbara Gassen; two brothers Christopher and Jesse Gassen; maternal grandmother Phyllis Luck; grandfather Joe Genardo; an aunt and two uncles M. John (Leiko) Gassen, Valerie (Bill) Dahlke, and Dan (Lorrie) Luck.
Army Private First Class Jacob A. Gassen was the 27th Wisconsin military service person to be killed in Afghanistan since October of 2001.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
102,070 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
10,125 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,477 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1680 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
931 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
1 American/Coalition casualty in Libyan "Operation Odyssey Dawn" since March, 2011
32,159 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
13,011 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
107 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
34 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
3 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in the U.S. related to "The War on Terror" since October, 2001.
149 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since September, 2001.
5 journalists (regional and independents) have been killed in Libya since March, 2011.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org
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