Escapees July-August 2022

care

Eighty Years of Learning, Loving and Leaving By RUSS JOHNSON #96114, CARE Director

After 11 years as Director of Escapees CARE, it is time to retire! My Life began in Cleveland, Ohio, learning about Catholicism and becoming an alter server in grade school. Volunteering to serve refreshments at high school meet ings followed. Thus, began a career of serving others and learning early to be open to everything; closed to nothing! On weekends in my senior year, the US Army taught me to cook, preparing me for active service after graduation. Two years of active duty, during the ’61 Berlin Crisis, provided night school bene fi ts toward an accounting degree and CPA certi fi cation. Added studies in data processing and computers provided a foundation for opportunities with eight major companies and four small service fi rms. The largest included Caterpillar, Terex, Daewoo, PNC, Standard Products, Work Wear Corp., Elwell-Parker, and the largest architecture fi rm in Ohio. M y learning curve was steep due to many different products, procedures, computer languages, markets, people skills and time management. My titles of president and vice president did not stop me from doing whatever was necessary for people to succeed. I loved fi nding people who could be helped to achieve greater success by recognizing their worth to companies. Caterpillar, in the 70s, was very male-oriented, but there were many capable women who deserved promotions, and an intelligent, but timid, clerk, with my encouragement, became a manager and tripled her income. In the early 80’s recession, I created a no-cost outplacement fi rm to help folks fi nd work. After patiently training an unemployed bartender, he became a super phone salesperson, giving him con fi dence to reunite with his family. A city needed help in their fi nances, and a farm magazine needed assistance in publications. Sometimes, we are confronted with terrible heart ache. One of my sons, Chad, suffered a broken neck during a fraternity hazing at Kent State University, leaving him a quadriplegic. To help him, the hospital trained me to nurse him in all functions to which he was no longer capable. The impact on his mother was more than she could bear, and she left the family. For my son and I, it was a new learning experience. A local college was doing research work in computer-assisted hand and arm movement. He volunteered to undergo surgery, putting wires in his arm to activate movement in his hand for grasping bottles or glasses. We researched Chris Reeve’s foundation to fi nd help in power wheel chairs, adapted cars and other devices to help move him

Escapees CARE Needs Volunteers and Donations! Volunteers receive a free site, three meals per day, free WiFi in our center and more. Volunteers give 24/32 hours per week for four weeks, driving residents and taking phone calls. Donations (via www.paypal.com/giving fund, www.iGive.com, www.escapees.com/store, or through a bequest in your will) all help support Escapees CARE. For further details, call 936 327-4256, e-mail carefd@escapees.com, 155 Care Center Dr, Livingston, TX 77351 or visit www.escapeescare.org | 2012, when a new director was needed. With 35 sites, there were only 12 to 15 residents. After working as the maintenance manager, I gave my resume to Kay Peterson and several board members. I felt I could greatly improve CARE. They hired me in 2013. In 2012, our health fair earned $8,000, and in 2014 it earned $58,000. All areas increased or improved: 55 Resi dents, 62 sites, two new paved roads, fi ve new gener ators for all sites/buildings, new walk-in freezer/cooler, convection ovens and commercial dishwasher, plus cash fl ow to carry the operations forward based on current donations. If your heart and mind are open to everyone and everything, nothing is impossible! out of bed or chairs. Although, we did our very best to live life anew; the strain on his heart took his life after seven years in and out of hospitals. All the other kids had married and left. I sold the house, bought an RV and traveled for fi ve years with the Escapees Solos. All this led me to volunteer at Escapees CARE, in Russ and resident, Barb Myers, enjoying a beautiful day, in the garden, at CARE. PHOTO BY CRYSTAL SAULTERS #149374

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July/August 2022 ESCAPEES Magazine