Never Quit winner offers help with social services, but also a judgment-free zone

by AFSCME Staff  |  April 25, 2024

Off-duty Florida paramedics win Never Quit awards for rescuing tornado victims

March 25, 2024

The damage left behind by several powerful tornadoes that ripped through northwestern Florida back in January are a reminder that, in the hands of Mother Nature, the structures we build to protect ourselves are as frail as children’s toys.

But the people who protect us in a natural disaster are anything but frail. The courage and determination of paramedics, fire fighters and other first responders who put their lives on the line to save ours are formidable in their own way.

AFSCME members Heath Schmidt and Paul Tucker were in the Florida Panhandle on Jan. 9. The two paramedics, who work for UF Health ShandsCair in Gainesville, were off-duty and had traveled to the Panama City area, some 200 miles away from home, on union business.

It was 5 o’clock in the morning when their cell phones went off announcing a tornado warning. Soon the electricity went out. Then Tucker’s cell phone rang — it was one of their co-workers back in Gainesville.

“He’d heard that we were in the Panhandle area, and he told us that his son was in a campsite where a tornado had gone through and now he was trapped under the roof of his cabin, and he couldn’t get help,” Tucker said. “It turned out his son was only five miles away. I told him we would head there.”

Tucker and Schmidt knew that what they were about to do was risky because the storms were still coming.

“We knew we could get ourselves into a bad situation,” Schmidt said. “When you’re working with your department and you need assistance, you always know there’s someone coming behind you. But in this case, we were on our own.”

As they drove out there, “There were power lines all over the ground, and we came across a washed-out bridge,” Tucker recalled. “What we walked into was mind-blowing: buildings collapsed, RVs flipped over. It looked like a war zone.”

They arrived at the campsite as their colleague’s son was being loaded for transport to a hospital — he had some pretty bad lacerations to his legs, Tucker said. Then he and Schmidt talked to the first responders who had done a primary search of the area.

“Paul and I decided to do a secondary search, and we ended up finding two people who were injured inside RVs that had rolled over from the tornado,” Schmidt said. “They were able to holler back and say they were injured. And we were able to assist them.”

For their service to their community, Schmidt and Tucker, who are vice president and president, respectively, of Local 260 (AFSCME Florida), are winners of our union’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

“I like to go home at the end of my shift and feel that I made a difference today,” said Schmidt, when asked why he chose to serve as a critical care flight paramedic. “Every day I go to work, I’m doing something for the greater good.”

“I went into this line of work because I wanted to help people, I enjoy helping people,” said Tucker, who serves as a critical care paramedic. “I never look for awards. I do what I do because I want to do it.”

Tucker and Schmidt also agreed that any one of their colleagues would have responded the same way.

“Any one of the people I work with would have made the exact same decision,” Schmidt said. “I work with some incredible people that put it all on the line every day, and none of them would have hesitated to do exactly what we did.”

Helping some of Hawaii’s most vulnerable, Never Quit winner embodies can-do spirit

March 11, 2024

Mary Akimo-Lu’uwai, a member of the Hawaii Government Employees Association (HGEA/AFSCME Local 152), is a case management coordinator at the Maui Community Mental Health Center/Hawaii Department of Health, Adult Mental Health Division.

For 17 years, on the island of Maui, she has been helping individuals with mental illness and the families who care for them. And from the beginning, she has loved every minute of it, knowing she is making a difference in the lives of some of her community’s most vulnerable people.

“What gives me the biggest satisfaction is working with a population that is not an easy population to work with, but often it’s because of stigma, of how they are perceived,” Akimo-Lu’uwai says. “Yet they are like anybody else who is hurt or needs help, and I love being able to help.”

Last summer, when wildfires raged through the town of Lahaina, Akimo Lu’uwai sprang into action.

“She created plans for her teams to be one of the first responders to provide more than the much-needed mental health care,” says Patricia Codorniz, a co-worker. “Today, she continues to take the lead and work many long hours leading her team and providing outreach to those affected by these devastating events.”

For her service to her community, Akimo-Lu’uwai is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

“I’ve never been one to say, ‘I can’t do that,’ or, ‘This can’t be done,’” says Akimo-Lu’uwai. “I won’t settle for that. If I can’t get to it right away, I’ll say, ‘Give me some time and I’ll see what I can do.’”

Codorniz, a nurse supervisor in the Adult Mental Health Division who nominated Akimo-Lu’uwai for the award, says she did so to recognize Akimo-Lu’uwai’s extraordinary determination to help individuals with mental illness.

“Working with many Maui nonprofit agencies throughout the years, Mary has demonstrated a deep compassion to support the lives of community members with severe persistent mental illnesses,” she says. “Working next to Mary on many cases, there are great success stories and outcomes that often seemed too difficult to overcome.”

Akimo-Lu’uwai says she enjoys connecting people with the resources they need and knows she is good at her job. But helping others is more than a job for her; it’s a “core value” she learned from her parents, she says, especially her dad, who taught her to “always help others if you know how, and don’t sit idle if there is work to be done.”

She says she is motivated to do her very best because she loves making a difference in her community.

“I don’t know everything, but if you come to me and you need some help or need some guidance, and you trust me enough to help you make that connection, then I’m going to help you make that connection,” says Akimo-Lu’uwai. “And if you need more help afterwards, then I’m still here for you.”

Washington state probation counselor makes a difference in girls’ lives

by AFSCME Staff  |  February 27, 2024

Mary Akimo-Lu’uwai, a member of the Hawaii Government Employees Association (HGEA/AFSCME Local 152), is a case management coordinator at the Maui Community Mental Health Center/Hawaii Department of Health, Adult Mental Health Division.

For 17 years, on the island of Maui, she has been helping individuals with mental illness and the families who care for them. And from the beginning, she has loved every minute of it, knowing she is making a difference in the lives of some of her community’s most vulnerable people.

“What gives me the biggest satisfaction is working with a population that is not an easy population to work with, but often it’s because of stigma, of how they are perceived,” Akimo-Lu’uwai says. “Yet they are like anybody else who is hurt or needs help, and I love being able to help.”

Last summer, when wildfires raged through the town of Lahaina, Akimo Lu’uwai sprang into action.

“She created plans for her teams to be one of the first responders to provide more than the much-needed mental health care,” says Patricia Codorniz, a co-worker. “Today, she continues to take the lead and work many long hours leading her team and providing outreach to those affected by these devastating events.”

For her service to her community, Akimo-Lu’uwai is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

“I’ve never been one to say, ‘I can’t do that,’ or, ‘This can’t be done,’” says Akimo-Lu’uwai. “I won’t settle for that. If I can’t get to it right away, I’ll say, ‘Give me some time and I’ll see what I can do.’”

Codorniz, a nurse supervisor in the Adult Mental Health Division who nominated Akimo-Lu’uwai for the award, says she did so to recognize Akimo-Lu’uwai’s extraordinary determination to help individuals with mental illness.

“Working with many Maui nonprofit agencies throughout the years, Mary has demonstrated a deep compassion to support the lives of community members with severe persistent mental illnesses,” she says. “Working next to Mary on many cases, there are great success stories and outcomes that often seemed too difficult to overcome.”

Akimo-Lu’uwai says she enjoys connecting people with the resources they need and knows she is good at her job. But helping others is more than a job for her; it’s a “core value” she learned from her parents, she says, especially her dad, who taught her to “always help others if you know how, and don’t sit idle if there is work to be done.”

She says she is motivated to do her very best because she loves making a difference in her community.

“I don’t know everything, but if you come to me and you need some help or need some guidance, and you trust me enough to help you make that connection, then I’m going to help you make that connection,” says Akimo-Lu’uwai. “And if you need more help afterwards, then I’m still here for you.”

In Alaska, a nurse’s aide eases elders’ paths

February 12, 2024

“Getting older is not easy,” says Crystal Basnaw, a certified nursing assistant at Fairbanks Pioneer Home, a state-run senior living facility in Alaska. “I feel like my job is to bring all the joy and comfort that I can.”

For the past 14 years, Basnaw, a member of ASEA/AFSCME Local 52, has not only brought joy to the lives of the “elders,” as they’re called at the Fairbanks Pioneer Home, but she’s been a devoted co-worker.

“She’s limitlessly kind with [the elders],” says David Leslie, a former assisted living aide at the Pioneer Home who worked with Basnaw. “She works tirelessly, even when we are understaffed, and always offers guidance and listens to anyone who needs someone to talk to.”

Leslie explains that he came to the job at the Pioneer Home without any medical experience, but that Basnaw was a crucial lifeline for him early on.

“Crystal was not just kind,” said Leslie, “but ready to help out with any difficulties I faced: finding supplies, assisting residents, or just being someone to talk to, either about our job or anything affecting our community.”

Basnaw chalks that up to remembering the feeling of being new on the job herself. She had been a stay-at-home mom before returning to the workforce, and she was nervous at the thought of the up-close-and-personal interactions she knew would come with the job.

“I was super shy. I’m still shy,” says Basnaw, “I cried the first week I went to work. Just to get the jitters out. So, I want to take people under my wing and say, ‘If I can do it, you can do it.’ I make them feel comfortable. I always have an ear for someone.”

But there’s more to Basnaw’s gifts than that. She’s driven to bring dignity and fulfillment to the lives of the 90-some residents who live at the Pioneer Home.

“My job is to help people who aren’t able to do it for themselves,” says Basnaw.

That might involve writing letters for the elders who are no longer able to. Or making phone calls on their behalf. That comes on top of her day-to-day duties, which include helping residents — who range in age from 65 to 104 — eat, bathe, get dressed, take their medicine, and take part in the homes’ activities.

While Basnaw may see these attributes as “just part of the job,” Leslie says that Basnaw brings much more to the table.

“There were times where I was panicking and didn't know what to do, but Crystal was just a walkie-talkie call away,” Leslie recalls. “She'd come in with smile on her face, and her experience and attitude always showed through.”

One tried and true ice breaker that Basnaw has picked up through the years to is ask residents how they ended up in Alaska.

The answer: “Usually work … or a man,” jokes Basnaw.

She may be modest about the outsize role at the Fairbanks Pioneer Home, but David Leslie is anything but muted in his praise of his former co-worker: “The State of Alaska and our elders should be so proud to have someone who puts so much love and pride into her work.”

Never Quit Award winner teaches inmates to develop a green thumb

by AFSCME Staff  |  January 26, 2024

“Getting older is not easy,” says Crystal Basnaw, a certified nursing assistant at Fairbanks Pioneer Home, a state-run senior living facility in Alaska. “I feel like my job is to bring all the joy and comfort that I can.”

For the past 14 years, Basnaw, a member of ASEA/AFSCME Local 52, has not only brought joy to the lives of the “elders,” as they’re called at the Fairbanks Pioneer Home, but she’s been a devoted co-worker.

“She’s limitlessly kind with [the elders],” says David Leslie, a former assisted living aide at the Pioneer Home who worked with Basnaw. “She works tirelessly, even when we are understaffed, and always offers guidance and listens to anyone who needs someone to talk to.”

Leslie explains that he came to the job at the Pioneer Home without any medical experience, but that Basnaw was a crucial lifeline for him early on.

“Crystal was not just kind,” said Leslie, “but ready to help out with any difficulties I faced: finding supplies, assisting residents, or just being someone to talk to, either about our job or anything affecting our community.”

Basnaw chalks that up to remembering the feeling of being new on the job herself. She had been a stay-at-home mom before returning to the workforce, and she was nervous at the thought of the up-close-and-personal interactions she knew would come with the job.

“I was super shy. I’m still shy,” says Basnaw, “I cried the first week I went to work. Just to get the jitters out. So, I want to take people under my wing and say, ‘If I can do it, you can do it.’ I make them feel comfortable. I always have an ear for someone.”

But there’s more to Basnaw’s gifts than that. She’s driven to bring dignity and fulfillment to the lives of the 90-some residents who live at the Pioneer Home.

“My job is to help people who aren’t able to do it for themselves,” says Basnaw.

That might involve writing letters for the elders who are no longer able to. Or making phone calls on their behalf. That comes on top of her day-to-day duties, which include helping residents — who range in age from 65 to 104 — eat, bathe, get dressed, take their medicine, and take part in the homes’ activities.

While Basnaw may see these attributes as “just part of the job,” Leslie says that Basnaw brings much more to the table.

“There were times where I was panicking and didn't know what to do, but Crystal was just a walkie-talkie call away,” Leslie recalls. “She'd come in with smile on her face, and her experience and attitude always showed through.”

One tried and true ice breaker that Basnaw has picked up through the years to is ask residents how they ended up in Alaska.

The answer: “Usually work … or a man,” jokes Basnaw.

She may be modest about the outsize role at the Fairbanks Pioneer Home, but David Leslie is anything but muted in his praise of his former co-worker: “The State of Alaska and our elders should be so proud to have someone who puts so much love and pride into her work.”

With a ‘heart of wisdom,’ hospital housekeeper Greta Glenn advocates for her co-workers

by AFSCME Staff  |  January 08, 2024

Meet Greta Glenn, our latest Never Quit Service Award winner. Glenn, a member of CSEA Local 1000 (Subunit 418) has been a longtime housekeeper at Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood, New York. On the job, she practices the Golden Rule: treat others the way you would want to be treated. That includes both her co-workers and the patients who live in the hospital.

How did you get into this line of work? What do you do each day?

I’ve worked at Pilgrim now for 27 years. I started as a cleaner and now I’m a housekeeper. My job description is sweeping, mopping, wiping, dusting, stripping, buffing, waxing. I know how to handle all the machines. I’ve trained people to use all the machinery. I’m very dedicated to my job.

What do you enjoy about your work?

I like helping new employees solve problems. Coming into a job, people are afraid. I was new at one time, too. Someone took me under their wing. Someone showed me the ropes. I feel I should do the same thing. I always try to be helpful.

How do you develop a rapport with patients at the hospital?

I treat them the way I’d want someone to treat my children. (Glenn has seven children and 23 grandchildren).

Why is being a shop steward important to you?

I got involved with my union because I wanted to be sure that people were being treated fairly and with respect. I had a boss who passed away in 2014; his name was Milton Smith. He was Local 418’s recording secretary. I would help [our local] on informational days. When he passed away, I stayed on as shop steward, to fight for my housekeepers.  

Glenn credits her union job with being able to raise her children. Now, she fights for better wages and working conditions for her co-workers.

What others are saying about Greta Glenn:

James Young, who joined Pilgrim two years ago as a housekeeper, says, “Greta is a pleasure. She’s a hard worker and knows all the aspects of the job. She has a heart of wisdom and speaks from her heart. She just gives good advice from her life.” That’s why he nominated her for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award.

Never Quit winner is Miami waste collector who ‘takes the extra time’ to serve residents

by AFSCME Staff  |  December 18, 2023

Meet Greta Glenn, our latest Never Quit Service Award winner. Glenn, a member of CSEA Local 1000 (Subunit 418) has been a longtime housekeeper at Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood, New York. On the job, she practices the Golden Rule: treat others the way you would want to be treated. That includes both her co-workers and the patients who live in the hospital.

How did you get into this line of work? What do you do each day?

I’ve worked at Pilgrim now for 27 years. I started as a cleaner and now I’m a housekeeper. My job description is sweeping, mopping, wiping, dusting, stripping, buffing, waxing. I know how to handle all the machines. I’ve trained people to use all the machinery. I’m very dedicated to my job.

What do you enjoy about your work?

I like helping new employees solve problems. Coming into a job, people are afraid. I was new at one time, too. Someone took me under their wing. Someone showed me the ropes. I feel I should do the same thing. I always try to be helpful.

How do you develop a rapport with patients at the hospital?

I treat them the way I’d want someone to treat my children. (Glenn has seven children and 23 grandchildren).

Why is being a shop steward important to you?

I got involved with my union because I wanted to be sure that people were being treated fairly and with respect. I had a boss who passed away in 2014; his name was Milton Smith. He was Local 418’s recording secretary. I would help [our local] on informational days. When he passed away, I stayed on as shop steward, to fight for my housekeepers.  

Glenn credits her union job with being able to raise her children. Now, she fights for better wages and working conditions for her co-workers.

What others are saying about Greta Glenn:

James Young, who joined Pilgrim two years ago as a housekeeper, says, “Greta is a pleasure. She’s a hard worker and knows all the aspects of the job. She has a heart of wisdom and speaks from her heart. She just gives good advice from her life.” That’s why he nominated her for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award.

At a Texas prison, a ‘drill instructor’ sergeant motivates, inspires rookies

November 13, 2023

Sometimes our greatest teacher — the person who believes in you more than you believe in yourself and who changes your life for the better — comes not in childhood, but in adulthood.

For Julie Mustin, a rookie correctional officer at Gatesville Prison in Texas, that person was her trainer, Sgt. Christina Williams, a member of AFSCME Texas Corrections, Local 3920.

Mustin had been a truck driver for 15 years and was looking for a career change when she joined the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. She met Williams last May, during the six-week academy, a boot camp that all new corrections officers must attend to learn about the different aspects of working in a prison.

Mustin says, “This lady changed my life.”

According to Mustin, Williams embodies both the tough, no-nonsense drill instructor, but also the supportive, motivating coach, eager to answer questions and make everything a teachable moment.

“She always encourages people to try their best do their best, and she also tries to get them to do just a little bit more than what they did yesterday,” says Mustin. “She showed me that I could be a better person than yesterday. She trains firmly, fairly and consistently every day. She’s amazing.”

Mustin tells a story of having to run the obstacle course in order to graduate from the academy. She wasn’t feeling good about herself, knowing she was slower than some of the other trainees.

“[Sergeant Williams] just looked at me. The look told me ‘I believe in you. You will do this. You will prove it to yourself.’”

Mustin recalls that while running, Williams looked her squarely in the eye. The look said, “Don’t you give up on me. You’re competing against yourself and I believe in you.”

“She changed my life because she made me better than what I was when I walked in. She will take somebody off the streets and she will counsel them and go out of her way to help them. But you have to meet her half way. ‘You show me you’re investing in yourself, and I will meet you there,’” Mustin says.

Though Mustin jokes that she and her fellow trainees all thought Williams had, in fact, been a drill instructor, they’re only partly right. Williams did serve in the military, but says her skills as a teacher were really sharpened in another classroom — an after-school program for kids.

There, she developed lesson plans that would meet the needs of a variety of kids, with different backgrounds and learning abilities. In the 20 months she’s been working at the Gatesville academy (she’s been with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for a little over four years), she’s had to use a similar set of skills to teach cadets who come from all walks of life.

“Retention starts with good leadership,” Williams says. “I tell [the cadets] that I will correct you on your actions to make sure you don’t make that same mistake. In this agency, you can’t become complacent. I tell them you should be learning something new every day. I let them know, too, me being a supervisor — I’m still not afraid to ask questions. The chevrons I wear on my collar do not make me.”

While Williams may come off as intimidating at first, he philosophy toward training future corrections officers is really grounded in collaboration and questioning.

“There was a time Julie wanted to give up,” Williams recalls. “But I said, ‘Go look at yourself in the mirror. See what you want to be.’ I will do the one-on-one training. I’m hands on. That’s what I’m here for. Don’t be afraid to ask your supervisors for help.”

Williams enjoys meeting people “from a thousand different backgrounds,” and has learned that sometimes, “you have to agree to disagree.”

The same goes for inmate management.

“You don’t go in and fit the environment. Make the environment fit you. You have to hold the inmates accountable: use verbal de-escalation, calm the situation. Whether you’re turning them out for chow, getting the routine down — you do it all in a firm, fair, and consistent manner. You have to have a nonjudgmental attitude.”

Williams also possesses a nonjudgmental attitude when it comes to the stigma surrounding PTSD. Though she acknowledges that corrections officers must wear a “suit of armor” when they’re on the job, she advocates for people to find ways to address the post-traumatic stress disorder that often comes with the job.

“You have to learn coping skills,” Williams says. “You work long hours, so you have to have a decompressing mechanism. The good is going to outweigh the bad, and you will have bad days. We have inmates who commit self-harm, (have) suicidal intentions. Some people don’t know how to cope with that. It might trigger something. You have to learn to cope with that. There’s nothing wrong with going to get help.”

While Williams may eventually return to “the unit,” she gets a great deal of satisfaction from her role now.

“I enjoy what I do,” she says. “I enjoy when you can catch a person’s attention; you can get them to thrive and have a passion. That’s my calling.”

Daring boat rescue shows Connecticut police officers’ commitment to public safety

November 02, 2023

Stratford Police Department, Capt. Anthony Rhew and Sgt. Joseph Maida are proud to protect their Connecticut community. It’s not just a job for them, it’s a calling.  

“I like being out with the public and problem-solving,” Maida explained about his career in law enforcement that started in 2006 as a sworn officer in Stratford. 

“I’ve done a lot of things to help people who couldn’t help themselves,” said Rhew, who began working as a Stratford police officer in 2005. "I’ve also been in a position to help train new officers.” 

And when called upon, they don’t hesitate to put themselves in harm’s way to help others.  

So it was on a summer night in 2021 when Stratford PD received several 911 calls around 9:30 p.m. After a routine summer evening patrolling community events along the waterfront, Maida and Rhew – both members of AFSCME Local 407 (Council 4) – had tied up their police boat and were ready to end their shift when they got the call from dispatch.

A 27-foot powerboat traveling at high speeds had crashed into a break wall at Long Island Sound. 

Maida and Rhew quickly jumped into their boat and were the first to reach the scene of the accident at the mouth of the Housatonic River. 

“We did not expect to see what we saw that night,” Rhew said. “We couldn’t even really assess the damage and injuries because it was so dark.” 

They found the operator of the boat unconscious, seven other people badly injured and a dog inside a vessel that was quickly taking on water. High winds, high tides and the darkness made a challenging rescue operation much more difficult. 

“We did our best to transport all the victims onto our police boat while we waited for mutual aid from our fire department,” Maida explained. “We set up a command post and eventually transferred the victims where we staged the ambulances and the fire department.” 

All eight people survived, thanks in no small part to the quick response from Rhew and Maida. 

Neither one of them could have pulled off this rescue by themselves—but by working together, they were successful. Maida and Rhew credited strong teamwork and good communication with everyone who contributed to the rescue effort. 

Rhew called it a “true multi-departmental and multi-jurisdictional” rescue operation where police, fire, EMS, 911 and even animal control from neighboring towns all came together to save lives. 

The rescue was covered in the local news. In recognition of their selfless bravery and commitment to public safety, these officers are being honored at Council 4’s Law Enforcement Awards Dinner on Nov. 8, 2023. Maida and Rhew are also the winners of AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, which is given to members who go above and beyond their duties to better serve their communities.  

While emergency responses like this are rare, Rhew and Maida said police officers have to be ready for whatever comes their way. 

“Thankfully, we were there to help them,” said Maida. “That’s what we train for, it’s what we do and it’s why we’re here.” 

Her mission is to make life safer for victims of domestic violence

by AFSCME Staff  |  October 26, 2023

Stratford Police Department, Capt. Anthony Rhew and Sgt. Joseph Maida are proud to protect their Connecticut community. It’s not just a job for them, it’s a calling.  

“I like being out with the public and problem-solving,” Maida explained about his career in law enforcement that started in 2006 as a sworn officer in Stratford. 

“I’ve done a lot of things to help people who couldn’t help themselves,” said Rhew, who began working as a Stratford police officer in 2005. "I’ve also been in a position to help train new officers.” 

And when called upon, they don’t hesitate to put themselves in harm’s way to help others.  

So it was on a summer night in 2021 when Stratford PD received several 911 calls around 9:30 p.m. After a routine summer evening patrolling community events along the waterfront, Maida and Rhew – both members of AFSCME Local 407 (Council 4) – had tied up their police boat and were ready to end their shift when they got the call from dispatch.

A 27-foot powerboat traveling at high speeds had crashed into a break wall at Long Island Sound. 

Maida and Rhew quickly jumped into their boat and were the first to reach the scene of the accident at the mouth of the Housatonic River. 

“We did not expect to see what we saw that night,” Rhew said. “We couldn’t even really assess the damage and injuries because it was so dark.” 

They found the operator of the boat unconscious, seven other people badly injured and a dog inside a vessel that was quickly taking on water. High winds, high tides and the darkness made a challenging rescue operation much more difficult. 

“We did our best to transport all the victims onto our police boat while we waited for mutual aid from our fire department,” Maida explained. “We set up a command post and eventually transferred the victims where we staged the ambulances and the fire department.” 

All eight people survived, thanks in no small part to the quick response from Rhew and Maida. 

Neither one of them could have pulled off this rescue by themselves—but by working together, they were successful. Maida and Rhew credited strong teamwork and good communication with everyone who contributed to the rescue effort. 

Rhew called it a “true multi-departmental and multi-jurisdictional” rescue operation where police, fire, EMS, 911 and even animal control from neighboring towns all came together to save lives. 

The rescue was covered in the local news. In recognition of their selfless bravery and commitment to public safety, these officers are being honored at Council 4’s Law Enforcement Awards Dinner on Nov. 8, 2023. Maida and Rhew are also the winners of AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, which is given to members who go above and beyond their duties to better serve their communities.  

While emergency responses like this are rare, Rhew and Maida said police officers have to be ready for whatever comes their way. 

“Thankfully, we were there to help them,” said Maida. “That’s what we train for, it’s what we do and it’s why we’re here.” 

Massachusetts park rangers win Never Quit award for heroic response to State House fire

October 16, 2023

Earlier that day – Tuesday, July 18 – there had been a false fire alarm at the Massachusetts State House in Boston. A few hours later, when the alarm went off again, many who work in the government building stayed put, assuming there was no danger.

But this time, the fire was real.

Massachusetts Park Rangers Charlie Chouinard and Rob Pantaleo were having lunch together when news of the second fire alarm came through a radio call. Chouinard and Pantaleo work at the State House – they’re in charge of building security, making sure that anyone who enters goes through a metal detector and is screened for weapons and other banned items.

Pantaleo answered the radio call and the two headed back to the State House to evacuate the building. They began on the first floor and made their way up, going into every room and asking people to leave. By the time Chouinard went into a restroom on the second floor, he could see the smoke through the vents.

“It was pretty faint, but it was starting to become noticeable at this point,” Chouinard recalls.

“There was a smell, a strong odor going throughout the building,” Pantaleo says.

Park Ranger Wayne Diskin joined Chouinard and Pantaleo in their efforts to evacuate the State House while fellow Park Ranger Stephen Reimer assisted them from the operations base. While the fire department worked to locate the source of the fire, which turned out to be electrical, the rangers went from floor to floor – there are five total – alerting everyone to the threat.

“There were many people who did not seem to realize the severity of the situation,” Chouinard says. “There were elected officials in the building who did not seem to know what was going on. I found an older woman who was adamant that she was going to wait, and I had to escort her out. In another part of the building there was a person on a Zoom call wearing headphones who was startled when I told him there was a fire.”

As carbon monoxide spread throughout the building, the rangers sprinted up and down the stairs to get everyone out. Altogether, it took them 30 to 40 minutes until they could be sure no one was left inside.

“By the time we exited, I was feeling dizzy and lightheaded,” Pantaleo says, probably from a mixture of adrenaline and carbon monoxide poisoning. “I went over and got checked out by the paramedics.”

For their heroic actions that day, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) commended the four rangers with its Outstanding Achievement Award, thanking them for being “one of the last to leave the building, keeping the health and safety of others as his main priority,” and citing their “calm demeanor under pressure and quick response.”

Every day, Chouinard, Pantaleo, Diskin and Reimer help keep their community safe. But on this particular day, they faced an extraordinary challenge and responded heroically, putting their own safety on the line for the sake of others.

An L.A. native’s calling: helping others find their path to service

September 27, 2023

Earlier that day – Tuesday, July 18 – there had been a false fire alarm at the Massachusetts State House in Boston. A few hours later, when the alarm went off again, many who work in the government building stayed put, assuming there was no danger.

But this time, the fire was real.

Massachusetts Park Rangers Charlie Chouinard and Rob Pantaleo were having lunch together when news of the second fire alarm came through a radio call. Chouinard and Pantaleo work at the State House – they’re in charge of building security, making sure that anyone who enters goes through a metal detector and is screened for weapons and other banned items.

Pantaleo answered the radio call and the two headed back to the State House to evacuate the building. They began on the first floor and made their way up, going into every room and asking people to leave. By the time Chouinard went into a restroom on the second floor, he could see the smoke through the vents.

“It was pretty faint, but it was starting to become noticeable at this point,” Chouinard recalls.

“There was a smell, a strong odor going throughout the building,” Pantaleo says.

Park Ranger Wayne Diskin joined Chouinard and Pantaleo in their efforts to evacuate the State House while fellow Park Ranger Stephen Reimer assisted them from the operations base. While the fire department worked to locate the source of the fire, which turned out to be electrical, the rangers went from floor to floor – there are five total – alerting everyone to the threat.

“There were many people who did not seem to realize the severity of the situation,” Chouinard says. “There were elected officials in the building who did not seem to know what was going on. I found an older woman who was adamant that she was going to wait, and I had to escort her out. In another part of the building there was a person on a Zoom call wearing headphones who was startled when I told him there was a fire.”

As carbon monoxide spread throughout the building, the rangers sprinted up and down the stairs to get everyone out. Altogether, it took them 30 to 40 minutes until they could be sure no one was left inside.

“By the time we exited, I was feeling dizzy and lightheaded,” Pantaleo says, probably from a mixture of adrenaline and carbon monoxide poisoning. “I went over and got checked out by the paramedics.”

For their heroic actions that day, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) commended the four rangers with its Outstanding Achievement Award, thanking them for being “one of the last to leave the building, keeping the health and safety of others as his main priority,” and citing their “calm demeanor under pressure and quick response.”

Every day, Chouinard, Pantaleo, Diskin and Reimer help keep their community safe. But on this particular day, they faced an extraordinary challenge and responded heroically, putting their own safety on the line for the sake of others.

A Never Quit winner realizes his dream of honoring Native Americans

September 21, 2023

Two years ago, when AFSCME recognized Charles “Snow Bear” Smith, Jr. with its Never Quit Service Award, Smith was a new cemetery specialist at the Rhode Island Veteran’s Cemetery. At the time, he noticed that the cemetery, where 40,000 of Rhode Island’s veterans are buried (including Smith’s parents), had memorials recognizing the varied backgrounds of veterans who’d served the state.

But there was no memorial for Rhode Island’s Native American veterans. Smith, a member of the Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe, wanted to change that.

More than two years later, his dream has been realized. Yesterday, Smith, along with representatives from Rhode Island’s Native American community and other state officials, took part in a ribbon cutting of Rhode Island’s first memorial to Native American veterans – a stone monument representing that state’s 12 indigenous tribes that are interred at the cemetery, with Native American symbols carved throughout it.

With selflessness and ‘sunlight,’ Jennifer Espino brightens the lives of people with disabilities

September 11, 2023

The spring of 2020 wasn’t an ideal time to start a job at River Drive, a home for people with developmental and physical disabilities in Hadley, Massachusetts. COVID-19 had just landed and with it came lockdowns, uncertainty and – for the residents of the home – a break from their much-needed routine.

However, that first COVID spring also brought two new staff members to River Drive: a nurse, Brittny Corriveau, and a direct service worker and supervisor, Jennifer Espino. Both would bring their dedication and their aspirations for what the home could be.

But according to Corriveau, Espino also brought “selflessness,” “positivity” and “sunlight” to the home, which is why Corriveau has nominated her for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award.

“She really advocates for all the individuals,” Corriveau says, referring to the four people who live full-time at the home. “She likes to see them get up and into the community. She goes out of her way – above and beyond. She is such a pleasure to work with.”

Recently, the residents and staff had to switch locations, as the River Drive location closed and they were moved to their current location on Suffield Street in Agawam, Mass. Throughout that difficult transition, Corriveau says, Espino, a member of AFSCME CARE Local 17 (Council 93), kept everyone upbeat and positive.

“She especially has been the sunlight to us during our difficult transition from our old house that was recently shut down,” says Corriveau. “Jennifer lifted the spirits of everyone in the home and kept everyone reassured that the move was a new beginning and helped everyone get excited for the new unknown.”

While the residents of Suffield Street live with a range of serious disabilities, Espino is determined not to let their disabilities limit their engagement with the world. Whether it’s planning in-home activities, field trips that are customized to each resident’s interest, or simply treating the residents with the utmost dignity and respect, Espino “makes sure everyone feels seen and heard,” according to Corriveau.

Even before she took her current job, Espino says she’s always felt the urge to advocate for people.

“Volunteering and helping people have always been with me,” Espino said. “For this specific crowd of people, it started with my daughter, when she was evaluated for autism. I wanted to know more – what they were going through themselves. From there, I started to go to school for psychology. I went to a job fair and saw there were openings for developmental services. I went for it.”

For Espino, just doing her job isn’t doing enough. She wants a richer, more vibrant experience for the people she serves, as well as for the staff she supervises.

For one resident who loves animals, Espino sought out an opportunity at an animal shelter for the woman to pack food for animal foster parents. For staff, there are team building opportunities, potlucks, bingo nights or other “theme” nights.

Corriveau admires Espino’s curiosity and hunger for doing new things.

“[Jennifer] loves inquiring about our local community and schedules activities appropriately towards each individual’s interests,” says Corriveau. “We look forward to the fun days ahead!”

Espino sees a direct correlation between her efforts and the effect it has on those she serves.

“I just feel that if everyone gives it their all – in this type of field – everyone would have a better quality of life,” she says. “I feel good because I’m doing good.”

‘Working in a man’s field’: Never Quit winner is Pennsylvania heavy equipment operator

by AFSCME Staff  |  August 29, 2023

The spring of 2020 wasn’t an ideal time to start a job at River Drive, a home for people with developmental and physical disabilities in Hadley, Massachusetts. COVID-19 had just landed and with it came lockdowns, uncertainty and – for the residents of the home – a break from their much-needed routine.

However, that first COVID spring also brought two new staff members to River Drive: a nurse, Brittny Corriveau, and a direct service worker and supervisor, Jennifer Espino. Both would bring their dedication and their aspirations for what the home could be.

But according to Corriveau, Espino also brought “selflessness,” “positivity” and “sunlight” to the home, which is why Corriveau has nominated her for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award.

“She really advocates for all the individuals,” Corriveau says, referring to the four people who live full-time at the home. “She likes to see them get up and into the community. She goes out of her way – above and beyond. She is such a pleasure to work with.”

Recently, the residents and staff had to switch locations, as the River Drive location closed and they were moved to their current location on Suffield Street in Agawam, Mass. Throughout that difficult transition, Corriveau says, Espino, a member of AFSCME CARE Local 17 (Council 93), kept everyone upbeat and positive.

“She especially has been the sunlight to us during our difficult transition from our old house that was recently shut down,” says Corriveau. “Jennifer lifted the spirits of everyone in the home and kept everyone reassured that the move was a new beginning and helped everyone get excited for the new unknown.”

While the residents of Suffield Street live with a range of serious disabilities, Espino is determined not to let their disabilities limit their engagement with the world. Whether it’s planning in-home activities, field trips that are customized to each resident’s interest, or simply treating the residents with the utmost dignity and respect, Espino “makes sure everyone feels seen and heard,” according to Corriveau.

Even before she took her current job, Espino says she’s always felt the urge to advocate for people.

“Volunteering and helping people have always been with me,” Espino said. “For this specific crowd of people, it started with my daughter, when she was evaluated for autism. I wanted to know more – what they were going through themselves. From there, I started to go to school for psychology. I went to a job fair and saw there were openings for developmental services. I went for it.”

For Espino, just doing her job isn’t doing enough. She wants a richer, more vibrant experience for the people she serves, as well as for the staff she supervises.

For one resident who loves animals, Espino sought out an opportunity at an animal shelter for the woman to pack food for animal foster parents. For staff, there are team building opportunities, potlucks, bingo nights or other “theme” nights.

Corriveau admires Espino’s curiosity and hunger for doing new things.

“[Jennifer] loves inquiring about our local community and schedules activities appropriately towards each individual’s interests,” says Corriveau. “We look forward to the fun days ahead!”

Espino sees a direct correlation between her efforts and the effect it has on those she serves.

“I just feel that if everyone gives it their all – in this type of field – everyone would have a better quality of life,” she says. “I feel good because I’m doing good.”

Never Quit winner shuns the spotlight even as it shines on her, again and again

August 14, 2023

In 2011, the Dutchess County, New York, Regional Chamber of Commerce gave Melody “Mel” Newton its Community Ambassador Award, to recognize not only her years of service to county residents but the way she serves them: with kindness.

In 2015, then-Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, now a U.S. congressman, traded places with Newton for a day, manning Newton’s booth in the parking lot next to the county office building while Newton sat at Molinaro’s desk and served as acting county executive, a way to highlight the work of all county employees.

And then just this year, Newton, a member of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA/AFSCME Local 1000), Unit 6650, stood in the spotlight again. On Jan. 23, she received her union’s inaugural “Doug Morrison Person of the Year” award for exemplary customer service and, immediately afterwards, Dutchess County Executive William O’Neil declared Jan. 23 “Melody Newton Day” as recognition for her decades of service to the community.

Although Newton appreciates being recognized, she is not one to bask in center stage.

“It’s not about me,” says the 30-year county employee who serves as a greeter in one of the county buildings and who, for most of her career, served as a parking booth attendant. “Everything I do, I do for the right reasons, I love helping people, and I don’t need the attention for it, I don’t need to be awarded something for everything I do.”

The accolades come with high praise for Newton. In trading places with her for a day, Molinaro said Newton “has always been an example of what every county employee should strive to be: a devoted public servant who is enthusiastic and cares about the people with whom she interacts every day.” In presenting her the union award, CSEA Unit 6650 President Andrew Calamari described Newton as “a dedicated, selfless, caring person that brightens everyone’s day who enters the county office building.”

The qualities that Newton embodies – selflessness, kindness and empathy, among them – are not uncommon. Many people who choose public service as their life’s calling are likely to have ample stores of them. And yet it’s clear that Newton, in her role as county employee, offers something to her community that would be difficult to include in a job description, something intangible that isn’t easy to put into words and might be better illustrated through an anecdote.

Back in 2017, when Newton served as an attendant, a woman and her son drove up to the parking lot.

“I didn’t know it was her son at the time,” Newton recalls. “I asked her to roll down her window, and then I asked her if it would be OK if I gave her son some candy, because I could see something in him, there was a glow in him. And so, he said he liked Skittles, and I gave him a box of Skittles. She tried to pay me for the candy, but of course I refused. I said to her, ‘You have a very special son.’”

About a month later, Newton says, her supervisors received an email from the woman. In her message, the mother of the child recounted their interaction with Newton and then explained that her son had been abused by his father throughout his life and, as a result, had extremely low self-esteem. At 14 years of age, he had been in therapy for years and was an outcast at school. On the day they met Newton, they were on their way to an appointment with the probation department “because his behavior at home has gotten unmanageable,” she wrote.

The letter goes on: “Your employee [Newton] will never know what the small kind gesture did for my son. He repeated over and over that she told him that she ‘saw something’ in him. No one other than me has EVER told him that. Words could not ever describe what that meant to me as a parent.”

It concludes: “I’d like to commend you for having this wonderful human being working for you. While she may never be told how her kindness spreads onto others nor how her kindness makes people feel – I can assure you – I appreciate her and am thankful for what she did.”

Whichever word is most appropriate to describe what Newton brings to her job and to the hundreds of personal interactions she has every week, it’s clear that she is making her community better, one county resident at a time. And, for her extraordinary service, she is in the spotlight again, this time courtesy of AFSCME.

Newton is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

“To me this is not a job,” she says, when asked what motivates her to serve others in her extraordinary way. “When I’m going to work, I’m going to have fun. I have fun with my job. I make my job fun and happy. It’s like going to a happy place.”

Never Quit winner helps co-workers have tough conversations on race

by AFSCME Staff  |  July 31, 2023

In 2011, the Dutchess County, New York, Regional Chamber of Commerce gave Melody “Mel” Newton its Community Ambassador Award, to recognize not only her years of service to county residents but the way she serves them: with kindness.

In 2015, then-Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, now a U.S. congressman, traded places with Newton for a day, manning Newton’s booth in the parking lot next to the county office building while Newton sat at Molinaro’s desk and served as acting county executive, a way to highlight the work of all county employees.

And then just this year, Newton, a member of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA/AFSCME Local 1000), Unit 6650, stood in the spotlight again. On Jan. 23, she received her union’s inaugural “Doug Morrison Person of the Year” award for exemplary customer service and, immediately afterwards, Dutchess County Executive William O’Neil declared Jan. 23 “Melody Newton Day” as recognition for her decades of service to the community.

Although Newton appreciates being recognized, she is not one to bask in center stage.

“It’s not about me,” says the 30-year county employee who serves as a greeter in one of the county buildings and who, for most of her career, served as a parking booth attendant. “Everything I do, I do for the right reasons, I love helping people, and I don’t need the attention for it, I don’t need to be awarded something for everything I do.”

The accolades come with high praise for Newton. In trading places with her for a day, Molinaro said Newton “has always been an example of what every county employee should strive to be: a devoted public servant who is enthusiastic and cares about the people with whom she interacts every day.” In presenting her the union award, CSEA Unit 6650 President Andrew Calamari described Newton as “a dedicated, selfless, caring person that brightens everyone’s day who enters the county office building.”

The qualities that Newton embodies – selflessness, kindness and empathy, among them – are not uncommon. Many people who choose public service as their life’s calling are likely to have ample stores of them. And yet it’s clear that Newton, in her role as county employee, offers something to her community that would be difficult to include in a job description, something intangible that isn’t easy to put into words and might be better illustrated through an anecdote.

Back in 2017, when Newton served as an attendant, a woman and her son drove up to the parking lot.

“I didn’t know it was her son at the time,” Newton recalls. “I asked her to roll down her window, and then I asked her if it would be OK if I gave her son some candy, because I could see something in him, there was a glow in him. And so, he said he liked Skittles, and I gave him a box of Skittles. She tried to pay me for the candy, but of course I refused. I said to her, ‘You have a very special son.’”

About a month later, Newton says, her supervisors received an email from the woman. In her message, the mother of the child recounted their interaction with Newton and then explained that her son had been abused by his father throughout his life and, as a result, had extremely low self-esteem. At 14 years of age, he had been in therapy for years and was an outcast at school. On the day they met Newton, they were on their way to an appointment with the probation department “because his behavior at home has gotten unmanageable,” she wrote.

The letter goes on: “Your employee [Newton] will never know what the small kind gesture did for my son. He repeated over and over that she told him that she ‘saw something’ in him. No one other than me has EVER told him that. Words could not ever describe what that meant to me as a parent.”

It concludes: “I’d like to commend you for having this wonderful human being working for you. While she may never be told how her kindness spreads onto others nor how her kindness makes people feel – I can assure you – I appreciate her and am thankful for what she did.”

Whichever word is most appropriate to describe what Newton brings to her job and to the hundreds of personal interactions she has every week, it’s clear that she is making her community better, one county resident at a time. And, for her extraordinary service, she is in the spotlight again, this time courtesy of AFSCME.

Newton is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

“To me this is not a job,” she says, when asked what motivates her to serve others in her extraordinary way. “When I’m going to work, I’m going to have fun. I have fun with my job. I make my job fun and happy. It’s like going to a happy place.”

An airport carpenter is flying high in Detroit

July 10, 2023

Mick Nephew says his job at Detroit Metropolitan Airport is “the best job I’ve ever had.” For the veteran tradesman, whose career spans close to 30 years, that’s saying a lot.

Now a foreman of the four-person carpenter shop at the airport, represented by AFSCME Local 953 (Council 25), Nephew leads a team that’s responsible for making sure the physical infrastructure of the airport meets the needs not only of its passengers, but also its employees.

That involves everything from remodeling or building offices for airport staff, removing or adding flooring, tiling, installing mechanical doors, erecting breezeways – you name it.

And while Nephew says his job ranks among the best he’s had as a builder, his colleague, John Langbeen, a fellow carpenter, says Nephew is the best at it.

“He never stops going,” says Langbeen. “He’s always doing something. He’s a great guy.”

Nephew’s work ethic is part of the reason Langbeen nominated his co-worker for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award.

“We start at 7 a.m. every morning. He’s always there,” says Langbeen. “He comes into the shop early. He’s always a step ahead of us, just trying to be proactive in the morning. He’s always going the extra mile.”

Langbeen explains that he and Nephew started at the carpenter’s shop (there’s an electrician’s shop, an HVAC shop, a plumber’s shop and other trades at the airport) at about the same time in 2018. From the get-go, Nephew has been setting an example for Langbeen and his other co-workers.

Where does Nephew’s drive come from?

“It’s from the real world,” says Nephew, who spent many years in the private construction business. “Maybe it’s my generation, but you have to work hard to get promoted. People notice. I always wanted to get better and my hard work paid off. That’s the way I look at it. You have to work for what you want.”

Both Nephew and Langbeen appreciate the variety of work that comes their way and the tempo that comes with working at the airport.

“It’s great working at the airport,” says Nephew. “It’s an excellent atmosphere. It’s always busy, and there’s always something going on.”

From time to time, when they’re working in the actual airport, they get to mingle with passengers who pass through DTW, though they’re spared passengers’ fury when delays happen.

Now that Nephew has recently been promoted to foreman, he’s got more on his plate, but his goal is as clear as ever: “I just want to set an example for my guys in my shop.”

According to Langbeen, he’s succeeding.

He beat the best surfers in the world, but he’s still a lifeguard at heart

June 12, 2023

Luke Shepardson had a childhood dream. Born and raised on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, he took up surfing at an early age and dreamed of winning the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational.

The surfing tournament is a big deal in more ways than one. Not only does it bring together the best surfers in the world, but for the competition to be held, open-ocean swells must reach a minimum height of 20 feet, creating waves near the shore that rise to 30-40 feet or more.

Because of this requirement, the competition has been held only 10 times since 1985. In Shepardson’s lifetime, it has been held only seven times, the first time in 1999, the year he turned 4.

Shepardson, 28, grew up dreaming that he would one day get to compete. He was invited to participate in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, but the tournament didn’t materialize because the surf conditions weren’t right.

Then in January of this year, for the first time in seven years, it happened. The event’s organizers announced that The Eddie, as it is known, would be held Jan. 22, giving participants from all over the world but a few days to make their way to Waimea Bay, Hawaii.

Shepardson couldn’t believe it! His moment had finally arrived! There was only one problem: he was scheduled to work that day.

Shepardson is a water safety officer for the City and County of Honolulu and member of the Hawaii Government Employees Association (HGEA/AFSCME Local 152). He immediately called his co-workers who were on vacation to find out if they could come back to fill in for him. But they could not.

So, he tried the next best thing.

“I was able to get three hours of vacation approved for that day, and then I was able to use one hour of vacation for each of my two heats,” he says.

Shepardson was going up against the best surfers in the world, including professionals such as John John Florence and Kai Lenny. Beating them would require 100% focus. Yet when he paddled out on his surfboard to catch his first wave, there was something else on his mind: he had to get back to work. The beaches were crowded that day, and he knew he was needed.

The same thing happened after he caught another huge wave during his second heat and rode it all the way down: he kept thinking he had to rush back to his post. But this time he felt something else as well.

“When I got back to the beach after my second heat, I had a feeling that I did really good,” Shepardson says. “I had a feeling that maybe I had won.”

Shepardson didn’t just win first place, he received a near-perfect score.

Ironically, keeping his mind off the competition may have helped his chances.

“I think it was good that my mind was on work because I’m not a good contest surfer,” he says. “So then I was just busy working through the day and when it came time for my heat I just went out and had fun.”

During the awards ceremony, Shepardson was clad in his lifeguard outfit: red shorts and yellow t-shirt. Every news outlet wanted to know what the moment meant to him.

“I don’t know what to say,” he told an interviewer. “It’s a dream come true. And I got to get back to the tower to finish work … make sure everyone goes home safely and alive to their families.”

His victory seemed a fitting tribute to Eddie Aikau, in whose memory the tournament was created. Aikau was a North Shore lifeguard and surfer who died tragically in 1978 after performing one last act of service.

“Eddie Aikau has always been a huge inspiration to me,” Shepardson says.

Although he had beaten the best surfers in the world, public service was still his No. 1 priority.

For his service to his community, Shepardson is a winner of AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

“I love being a lifeguard,” he says. “I love what I do. It’s a very good feeling when you know you helped save someone’s life. I’m just glad I can use my skills to help other people.”

Never Quit winner is New Mexico civil engineer who loves a challenge

by AFSCME Staff  |  June 06, 2023

Luke Shepardson had a childhood dream. Born and raised on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, he took up surfing at an early age and dreamed of winning the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational.

The surfing tournament is a big deal in more ways than one. Not only does it bring together the best surfers in the world, but for the competition to be held, open-ocean swells must reach a minimum height of 20 feet, creating waves near the shore that rise to 30-40 feet or more.

Because of this requirement, the competition has been held only 10 times since 1985. In Shepardson’s lifetime, it has been held only seven times, the first time in 1999, the year he turned 4.

Shepardson, 28, grew up dreaming that he would one day get to compete. He was invited to participate in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, but the tournament didn’t materialize because the surf conditions weren’t right.

Then in January of this year, for the first time in seven years, it happened. The event’s organizers announced that The Eddie, as it is known, would be held Jan. 22, giving participants from all over the world but a few days to make their way to Waimea Bay, Hawaii.

Shepardson couldn’t believe it! His moment had finally arrived! There was only one problem: he was scheduled to work that day.

Shepardson is a water safety officer for the City and County of Honolulu and member of the Hawaii Government Employees Association (HGEA/AFSCME Local 152). He immediately called his co-workers who were on vacation to find out if they could come back to fill in for him. But they could not.

So, he tried the next best thing.

“I was able to get three hours of vacation approved for that day, and then I was able to use one hour of vacation for each of my two heats,” he says.

Shepardson was going up against the best surfers in the world, including professionals such as John John Florence and Kai Lenny. Beating them would require 100% focus. Yet when he paddled out on his surfboard to catch his first wave, there was something else on his mind: he had to get back to work. The beaches were crowded that day, and he knew he was needed.

The same thing happened after he caught another huge wave during his second heat and rode it all the way down: he kept thinking he had to rush back to his post. But this time he felt something else as well.

“When I got back to the beach after my second heat, I had a feeling that I did really good,” Shepardson says. “I had a feeling that maybe I had won.”

Shepardson didn’t just win first place, he received a near-perfect score.

Ironically, keeping his mind off the competition may have helped his chances.

“I think it was good that my mind was on work because I’m not a good contest surfer,” he says. “So then I was just busy working through the day and when it came time for my heat I just went out and had fun.”

During the awards ceremony, Shepardson was clad in his lifeguard outfit: red shorts and yellow t-shirt. Every news outlet wanted to know what the moment meant to him.

“I don’t know what to say,” he told an interviewer. “It’s a dream come true. And I got to get back to the tower to finish work … make sure everyone goes home safely and alive to their families.”

His victory seemed a fitting tribute to Eddie Aikau, in whose memory the tournament was created. Aikau was a North Shore lifeguard and surfer who died tragically in 1978 after performing one last act of service.

“Eddie Aikau has always been a huge inspiration to me,” Shepardson says.

Although he had beaten the best surfers in the world, public service was still his No. 1 priority.

For his service to his community, Shepardson is a winner of AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

“I love being a lifeguard,” he says. “I love what I do. It’s a very good feeling when you know you helped save someone’s life. I’m just glad I can use my skills to help other people.”

‘Kind, smart and loving’: Connecticut school secretary wins Never Quit award

by AFSCME Staff  |  May 22, 2023

Luke Shepardson had a childhood dream. Born and raised on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, he took up surfing at an early age and dreamed of winning the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational.

The surfing tournament is a big deal in more ways than one. Not only does it bring together the best surfers in the world, but for the competition to be held, open-ocean swells must reach a minimum height of 20 feet, creating waves near the shore that rise to 30-40 feet or more.

Because of this requirement, the competition has been held only 10 times since 1985. In Shepardson’s lifetime, it has been held only seven times, the first time in 1999, the year he turned 4.

Shepardson, 28, grew up dreaming that he would one day get to compete. He was invited to participate in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, but the tournament didn’t materialize because the surf conditions weren’t right.

Then in January of this year, for the first time in seven years, it happened. The event’s organizers announced that The Eddie, as it is known, would be held Jan. 22, giving participants from all over the world but a few days to make their way to Waimea Bay, Hawaii.

Shepardson couldn’t believe it! His moment had finally arrived! There was only one problem: he was scheduled to work that day.

Shepardson is a water safety officer for the City and County of Honolulu and member of the Hawaii Government Employees Association (HGEA/AFSCME Local 152). He immediately called his co-workers who were on vacation to find out if they could come back to fill in for him. But they could not.

So, he tried the next best thing.

“I was able to get three hours of vacation approved for that day, and then I was able to use one hour of vacation for each of my two heats,” he says.

Shepardson was going up against the best surfers in the world, including professionals such as John John Florence and Kai Lenny. Beating them would require 100% focus. Yet when he paddled out on his surfboard to catch his first wave, there was something else on his mind: he had to get back to work. The beaches were crowded that day, and he knew he was needed.

The same thing happened after he caught another huge wave during his second heat and rode it all the way down: he kept thinking he had to rush back to his post. But this time he felt something else as well.

“When I got back to the beach after my second heat, I had a feeling that I did really good,” Shepardson says. “I had a feeling that maybe I had won.”

Shepardson didn’t just win first place, he received a near-perfect score.

Ironically, keeping his mind off the competition may have helped his chances.

“I think it was good that my mind was on work because I’m not a good contest surfer,” he says. “So then I was just busy working through the day and when it came time for my heat I just went out and had fun.”

During the awards ceremony, Shepardson was clad in his lifeguard outfit: red shorts and yellow t-shirt. Every news outlet wanted to know what the moment meant to him.

“I don’t know what to say,” he told an interviewer. “It’s a dream come true. And I got to get back to the tower to finish work … make sure everyone goes home safely and alive to their families.”

His victory seemed a fitting tribute to Eddie Aikau, in whose memory the tournament was created. Aikau was a North Shore lifeguard and surfer who died tragically in 1978 after performing one last act of service.

“Eddie Aikau has always been a huge inspiration to me,” Shepardson says.

Although he had beaten the best surfers in the world, public service was still his No. 1 priority.

For his service to his community, Shepardson is a winner of AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

“I love being a lifeguard,” he says. “I love what I do. It’s a very good feeling when you know you helped save someone’s life. I’m just glad I can use my skills to help other people.”

In a Maryland elementary school, a staff member lights a path for kids and their families

May 08, 2023

Jeniffer Morales Jimenez’s job title may be “parent engagement assistant” but a more apt title might be “hero.”

At least, that’s the view taken by her co-workers and the families she serves at Rogers Heights Elementary School, in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

Whether it’s scrambling to find housing for a student’s family that’s about to be evicted, finding a fresh pair of shoes for a child whose sneakers are too tight, or even delivering food to hungry families who don’t have a car, Morales is a one-stop-shop for not only resources, but for kindness.

According to Renee Lobos, a secretary at Rogers Heights who nominated Morales Jimenez for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, Morales Jimenez “cares profusely for the families and the communities,” she serves.

“If I were to ever take a promotion, I would strive to be more like her,” said Lobos. “To make sure that I build those connections with families.”

Angie Garcia, the school nurse, shares Lobos’ admiration. During the pandemic, pallets of food had been delivered to the school, but there was no way to get them to the families who needed them.

“[Jeniffer] asked me ‘How many can you fit in your truck?’ We put some in my truck and some in her car and delivered them to families in need. She helped organize it,” Garcia said.

Another example: “One time, before the holidays, we had a family lose housing,” recalls Garcia. “We were looking through every resource, combing through lists to get them housing.”

For Morales Jimenez, a member of ACE-AFSCME Local 2250, who has been at Rogers Heights for six years, there is no on-off button. If the families she serves need her, she’s there for them.

“If parents don’t have stress, their kids have more of a chance at success,” says Morales Jimenez. “If the kids come to school and are sad, or they say, ‘My dad said we don’t have money because he can’t find a job,’ your job is to step in and help and get them a job. A child shouldn’t have to be stressed.”

Morales Jimenez credits her own upbringing – she hails from Panama and moved to Florida as a teenager – as part of the motivation for her unceasing service to her community. For example, in helping newly settled refugee families or families facing deportation navigate bureaucratic hurdles, Morales Jimenez remembers her own experience.

“I was an immigrant myself,” says Morales Jimenez. “I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to need food, clothing; being bullied.”

Morales Jimenez also says that her grandmother, who served her own community in Panama, is part of the reason she feels determined to extend herself so fully.

But it isn’t always easy. Recently, Morales Jimenez underwent treatment for cancer and her absence left a big hole.

“[Jeniffer] would get chemo and still come to work,” says Garcia, the school nurse. “But when she was out sick, you could see the difference when she wasn’t here. It was a big gap. People would ask about her. She’s like the face of the school.”

Luckily, Morales Jimenez is winning her fight and says, “I feel like God provided me a with a second chance. I battled cancer and I won the battle.”

Today, she’s more motivated than ever to fight for the families she serves.

“I do believe that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

She put her dreams on hold, but now she’s making a big difference in her community.

by AFSCME Staff  |  April 27, 2023

Jeniffer Morales Jimenez’s job title may be “parent engagement assistant” but a more apt title might be “hero.”

At least, that’s the view taken by her co-workers and the families she serves at Rogers Heights Elementary School, in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

Whether it’s scrambling to find housing for a student’s family that’s about to be evicted, finding a fresh pair of shoes for a child whose sneakers are too tight, or even delivering food to hungry families who don’t have a car, Morales is a one-stop-shop for not only resources, but for kindness.

According to Renee Lobos, a secretary at Rogers Heights who nominated Morales Jimenez for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, Morales Jimenez “cares profusely for the families and the communities,” she serves.

“If I were to ever take a promotion, I would strive to be more like her,” said Lobos. “To make sure that I build those connections with families.”

Angie Garcia, the school nurse, shares Lobos’ admiration. During the pandemic, pallets of food had been delivered to the school, but there was no way to get them to the families who needed them.

“[Jeniffer] asked me ‘How many can you fit in your truck?’ We put some in my truck and some in her car and delivered them to families in need. She helped organize it,” Garcia said.

Another example: “One time, before the holidays, we had a family lose housing,” recalls Garcia. “We were looking through every resource, combing through lists to get them housing.”

For Morales Jimenez, a member of ACE-AFSCME Local 2250, who has been at Rogers Heights for six years, there is no on-off button. If the families she serves need her, she’s there for them.

“If parents don’t have stress, their kids have more of a chance at success,” says Morales Jimenez. “If the kids come to school and are sad, or they say, ‘My dad said we don’t have money because he can’t find a job,’ your job is to step in and help and get them a job. A child shouldn’t have to be stressed.”

Morales Jimenez credits her own upbringing – she hails from Panama and moved to Florida as a teenager – as part of the motivation for her unceasing service to her community. For example, in helping newly settled refugee families or families facing deportation navigate bureaucratic hurdles, Morales Jimenez remembers her own experience.

“I was an immigrant myself,” says Morales Jimenez. “I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to need food, clothing; being bullied.”

Morales Jimenez also says that her grandmother, who served her own community in Panama, is part of the reason she feels determined to extend herself so fully.

But it isn’t always easy. Recently, Morales Jimenez underwent treatment for cancer and her absence left a big hole.

“[Jeniffer] would get chemo and still come to work,” says Garcia, the school nurse. “But when she was out sick, you could see the difference when she wasn’t here. It was a big gap. People would ask about her. She’s like the face of the school.”

Luckily, Morales Jimenez is winning her fight and says, “I feel like God provided me a with a second chance. I battled cancer and I won the battle.”

Today, she’s more motivated than ever to fight for the families she serves.

“I do believe that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

School security officers put their lives on the line to save students from being shot

by Council 66 and AFSCME International Staff   |  April 10, 2023

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Sandra Beasley and Deverin Dillon graduated from the Rochester City School District, returned to work there as school security officers (SSOs) and are committed to improving the lives of students.  

That commitment came shining through when Beasley and Dillon — both members of Board of Education Non-Teaching Employees (BENTE) Local 2419 (AFSCME Council 66) — risked their lives to save the lives of students when a gunman opened fire near the entrance to Benjamin Franklin High School on Jan. 5.  

The suspect chased a student to the school and fired shots through Franklin High’s front doors, trapping three students as they crouched in the doorway. Hearing the shots, Beasley and Dillon quickly opened the doors, grabbed the students and pulled them inside to safety. The SSOs then called 911 and started lockout procedures. Despite not knowing the suspect’s whereabouts, Dillon ran outside to render aid to anyone who was injured, but fortunately no one was shot.  

The Rochester City Council recognized both Beasley and Dillon – who’s widely known as DL – at its Feb. 21 meeting. Councilmembers thanked the SSOs for their “quick thinking and courageous actions, which ensured the safety of students” and awarded them certificates of recognition.  

Beasley and Dillon gave speeches, underscoring how much they love their jobs and how they are committed to their work.  

“I understand that they’re your babies, but when they come into that building, when they come into Franklin, they’re our babies and we’re not going to let anything happen to our babies,” Beasley said.   

“When your kids come into our building, we treat your kids like our kids. I’d do it again if I had to,” Dillon said, according to one news report.   

Here is a local news clip in which Beasley and Dillon discuss what happened and related topics.  

Beasley graduated from Franklin High in 1988 and started working for Rochester schools 15 years ago as an SSO. Since coming to work at her alma mater in 2020, she has been spending a lot of time building relationships with students.  

They need to be “talked to, loved and respected. Adults want respect. Kids want that too,” she said. “Kids just need love and someone to talk to.” 

When a student has a bad day, she comforts them. She brings in food, winter coats, clothing and shoes — some donated by her own 15-year-old daughter — to needy students. In return, the students hug her and show off the items she donates. Beasley also has “tough love” conversations with students when they need it. Some even call her their second mom and she, in turn, refers to all students as “my babies.”  

So does Dillon – or DL, as he is affectionately known. A graduate of East High School, he has worked for Rochester public schools since 2010.  

“We come to school every day not knowing what’s going to happen to our babies,” Dillon said. “A lot of our babies are hurting and have mental health issues.”  

His two favorite school days are prom and graduation. He loves seeing his students all dressed up in their best attire for prom. He feels proud and considers it a “blessing” to watch students who’ve struggled graduate from high school. He is DL, the “school dad,” and families tell him how much he has improved their children’s lives.  

Asked what improvements they want to see in Rochester public schools, Beasley and Dillon focus on “their babies” first, calling for more support services, including mental health counseling and life skills programs; and additional job-training programs like cosmetology and the trades.  

Only then do they bring up their own needs. They want more funds to be spent on school security, including higher pay to recruit and retain highly qualified SSOs. The starting pay rate for SSOs is $19.44 per hour, with many open positions across the district. They would like to see other security measures implemented, including cameras around schools and alarms on doors. 

Dillon said SSOs often go above and beyond the job title. We act as “uncles, fathers, parents. We counsel,” he said, adding that SSOs are first responders and deserve respect.  

“We run towards problems,” he said. “We don’t run away.” 

With labor in his bones, a jack-of-all-trades calls it a career

March 27, 2023

“The only ice I want to see again floats in a glass of scotch,” says Mark Smith.

After 38 years caring for the trees and grounds in Norwell, Massachusetts, having served through precisely six of the 10 worst winters his state has ever seen, and having cared for a community for nearly four decades, Smith has earned that scotch.

On the eve of his retirement (at the time of our interview, Smith is two days away from calling it a day), Smith reflected on a career that found him constantly leaning in: not only serving the southeastern Massachusetts town of Norwell, where he grew up, but to AFSCME and to the labor movement as a whole.

“I started on August 20, 1984,” recalls Smith. “It was a small department – only three workers – two guys in our 20’s and an older guy in his 60’s.”

Smith’s responsibilities included mowing the town’s grounds, maintaining graveyards, doing tree work and plowing roads. But there was another responsibility he was given: shop steward.

“They said, ‘It’s you, Smitty.’ I hadn’t paid one cent in dues yet. I had to learn the ropes.”

Smith would go on to learn not only what it takes to keep a town thriving, but also what it means to be a member of a union and what unions fight for.

The man who would become the foreman of Norwell’s Trees and Grounds Department would study welding, procurement, arboriculture, and more. He’d become a jack-of-all-trades as he watched – and helped – the once-bucolic town expand and flourish.

Winters would find him clocking countless hours of overtime, scouring Norwell’s roads in his truck, chainsaw at his side, dumping his share of the 5,000 tons of salt a year his team distributed.

He would relish the friendships he made among other laborers and the traditions they held dear, traditions particularly strong in Massachusetts.

Smith speaks with pride, for example, about his membership to the Southeastern Massachusetts Tree Warden and Arborists’ Association (he would go on to serve a president in 2016 and 2017), where those charged with preserving the region’s trees could geek out on fungi and tree pests.

Joining the Boston Labor Guild in 1999 gave Smith a chance to learn everything “labor” under the sun, which ranged from contract negotiations to how to be a better steward, developing deep ties to his state’s labor community.  

Smith recalls the terror he felt attending an early event and watching someone give a valedictory speech in front of 200 people. Little did he know that years later, he would serve as president of the Guild, giving that same valedictory speech in front of 900 people.

He’s passed on the lessons he’s learned onto others, including Jeffrey Hamilton, who works for Norwell’s Highway Department and who nominated Smith for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award.

“Mark is a once-in-a-generation employee,” wrote Hamilton, in his nomination of Smith. “His work ethic for perfection during a normal work day to stamina and leadership during storm cleanups and winter operations is something I clung to as a new employee.”

Hamilton acknowledges the void that will be left when Smith retires, but adds, “His imprint … will be one we can pass down in his honor.”

Though he was thrown into the role of shop steward, Smith would come to learn the value and the power of his union, AFSCME Local 1700 (Council 93), where he would play a variety of roles over the next 25 years, including five years as an executive board member, 12 years as vice president and where he currently serves as the treasurer.

“People say ‘What’s the union done for me?’ But I tell them: the union isn’t something that’s up in the sky on a cloud. You have to look in the mirror. You’re looking at the union. The individual is like a finger; come together as a union, it becomes a fist.”

Smith has been a part of that fist from the beginning – in Massachusetts and elsewhere.

At one AFSCME convention, he spoke to members from Wisconsin, and after hearing about their plight with then-Gov. Scott Walker, Smith would eventually travel to that state many times to fight Walker’s attempt to destroy public sector unions there.

“I tried to get there three or four times a year. On my time and my dime. If you don’t do it, who else will?” asks Smith. “You have to put heart into everything you do.”

While Smith may be retiring, he’s not done serving his union. He has another two-year stint on Local 1700’s executive board.

“I’m like a bad penny,” he jokes. “I never seem to go away.”

‘Nurse Bob’ recognized for helping vulnerable Ohioans access health care they need

by AFSCME Staff  |  February 23, 2023

“The only ice I want to see again floats in a glass of scotch,” says Mark Smith.

After 38 years caring for the trees and grounds in Norwell, Massachusetts, having served through precisely six of the 10 worst winters his state has ever seen, and having cared for a community for nearly four decades, Smith has earned that scotch.

On the eve of his retirement (at the time of our interview, Smith is two days away from calling it a day), Smith reflected on a career that found him constantly leaning in: not only serving the southeastern Massachusetts town of Norwell, where he grew up, but to AFSCME and to the labor movement as a whole.

“I started on August 20, 1984,” recalls Smith. “It was a small department – only three workers – two guys in our 20’s and an older guy in his 60’s.”

Smith’s responsibilities included mowing the town’s grounds, maintaining graveyards, doing tree work and plowing roads. But there was another responsibility he was given: shop steward.

“They said, ‘It’s you, Smitty.’ I hadn’t paid one cent in dues yet. I had to learn the ropes.”

Smith would go on to learn not only what it takes to keep a town thriving, but also what it means to be a member of a union and what unions fight for.

The man who would become the foreman of Norwell’s Trees and Grounds Department would study welding, procurement, arboriculture, and more. He’d become a jack-of-all-trades as he watched – and helped – the once-bucolic town expand and flourish.

Winters would find him clocking countless hours of overtime, scouring Norwell’s roads in his truck, chainsaw at his side, dumping his share of the 5,000 tons of salt a year his team distributed.

He would relish the friendships he made among other laborers and the traditions they held dear, traditions particularly strong in Massachusetts.

Smith speaks with pride, for example, about his membership to the Southeastern Massachusetts Tree Warden and Arborists’ Association (he would go on to serve a president in 2016 and 2017), where those charged with preserving the region’s trees could geek out on fungi and tree pests.

Joining the Boston Labor Guild in 1999 gave Smith a chance to learn everything “labor” under the sun, which ranged from contract negotiations to how to be a better steward, developing deep ties to his state’s labor community.  

Smith recalls the terror he felt attending an early event and watching someone give a valedictory speech in front of 200 people. Little did he know that years later, he would serve as president of the Guild, giving that same valedictory speech in front of 900 people.

He’s passed on the lessons he’s learned onto others, including Jeffrey Hamilton, who works for Norwell’s Highway Department and who nominated Smith for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award.

“Mark is a once-in-a-generation employee,” wrote Hamilton, in his nomination of Smith. “His work ethic for perfection during a normal work day to stamina and leadership during storm cleanups and winter operations is something I clung to as a new employee.”

Hamilton acknowledges the void that will be left when Smith retires, but adds, “His imprint … will be one we can pass down in his honor.”

Though he was thrown into the role of shop steward, Smith would come to learn the value and the power of his union, AFSCME Local 1700 (Council 93), where he would play a variety of roles over the next 25 years, including five years as an executive board member, 12 years as vice president and where he currently serves as the treasurer.

“People say ‘What’s the union done for me?’ But I tell them: the union isn’t something that’s up in the sky on a cloud. You have to look in the mirror. You’re looking at the union. The individual is like a finger; come together as a union, it becomes a fist.”

Smith has been a part of that fist from the beginning – in Massachusetts and elsewhere.

At one AFSCME convention, he spoke to members from Wisconsin, and after hearing about their plight with then-Gov. Scott Walker, Smith would eventually travel to that state many times to fight Walker’s attempt to destroy public sector unions there.

“I tried to get there three or four times a year. On my time and my dime. If you don’t do it, who else will?” asks Smith. “You have to put heart into everything you do.”

While Smith may be retiring, he’s not done serving his union. He has another two-year stint on Local 1700’s executive board.

“I’m like a bad penny,” he jokes. “I never seem to go away.”

Never Quit winner is an Indiana Head Start teacher determined to help others

February 21, 2023

Looking back on her life, Tekeyla McCracken is grateful to those who helped her along the way.

She was a small child when her father survived a random shooting but never fully recovered. Her mother was addicted to drugs. McCracken became pregnant at 14 and, soon after, her mother kicked her out of the house.

“I was starting to go down the wrong road,” she recalls. “I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life. I didn’t know what was going to become of me.”

But she wasn’t alone. Two of her teachers at school – Ms. Crawford and Ms. Harris, her math and health teachers – noticed what she was going through.

“They saw potential in me and saw that I was making the wrong choices,” McCracken says. “They helped me get emancipated. I was emancipated at 15 and got my own apartment. I was living on my own with my baby at 15. It was very scary.”

Despite the odds against her, McCracken was determined to succeed. With the help of friends, her teachers, and public services such as income-based housing and reduced-cost child care, she went to school during the day and held a job at night. After she graduated high school, she went to college for a teaching degree and later returned for a bachelor’s in child psychology.

She was a behavioral therapist for a while, working with at-risk youth. Today, she is a lead teacher at Community Action of East Central Indiana (CAECI), a Head Start program for Richmond, Indiana.

McCracken says she grew up wanting to become a teacher so she could be a positive influence on children living in adverse circumstances like the ones she had overcome.

“Knowledge is power,” she says.

McCracken teaches pre-K and kindergarten, and some of her students, she says, come from troubled families. Many children’s parents are addicted to drugs.

“We focus on positive discipline and life skills,” she says. “It’s early education. Instead of me trying to keep kids out of trouble, and going down the wrong road like I was, I’m reaching them early enough to prevent them from getting there. It’s all about teaching them a love of learning and respect. That’s the big difference.”

For her service to her community, McCracken, who is also president of AFSCME Local 2077 (Indiana-Kentucky Council 962), is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

Cynthia Howard, a co-worker who nominated McCracken, says McCracken doesn’t stop at her job.

“She is always helping others in need, giving back, caring, listening,” Howard says. “She’s been through a lot of stuff, and so everybody is always coming to her for advice. Despite whatever challenge she may be going through, she is always going to help you. She is always doing more for others. She is non-stop.”

McCracken raised 14 children, including three foster daughters. For almost 26 years, she worked two or even three jobs to make ends meet. Today, in her early 40s, with most of her children grown up, she feels she can “take a little bit of a break.”

“It’s been a road,” she says, reflecting back on her life. “And I love that I can help others get to where they need to be. A lot of the parents whose children I teach are single parents and sometimes all they need is a little bit of help or guidance. I can be that person for them.”

To McCracken, the reason she helps those around her is self-evident.

“If I can do something about a situation to make it better, then it just seems like a given,” she says. “Why wouldn’t I? If I can do something and don’t, then it’s a disservice to everyone. … I do it because it’s the right thing to do.”

NYC dispatcher wins Never Quit Service Award after stopping shooter in subway

February 06, 2023

As on most days, New York City 911 radio dispatcher Jessica Collazo reported to work on April 12, 2022, not knowing what to expect.

Although a dispatcher’s job is always unpredictable, that was the day she got the call, or rather, an influx of calls about a shooter on the N Train.

During what became a multifaceted response, Collazo and her colleagues immediately took action to help stop the mass shooter who injured 29 people when he threw gas bombs and shot a handgun 33 times.

“They found traces of shrapnel in the station and that's when I knew this was something big,” said Collazo, a member of AFSCME Local 1549 (District Council 37). “After that, it just escalated and I went into this automatic mode. I was trying to make sure I got all the pertinent information and all the units to where they needed to go.”

Collazo and her team called officers to the scene, made sure multiple victims got medical attention at different hospitals, and communicated the description of the shooter for the public to help find him. There were no fatalities and the New York Police Department arrested the perpetrator a day later.

“People were afraid,” Collazo said. “The New York City Transit system is a huge system that everyone utilizes, including myself to get to work.”

Collazo’s life-saving work every day inspired her fellow 911 operator, Arisleyda Estrella-Skinner, to nominate her for the AFSCME Never Quit Service Award, which seeks to recognize public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better. According to Estrella-Skinner, Collazo’s apt response that day lines up with the warm presence she brings to work every day.

“We're basically the people who either save you or hear your last words,” said Estrella-Skinner. “Under the intensity, stress and anxiety that we face on the job, Jessica is always very outgoing and very helpful. Everyone reaches out to her.”

In addition to receiving AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, Collazo and two of her teammates were named dispatchers of the year by the New York Police Department during a ceremony in which more than 100 Local 1549 members were also honored.

The accolades have allowed Collazo to reflect on the care for people that has motivated her to go the extra mile as a 911 communications technician for the past 9 years.

“I was really proud to be honored,” she said. “Our job really is a selfless job. Every day, me and all my co-workers go in and we never know what we're going into.”

Never Quit winners who learned CPR just in case save two students from choking

January 23, 2023

There wasn’t a moment to spare when AFSCME Local 581 (Council 94) members Bobby Santos and Bonnie Dion each applied the Heimlich maneuver this school year to save the lives of children who couldn’t breathe.

It was lunch time at Guiteras Elementary School in Bristol, Rhode Island, where Santos was on duty in October as a custodial maintenance worker. Suddenly, he heard a staff member tell him to call 911 because a student was choking. He knew that could take too much time, so he intervened.

A stickler for safety brings a smile to the needle-wary

January 10, 2023

Two years ago, Ashley Peterson experienced a digital phenomenon most of us have experienced at one time or another: she was talking to her mom about how she needed to sign up to donate blood and an hour later, an advertisement for the American Red Cross popped up on her phone.

In this case, the ad Peterson saw wasn’t for donations. Instead, it was for a job: to become a phlebotomist – a blood drawer – for the Red Cross.

For the single parent of two kids, it was the right opportunity at the right time. Peterson had just finished a season as a roofer and was looking for new work. Having already been a longtime Red Cross blood donor and having had family members whose lives were saved through blood transfusions, Peterson believed in the mission and signed up.

Now, two years since that ad appeared on her phone, Peterson has been promoted twice, a fact that her co-worker, David Torgerson, who nominated Peterson for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, says comes as no surprise.

“She does outstanding work,” says Torgerson. “She demands high standards. Safety’s very important to her. She’s pretty much a pillar of doing everything right.”

According to Torgerson, Peterson brings a lot more to the Red Cross than conscientiousness. Torgerson describes Peterson as a colleague who’s always friendly, always ready with a joke or a laugh – someone liable to dance to enliven blood drives, a co-worker with boundless energy who puts donors at ease.

For the Mankato-based Peterson and the other Southwest Minnesota staff who run the Red Cross’ blood drives, that brand of high-energy is a prized commodity.

They are “mobile phlebotomists,” which means Peterson and her co-workers travel a vast territory that dips west in South Dakota and as far east as southern Wisconsin to collect the blood that will save lives.

“It’s nomadic work,” says Torgerson.

A typical blood drive will require staff to set up in the morning at a high school or community center, perform dozens of blood draws, tend to woozy (“Someone always passes out or pukes,” says Peterson), pack up in the evening after anywhere from 10 to 14 hours, ship off the blood samples to St. Paul, retire to a hotel and then it’s off to the next site.

As hard as it is to be away from her kids, Peterson says she’s found a personal calling, one that’s seen her ascend from newbie to a “lead” – one of the people in charge of running blood drives.

“I lost my brother to cancer a year ago, so blood donations to me are so personally important. I’m doing an important job and my kids know I’m doing an important job,” says Peterson.

Peterson says first-time donors are her favorite donors.

“I like to walk them through the process,” she says. “The needle’s not as big as your brain’s imagining it to be.”

But Peterson also loves her regulars, the people she sees time and again at blood draws.

“I know these people’s stories. I know why they’re donating,” she says.  “I have a lot of donors whose kids needed this, or someone saved their mother or grandmother. People are paying things back in a way. They’re such heartwarming stories.”

So, what might have been an annoying digital pop-up has led to a career for Ashley Peterson – and a new family. Peterson says that in addition to her Red Cross family, she now counts her AFSCME family (she’s the newly minted shop steward of Local 3931) as equally important to her.

And, according to Torgerson, both those families feel lucky to have her as a leader.

A stickler for safety brings a smile to the needle-wary

March 23, 2023

Two years ago, Ashley Peterson experienced a digital phenomenon most of us have experienced at one time or another: she was talking to her mom about how she needed to sign up to donate blood and an hour later, an advertisement for the American Red Cross popped up on her phone.

In this case, the ad Peterson saw wasn’t for donations. Instead, it was for a job: to become a phlebotomist – a blood drawer – for the Red Cross.

For the single parent of two kids, it was the right opportunity at the right time. Peterson had just finished a season as a roofer and was looking for new work. Having already been a longtime Red Cross blood donor and having had family members whose lives were saved through blood transfusions, Peterson believed in the mission and signed up.

Now, two years since that ad appeared on her phone, Peterson has been promoted twice, a fact that her co-worker, David Torgerson, who nominated Peterson for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, says comes as no surprise.

“She does outstanding work,” says Torgerson. “She demands high standards. Safety’s very important to her. She’s pretty much a pillar of doing everything right.”

According to Torgerson, Peterson brings a lot more to the Red Cross than conscientiousness. Torgerson describes Peterson as a colleague who’s always friendly, always ready with a joke or a laugh – someone liable to dance to enliven blood drives, a co-worker with boundless energy who puts donors at ease.

For the Mankato-based Peterson and the other Southwest Minnesota staff who run the Red Cross’ blood drives, that brand of high-energy is a prized commodity.

They are “mobile phlebotomists,” which means Peterson and her co-workers travel a vast territory that dips west in South Dakota and as far east as southern Wisconsin to collect the blood that will save lives.

“It’s nomadic work,” says Torgerson.

A typical blood drive will require staff to set up in the morning at a high school or community center, perform dozens of blood draws, tend to woozy (“Someone always passes out or pukes,” says Peterson), pack up in the evening after anywhere from 10 to 14 hours, ship off the blood samples to St. Paul, retire to a hotel and then it’s off to the next site.

As hard as it is to be away from her kids, Peterson says she’s found a personal calling, one that’s seen her ascend from newbie to a “lead” – one of the people in charge of running blood drives.

“I lost my brother to cancer a year ago, so blood donations to me are so personally important. I’m doing an important job and my kids know I’m doing an important job,” says Peterson.

Peterson says first-time donors are her favorite donors.

“I like to walk them through the process,” she says. “The needle’s not as big as your brain’s imagining it to be.”

But Peterson also loves her regulars, the people she sees time and again at blood draws.

“I know these people’s stories. I know why they’re donating,” she says.  “I have a lot of donors whose kids needed this, or someone saved their mother or grandmother. People are paying things back in a way. They’re such heartwarming stories.”

So, what might have been an annoying digital pop-up has led to a career for Ashley Peterson – and a new family. Peterson says that in addition to her Red Cross family, she now counts her AFSCME family (she’s the newly minted shop steward of Local 3931) as equally important to her.

And, according to Torgerson, both those families feel lucky to have her as a leader.

'A force for good on our campus’: Never Quit winner is housekeeper at university in Pennsylvania

December 08, 2022

When Desa Fry was growing up in Malaysia, a popular tradition around New Year’s Day was to eat noodles and oranges.

“Noodles make life longer and oranges make it sweeter,” she says, explaining the belief behind a custom that people observed as they hoped for the best in the year ahead.

It was her mother who told her that the holidays aren’t about presents but about being together as a family, and she has passed on those values to her own children. 

Although her days in her native country seem long ago to Fry – she moved to the United States more than 30 years ago – many of the things she learned as a child have stayed with her. That includes her commitment to hard work.

“My mom is the one who taught my sisters and brothers to have a strong work ethic and to be kind to each other,” she says.

Fry is a housekeeper at Millersville University, a public university in southeastern Pennsylvania. She began her service there in 2004, working in food service, but transferred to housekeeping last year after applying for a job.

“I love my new job,” she says. “I love the people and the students here. They’re very friendly. I love to come to work and see everybody smile. I try to make friends with everybody. I treat them like a brother and sister to me.”

Fry’s co-workers have noticed just how good she is at her new job.

“Everyone who works in our building does such a nice job, but there’s something special about Desa,” says Kelly Davis, who works in the Dean’s Office.

Davis says Fry plays a behind-the-scenes role that sometimes is taken for granted, especially when things are busy around campus. But her dedication to keeping the building clean is evident and makes a huge difference to the students, professors and staff alike.

“Desa is a force for good on our campus,” says Davis. “She embodies our union’s strong work ethic and also brings a kindness and encouragement to those who encounter her throughout the day. As a housekeeper on a busy university campus, she interacts with so many people and leaves them with a smile. Since she started in our building, we are welcomed each day by a fresh and sparkling space – her attention to detail and drive to do better is evident in all she does.”

For her outstanding service, Fry, a member of AFSCME Local 2421 (District Council 89), is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go the extra mile to benefit their communities.

“I don’t think I’ve ever not felt like working,” says Fry, when asked what motivates her.

She recalls a period when she was furloughed for five months, a time that “nearly drove me nuts,” she says.

To keep busy when she’s not at the university, Fry says, she keeps a garden at home, spends time with her husband and two children, who are 24 and 21, and goes to church. Sometime soon, she says, she would like to go back to Malaysia to see her family.

“I do miss Malaysia,” she says. “Sometimes I make a Malaysian dish like chicken curry and bring it to the university. I share it with the employees and the students. They love it!”

Never Quit winner is Indianapolis dispatcher described as “a lifeline” to her community

November 28, 2022

Is your public works department number in your contacts?

If you spot an issue in your city – a blocked storm drain, a fallen tree across a road, a street cave-in or a blinking traffic signal – you may not always know whom to call. But if you live in Indianapolis and you’ve been helped by dispatcher Marilyn Murff, you’re likely to remember.

“Several months ago, my HOA [homeowner association] members had some concerns about service and repairs needed in our community,” an Indianapolis resident wrote in an email to Murff’s supervisors. “We were unsure which city office that we needed to contact. After multiple attempts to get help, I was connected to a Ms. Marilyn Murff. Ms. Murff was the consummate professional…. Because of her help, our HOA’s concerns were addressed and corrected. We owe a huge debt of thanks and gratitude for the professionalism and assistance of Ms. Marilyn Murff. Thank you Ms. Murff and Indy.GOV for hiring you!”

Such praise wouldn’t surprise many of Murff’s co-workers in the city’s public works department.

Devin Craig, a former storm water field investigator, describes what a relief it was to be able to rely on Murff when he was out in the field and came across an unexpected issue.

“Sometimes we’re out in the field doing our jobs and we may need help from police or animal services, like the time I was chased by a dog,” says Craig, who now works for AFSCME Indiana-Kentucky Council 962. “Marilyn is like a lifeline. She’s that first line of contact. She’s that person who keeps us safe.”

For her service to her community, Murff, a member of AFSCME Local 725, is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

Craig, who nominated Murff for the award, says she always goes the extra mile, keeping cases open until she knows that they have been resolved, even following up with residents to ensure their issue has been handled.

“She is the type of person who is always looking to help people out, who is always thinking, ‘How can I make the situation better,’” says Craig. “She does it because she really cares about her people and the job she does, and about making Indianapolis a better place. You always know you’re safe with Marilyn on the other side of the radio.”  

What motivates her extraordinary daily service to her community? Murff says she is a people person who loves a good challenge.

“I try to treat people the way I want to be treated,” she says. “I’m a problem solver. I like to get to the root of a problem and be able to get people the help they need. I love that challenge.”

A native of Indianapolis, Murff has worked as a dispatcher in the city’s public works department for seven years. She sees her job as that of mediator: She connects people with solutions to their problems.

Even after she’s done her job of alerting the right agency to a reported problem, Murff says she likes to follow up with the original caller to make sure they’re satisfied. This is especially true when the caller is an elderly person.

“Sometimes an older person will stress out more,” she says. “So, I will do my very best to resolve their issues as quickly as possible.”

Out of darkness emerges a ‘ray of sunshine’

November 14, 2022

When Vicky Yarger describes her former colleague from Altoona, Pennsylvania’s, Penn-Lincoln Elementary, Janice DeAntonio, she runs out of superlatives.

“Her personality is amazing.” “The kids love her.” “She lights up the room.” “She’s like a ray of sunshine.”

Why the breathless outpouring of compliments for DeAntonio, the school’s secretary? Why did Yarger, who has since left Penn-Lincoln (she had served as a part-time secretary alongside DeAntonio), nominate DeAntonio for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award?

Take one example: just prior to the pandemic, in February 2020, DeAntonio sat down to pen individual Valentine’s Day cards for the school’s students. All 385 of them.

“That’s just the kind of person she is,” says Yarger.

For DeAntonio, those gestures are every bit as important – and sometimes more important – than her day-to-day duties.

“I wanted to make sure every one of these kids knows someone cares about them,” she says. “That’s me. I always want someone to feel like they’re appreciated or cared about.”

DeAntonio, who has worked at Penn-Lincoln since 2000, admits with a warm frankness that Penn-Lincoln is a “tough school.”

A parent of a student may be imprisoned or absent. The neighborhoods that feed into the school are high-poverty areas.

But the kids, DeAntonio says, “are wonderful. They appreciate the small things and a smile. Yours might be the only smiling face they see all day.”

DeAntonio, a member of AFSCME Local 2952 (District Council 83), says she hadn’t even heard of Penn-Lincoln when she started applying for jobs back in 2000. It certainly wasn’t the closest school to where she lived, but she followed her intuition and took a leap of faith; a leap that’s paid off.

“It turned out to be the best place,” DeAntonio says. “It’s very rewarding. Some days are very challenging but there always seems to be something that happens – someone stops by and says, ‘We don’t know what we’d do without you.’”

It’s common, DeAntonio says, for people to remind her of the role she’s played in their lives. Often, they’re former students who remember one of her kind gestures. Or they might be former high school students DeAntonio mentored in their senior year, when they volunteered as student-teachers at Penn-Lincoln.

In part, DeAntonio credits the role itself – secretary – with allowing her to connect with students in a unique way.

“I have a different relationship with them [than their teachers]. I’m neutral. I’ve had kids talk to me about their personal life or, at Christmas, we try to help families in need,” said DeAntonio. “We’ll be a Secret Santa. It’s not just me – we do that as a group – we provide dinners for them and presents and they appreciate it.”

DeAntonio says that the entire school staff works together to lift up kids who may not get the support or attention they need at home.

But if being a secretary provides a unique foothold into kids’ lives, there’s little doubt DeAntonio has her own gifts.

She recalls one instance years ago when a student was sent down to see the school nurse. The child waved at her on the way. DeAntonio learned the child never showed up at the nurse’s office.

“It was just an odd situation. I checked and the story wasn’t jiving. I said, ‘Something isn’t right.’”

DeAntonio flagged it for the student’s teacher, and they eventually discovered the student had planned to harm themselves. If DeAntonio hadn’t intervened, the child could have gone through with it.

She was later told, “You pretty much saved this child’s life.’’

“That was the day I cried the whole way home,” DeAntonio says.

If DeAntonio’sco gift to Penn-Lincoln has been saving kids’ lives – literally or figuratively – she admits that there was a time she needed saving.

Many years before she joined Penn-Lincoln, DeAntonio was a 26-year-old expecting mom, married, eagerly awaiting the birth of her son.

But her husband was killed in an industrial accident, and she suddenly found herself a single mom.

“My husband passed away shortly after I got pregnant,” she recalls. “He was only 32. He knew he was having a baby. Next month, he died in an industrial accident. I hit rock bottom.”

Left to grieve, with few resources, DeAntonio eventually had to climb her way out. It took everything she had.

“Giving up was never an option. You have to find the strength to keep going,” she says solemnly. “Thankfully, we got through that.”

She draws on that well of strength today to help her students overcome the adversity they face.

“That made me a stronger person. I reached down and pulled the strength out.”

Nearly a quarter of a century into the job, DeAntonio admits there are times when the role can get the better of her. But she has no plans to retire – at least not yet.

“There are definitely days when I think I want to retire, but no,” she says. “It just keeps me going. It’s my extended family, and I feel like I have many children and grandchildren. I enjoy it.”

For this Never Quit winner, New York airport firehouse is like a second home

October 31, 2022

Some people work from home while others must report to their workplaces. But for a few others, their workplaces become like second homes.

That is the case at the firehouse of the Francis S. Gabreski Airport, a joint civil-military airport in Suffolk County, New York, where firefighters often work in 24-hour shifts. They are a mix of civilian and military service personnel, and they treat each other like family.

People working in a firehouse share a special bond because of the time they spend together and the experiences they share, says Zachery Sodon, an airport firefighter at Gabreski. But he feels especially privileged to work alongside a colleague who he says goes above and beyond for his community and has been like a big brother to him for the past five years.

“Oscar Cerda is truly one of a kind,” says Sodon, who nominated Cerda for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award. “The amount of service and attention to detail and selfless actions he demonstrates every single day to himself and everyone around him is unmatched.”

Sodon, who is in the early stages of his career, says he has relied on Cerda’s experience to learn valuable things that have made him a better firefighter.

“Oscar has mentored me and taught me a lot,” he says. “He was able to take my level of knowledge and expand it to a whole other level.”

Part of being a great firefighter, Sodon says, is looking out for and taking care of those around you.

“Oscar sets an example that most of us should strive to follow and learn from,” he says.

For his service to his Long Island community, Cerda, a member of the Civil Service Employees Association/AFSCME Local 1000, is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award, which seeks to recognize public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

Cerda not only goes above and beyond for his co-workers. When he’s not at the Gabreski firehouse, he’s serving as a volunteer firefighter with the local fire department.

“I think a lot of it has to do with my upbringing, with the values my parents taught me,” Cerda says, when asked what’s behind his work ethic. “They were raised in farming families, so everybody always worked. Everybody had to make an effort to help the family. My parents taught me to work hard and strive to achieve, but also to be there to help. That was probably my biggest influence growing up.”

Cerda’s parents are from Chile, the country where Cerda was born. They immigrated when Cerda was 5 years old and lived in New York and South Carolina. Cerda recalls learning English from watching television before he was able to go to school.

He became a volunteer firefighter at 17 before joining the U.S. Air Force, where he spent more than five years in active duty. Recently he took his first vacation in 2 ½ years – a long weekend down to Florida.

“As firefighters, we encounter people when they’re often having the worst day of their lives,” Cerda says. “And so we do everything we can to try to help as much as we can, to give comfort and safety, to give aid when they need it.”

It’s a tough job, especially dealing with traumatic incidents and experiencing death up close.

But Cerda is proud to serve his community and be there for his co-workers, whom he calls “a second family.”

“I like helping people,” he says. “It’s not a monetary thing. Firemen are never millionaires. But it’s the satisfaction of being able to assist someone and help them out through the toughest time of their lives. Sometimes you can see it in their faces, the gratitude they have for you.”

A son of Queens, New York, teaches his community about the natural world

October 17, 2022

Ask most people what they think of when they think of a park ranger, and you’ll probably get a romantic image of a lone figure perched high above a Western vista, scanning for smoke.

But just as our wild areas need trained professionals to safeguard them and engage the patrons who visit them, so do our cities’ parks. And those professionals – like urban park ranger and AFSCME Never Quit Service Award winner Harry Aguilar – bring their own unique set of skills to the job.

About a year ago, 26-year-old Aguilar was hired alongside fellow Local 983 (DC 37) member Salvatore Asaro as part of a new cohort of New York City urban park rangers.

Assigned to the borough of Queens, Asaro quickly noticed that Aguilar brought something special to the role, particularly when it came to connecting with the public.

“Queens is one of the most diverse places on the planet,” explains Asaro. “It’s the biggest borough. Millions of people live here and there’s a constant influx of immigrants. You have to be really versatile. You have to read body language, especially when you don’t understand what people are saying.”

Asaro recalls an episode last spring when they’d received a call about a seal that had washed up on Rockaway Beach. After determining that the animal wasn’t sick or injured, they taped up the area to keep the public away from the animal.

However, the people who’d gathered to look at the creature were angry they weren’t doing anything. They didn’t realize that leaving the animal alone was the right move.

It was Aguilar who quickly diffused a situation that could’ve gotten even more heated, Asaro says.

“When people are abrasive, Harry can speak to them in a smooth way,” says Asaro. “He’s very attenuated to how he’s perceived. He’s got a very natural and fluid way of understanding who he’s talking to.”

For his part, Aguilar appreciated that the public wanted to help, and saw it as a chance to educate them.

“The seal was on his migratory path and he just was resting,” says Aguilar. “But there were no abnormal behaviors. So, I explained that maybe he had just sunbathed too long. I love being able to communicate this to people. I don’t know how to explain it: they’re learning something and I’m learning how to relate it to them.”

Aguilar says the fact that he was born and raised in the Richmond Hills neighborhood of Queens gives him a huge advantage when interacting with the public.

A more harrowing experience this past year illustrates the indefinable but essential trait that Asaro has witnessed.

Aguilar was on a foot patrol and could hear what he described as a “ting.” There had been reports of people cutting down trees and Aguilar suspected the noise was one of the perpetrators.

“I looked around and saw a gentleman with a machete,” said Aguilar. “I approached him – he didn’t seem agitated or upset – but I approached him cautiously. I asked him how he was, what he was doing. He said he just needed a little bit of branches to hold up his tomato plants in his garden.”

The man didn’t think there was anything wrong with chopping down a few limbs of a tree.

“Thankfully, he was very understanding,” said Aguilar, who calmly explained to him why he couldn’t continue to cut down the trees.

A situation that might have turned volatile and resulted in a call to the NYPD became an opportunity for education, to overcome cultural barriers.

“Approach is 100% of the job,” says Aguilar. “If you have a familiar voice, someone you might have grown up with, you’re more inclined to listen, to say ‘I trust this guy.’”

Growing up in Queens and coming from a family of immigrants – his parents are from El Salvador – Aguilar understands the different viewpoints that patrons bring to Queens’ parks. He also knows what it was like to grow up in a place where no one taught you about your natural environment.

Now, however, he can be the resource he never had growing up as a kid.

“I had an event at my old school where I explained to kids what I did as a park ranger,” said Aguilar. He says it was a powerful moment, being able to convey his passion for the outdoors and get kids excited about the natural world.

“What drives me is to be interactive with my community,” says Aguilar. “There’s a lot of folks like me where environmental education wasn’t there for them. If I had someone willing to put these ideas on me – that there are jobs you can get being outdoors – I’d have been more into school.”

Among the lessons that Aguilar imparts is that the sometimes-irksome wildlife New Yorkers encounter (think racoons, or in Queens parlance, “trash pandas”) and might be inclined to eliminate, were here long before we were.

“We happened to encroach on their land,” says Aguilar. “Our parks are what we have to offer back to them.”

‘I’m here for the people’: City of Miami administrative assistant is Never Quit winner

September 29, 2022

Ray Custodio, an administrative assistant for the City of Miami’s Department of Human Resources, isn’t one to stay home.

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was alone among his co-workers to regularly (twice a week) come into the office. One of his duties was to collect everyone’s office mail, scan it and send it electronically to each recipient. As the Information Technology liaison, another was to obtain laptops and assign them to staff working remotely.

Now that things have (mostly) returned to normal, Custodio seems intent on being out and about. When he’s not working in the office, he’s volunteering at job fairs or traveling for fun.

“I’m here for the people,” Custodio says. “When I’m actually able to help people, it makes me smile. And because I’m able to help them, they’re happy when they leave me. I just enjoy my job. I’m very passionate about it.”

Whether he’s answering phones, providing guidance to the public at jobs fairs or making life easier for his co-workers by bringing Florida Licensing On Wheels to the office, Custodio says he’s a people person who thrives by helping others.

For his service to his community, Custodio, a member of Local 1907, is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

“Ray is always looking out for employees and constituents,” said Judith Perez Almeida, a co-worker who nominated him for the award. “He is always going above and beyond to help out and put a smile on our faces. He is a huge asset to our department and we’re lucky to have him on our team.”

Custodio got his start in the U.S. Navy, where he was stationed in San Diego. After that he worked with Manatee County, Florida. All in all, he has served his country or worked in government for most of his professional life.

“I love government work,” he says. “It comes with so many benefits.”

One of the benefits of his current job is being part of a strong union.

“Our union really does make government work better,” Custodio says. “It’s through AFSCME that we can improve public services and fight for what we deserve.”

In his free time, Custodio likes to travel. This summer, he visited friends in Scotland and then headed to Mykonos, one of the Greek islands.

“Every chance I get, I travel,” he says. “If you see my office, I have two overhead boards with postcards from everywhere.”

Paving the path of success in Pennsylvania

September 12, 2022

She’s come a long way in a short amount of time.

Last year, Fatimah Taylor had just started working for Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation (PennDOT) as a temporary highway maintenance worker.

Today, Taylor has completed a training program that earned her a commercial driver’s license (CDL), mastered driving dump trucks, snow plows, front-end loaders and a half-dozen kinds of heavy equipment, and shown such an aptitude and eagerness to learn that her supervisor, Brian Epright, claims he’s never seen anyone so motivated in his entire career in public service.

“She’s a cut above the rest,” says Epright, who nominated Taylor for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award.

Epright has been with PennDot for 15 years and has been a supervisor for six, but he’s never had an employee like Taylor.

“I never met someone who learns so quick,” says Taylor.

Epright happened to meet Taylor, a member of Local 2159 (District Council 88), on his day off. He’d come back to help supervise a paving job, where Taylor was working as a brand-new flagger. He introduced himself and learned that she’d worked for the commonwealth before – at a state-run hospital in Norristown back in 2005, before taking a step back to care for her four kids.

Epright was impressed with Taylors’ work ethic from the start and sensed even then, “Something was different about her.”

It wasn’t long before Epright saw what made Taylor stand out. When they got a call about an open manhole cover, he and Taylor went to the township yard to pick up a replacement cover.

“These things are like 200 pounds,” said Epright. “Usually, you need three people to lift them.”

Epright put in a call for a third person to help them, but Taylor said, “What are we waiting for?”

“She helped me lift the thing onto the truck,” said Epright. “This woman has amazing strength.”

Epright isn’t talking strictly about her physical strength.

“Everything she does, she does with professionalism,” says Epright. “She’s the first in the hole to get the pipes in. She has no problem breaking blacktop. You show her once and let her go to town.”

Taylor’s talents go beyond a knack for picking things up quickly.

“I may be a little biased because she’s on my crew, but she’s a 43-year-old woman who outworks guys under 30. She’s using a jackhammer, cut saws … I showed her once how to do it then I stepped back. She’s basically my mason now. It’s stunning,” Epright says.

A year ago, Taylor had been waiting to hear back about a job through the state’s liquor control board, but the PennDOT opportunity came through first. However, the job as a highway maintenance operator – where she met Epright – was only temporary, due to end in October.  

“The summer program was about end,” recalls Taylor. “I thought ‘What should I do?’ I went to the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) and I took the CDL permit. I passed it. I showed PennDOT I got my permit. Then I trained on trucks and equipment. I had to go near Harrisburg to do a real certification, where I got a real license. They hired me as a trainee for about a month or two, then promoted me to an operator A.”

In short order, she was promoted again, and by March, she was a full-fledged operator.

“I can do whatever I say I’m going to do,” says Taylor of those who doubt her abilities. “I like to prove people wrong. They say, ‘She can’t do that. She’s girl.’ I hate when people say I can’t do something. I really can do anything.”

Taylor says she gets text messages from her kids – three of whom are grown and out of the house, one of whom, 13, still lives with her – saying how proud they are of her. And she feels proud, too.

“I like fixing the roads. When you ride down a street that you fixed, you can say: ‘I did that.’ I feel like I’m really doing something.”

Taylor admits that the work can be tiring, but she has no regrets about her new job, or the job at the liquor control board that never panned out.

She says, “I feel like if you don’t get dirty at work, you’re not working.”

‘She’s the heart of the school’

August 22, 2022

Norma Hernandez remembers how scary her first day of school in the United States was. Her parents had fled El Salvador’s civil war, and she had joined them several years after they had settled in Santa Monica, California, in the early 1980s.

She was 14 years old, behind in her schooling and Santa Monica seemed enormous compared to the small town she had grown up in.

“When I came to the U.S., I did not know any English. I had to learn it here,” Hernandez, a member of Local 211 (OAPSE) recalls. “I was thrown into too much.”

Hernandez would go on to graduate from high school, master the English language and move to Ohio, where she’s worked as an English interpreter for Spanish-speaking students for 22 years at Prairie Norton Elementary School in Columbus.

In her role as translator, her memories of her own first days of school in the U.S. are never far from her as she guides the elementary-aged children through an unfamiliar and sometimes frightening world.

Much more than an in-school translator, Hernandez has become a guardian angel to the students’ families.

“She’s a force to be reckoned with,” says Paula Beaver, a school cook who has worked with Hernandez for nearly a decade and who nominated Hernandez for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award.

Beaver admits her first impression of Hernandez years ago was of “an excited woman speaking fast and loud” – a compliment, since being heard above the clamor of dozens of little kids is a must. “You jump when she hollers,” Beaver said.

Beaver had yet to learn about the countless ways in which Hernandez supports the kids and even the families she works with.

She would later hear stories about Hernandez going to court to help translate for students’ family members – moms and dads – who were facing deportation and needed help navigating the court system. Or helping families study to earn their citizenship. Or helping a parent who’d lost their job find a way to get food and services.

“I thought that was amazing. She really cares about the students,” says Beaver. “She’s a wonderful person. She’s the heart of the school.”

More recently, when COVID hit, all the kids at Prairie Norton were given Chromebooks to use at home. But what good is a Chromebook if you can’t understand how to use it?

Hernandez set up a Facebook page for the Spanish-speaking families so they could contact her and have a central place to share directions, and she could walk them through setting up their computers so the kids could continue learning.

Putting in the extra time to help her students is Hernandez’s way of “paying it back” for what her own family went through.

A mom to four grown children who have gone onto college and careers, and almost a quarter-century into her own career, Hernandez never tires of working with her students.

“Helping the students is really beautiful because I get to see them becoming professionals themselves,” says Hernandez. “That gives me a good feeling.”

Never Quit winner is office assistant who helps keep Hawaii school ‘community oriented’

July 25, 2022

Marley Vida-Kehano was in fourth grade at Haiku Elementary School in Haiku, Hawaii, when Suzy Aguirre, the latest AFSCME Never Quit Service Award winner, began working there.

“She supervised us on the playground, but she also took on a lot of extracurricular roles,” recalls Vida-Kehano. “Whatever we would ask of her that was appropriate for the school, she would figure out a way to make it happen.”

Today, Vida-Kehano is the school baker. And she counts Aguirre, an office assistant at Haiku Elementary, as a co-worker.

“Now I have a different appreciation for what Suzy does,” says Vida-Kehano. “She’s very dedicated to the school. She’s here on weekends and her days off.”

A paraprofessional in a Washington, D.C., school wins Never Quit Service Award

by AFSCME Staff  |  July 13, 2022

They call her Ms. K.

Saqiyna Gray, known as “Ms. K” to students and their families at Stanton Elementary School in Washington, D.C., is a paraprofessional/small group reading specialist. But everyone around her, students and teachers alike, say she is so much more – she’s the heartbeat of the school.

Gray, a member of AFSCME Local 2921 (District Council 20), is the winner of the 2022 AFSCME Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

AFSCME President Lee Saunders introduced a moving video of Gray. And one of Gray’s former students, Fatmata Jarr, introduced her beloved teacher to the 45^th AFSCME International Convention on Wednesday.

Never Quit winner is California social services worker who helped solve a kidnapping

June 22, 2022

Before the interview was over, Diana Corral suspected something wasn’t right.

An employment eligibility specialist with the Orange County, California, Social Services Agency, Corral was helping a mother who had applied to receive cash assistance through CalWORKs. The woman said her daughter lived with her, but when Corral asked her which school she went to, the mother’s tone and demeanor changed.

“She became very aggressive towards me,” Corral recalls. “She went off on a tangent about how she didn’t believe in the public school system and was homeschooling her daughter. I told her I understood her choice but that I still needed to know if she was doing homeschooling through the school district or using some sort of online program. She wouldn’t answer my questions directly.”

As their conversation progressed, there were more red flags. When Corral informed her that as part of the cash assistance program, a child support case would have to be opened against the absent parent, the woman said she didn’t want the father to be involved.

“Something strange is going on here,” Corral recalls thinking. Right away, she asked an investigator to look into the case.

Social services workers must balance the public’s interest in preventing fraud with their clients’ interest in receiving the benefits they are entitled to. After the woman submitted all of the required documentation, her application was approved. But Corral had a sense that the story wasn’t over.

“When I received the report back from the investigator, it turned out that the mother had kidnapped the child from the father back in January, and there was already a warrant out for her arrest for kidnapping,” she says. “This is very rare. In my 18 years, I’d never seen anything like this. I still wonder what trauma that poor kid has gone through.”

For her service to her community, Corral, a member and president of AFSCME Local 2076 (Council 36), is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award.

“Diana’s thoroughness, attention to detail and professionalism were directly responsible for returning this child home,” says Hanh Le, a colleague in the Social Services Agency who nominated Corral for the award. “That was phenomenal on her part. She not only helped prevent fraud but helped reunite a child with her father.”

Sara Ghanbariami, another colleague who nominated Corral for the award, says she is inspired by the empathy that Corral brings to her work.

“Diana is perfect for social work,” says Ghanbariami, who met Corral through their union. “She sees the point of everything that she does. To her, it’s not about going through a checklist. It’s about taking the time to listen, to make sure she is helping the people who have the genuine luxury of being her clients.”

Asked what motivates her to go above and beyond, Corral admits that she enjoys helping others.

“Before coming to work for the County of Orange as a social worker, I worked in a nursing home, and before that I was a preschool teacher,” she says. “I’ve always enjoyed helping others. It kind of runs in my family. If you look at the careers that people in my family have chosen, they are either nurses or have worked in nursing homes or pursued military service. Taking care of others is like a family business.”

Never Quit winner Jenny Barta, a public health nurse, was born to serve her community

May 19, 2022

Before the interview was over, Diana Corral suspected something wasn’t right.

An employment eligibility specialist with the Orange County, California, Social Services Agency, Corral was helping a mother who had applied to receive cash assistance through CalWORKs. The woman said her daughter lived with her, but when Corral asked her which school she went to, the mother’s tone and demeanor changed.

“She became very aggressive towards me,” Corral recalls. “She went off on a tangent about how she didn’t believe in the public school system and was homeschooling her daughter. I told her I understood her choice but that I still needed to know if she was doing homeschooling through the school district or using some sort of online program. She wouldn’t answer my questions directly.”

As their conversation progressed, there were more red flags. When Corral informed her that as part of the cash assistance program, a child support case would have to be opened against the absent parent, the woman said she didn’t want the father to be involved.

“Something strange is going on here,” Corral recalls thinking. Right away, she asked an investigator to look into the case.

Social services workers must balance the public’s interest in preventing fraud with their clients’ interest in receiving the benefits they are entitled to. After the woman submitted all of the required documentation, her application was approved. But Corral had a sense that the story wasn’t over.

“When I received the report back from the investigator, it turned out that the mother had kidnapped the child from the father back in January, and there was already a warrant out for her arrest for kidnapping,” she says. “This is very rare. In my 18 years, I’d never seen anything like this. I still wonder what trauma that poor kid has gone through.”

For her service to her community, Corral, a member and president of AFSCME Local 2076 (Council 36), is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award.

“Diana’s thoroughness, attention to detail and professionalism were directly responsible for returning this child home,” says Hanh Le, a colleague in the Social Services Agency who nominated Corral for the award. “That was phenomenal on her part. She not only helped prevent fraud but helped reunite a child with her father.”

Sara Ghanbariami, another colleague who nominated Corral for the award, says she is inspired by the empathy that Corral brings to her work.

“Diana is perfect for social work,” says Ghanbariami, who met Corral through their union. “She sees the point of everything that she does. To her, it’s not about going through a checklist. It’s about taking the time to listen, to make sure she is helping the people who have the genuine luxury of being her clients.”

Asked what motivates her to go above and beyond, Corral admits that she enjoys helping others.

“Before coming to work for the County of Orange as a social worker, I worked in a nursing home, and before that I was a preschool teacher,” she says. “I’ve always enjoyed helping others. It kind of runs in my family. If you look at the careers that people in my family have chosen, they are either nurses or have worked in nursing homes or pursued military service. Taking care of others is like a family business.”

Meet ‘Mr. Motor Vehicles’

April 12, 2022

They call him “Mr. Motor Vehicles,” and if he can’t solve your problem, no one can. New York’s Malcolm Coates, our latest Never Quit Service Award winner, is the go-to person at Midtown Manhattan’s License Express for answers to the unanswerable.

“He is just phenomenal,” says Audrey Ince, who works with Coates at the DMV, where he is one of her supervisors. “He should be the commissioner of the DMV. He knows the job in and out. If he can’t help you, no one can. I’ve never worked with anybody as good as him.”

Ince says that their DMV location, which focuses mostly in issuing licenses, permits and IDs, can be a high-stress place. But Coates, a member of CSEA Local 1000, brings a unique flair to working with colleagues and customers alike.

“You’re dealing with customer service at the DMV. People can get very angry and there’s high turnover with workers,” says Ince, who points out that obtaining a license or a registration is a critical transaction for their customers. From air travel to financial transactions to obtaining any of a dozen kinds of permits, your state-issued ID is a crucial document.

“Mr. Coates boosts morale. We love him. We say he can’t go for any other job, in any other state agency.”

Ince says that Coates’ broad range of knowledge is one thing, but the trait that sets him apart is his “grace.”

“The willingness to help people and to do it with grace is rare. That’s really what it is,” says Ince. “We hate when he calls out or when he’s on vacation. He makes work more enjoyable for us, and that helps us help the customer.”

So, how does Coates manage to not only keep a smile on his face but marshal years of institutional knowledge to help his team and the people they serve?

“I had great supervisors when I started in White Plains. They trained me and made sure I understood what I was learning. And I did my own research, sometimes talking with representatives and [DMV staff] in Albany who helped me out,” said Coates. “You take everything you learn, and it’s easier for you to talk to a customer or work with a motor vehicle representative.”

That may explain how he’s able to answer any question that comes his way, but it doesn’t explain his ever-calm temperament.

“I’ve been working in customer service pretty much ever since I graduated high school,” says Coates, a Bronx native. “I’m used to dealing with people.”

Also, Coates points out that being comfortable on stage, in front of crowds, gives him an advantage.

“I used to do amateur standup comedy at a lot of local clubs in Manhattan in the city back in the 90’s. It makes it that much easier when you know how to handle people. I keep them calm and keep the whole atmosphere nice and happy.”

As upbeat on the phone as he is in person, Coates says, “Whenever anyone asks me how I’m doing, I always respond ‘I’m doing Motor Vehicley Sensational.’ People love it. It brings them joy.”

Coates says that prior to the pandemic, the tempo at the DMV could get frenetic — “There were wall-to-wall people and we worked very long hours” — but things have calmed down some.

“It’s not a bad place. Compared to a couple years ago, it’s much calmer. Customers aren’t as irate as they used to be,” says Coates, though surely that’s part and parcel of his soft touch.

As for what keeps him going?

“Actually, it’s just coming out and doing what I do,” says Coates. “I like what I do.”

Michigan school custodian found a way to make a difference for special education students

March 28, 2022

If he could do it all over again, Don Icenogle might choose a career in special education.

A custodian at Roosevelt High School in Wyandotte, Mich., Icenogle grew up with a brother, Dave, who had an intellectual disability. Now that he’s approaching retirement, Icenogle says, after nearly two decades with the public school system, he regrets not having done more to help students like Dave.

“I would have liked to have been a special education teacher because I think I would have been really good at it,” he says. “But I was very shy at school, and I wasn’t sure of myself. I didn’t have the confidence to think that I could someday become a teacher. It took me a long time to gain that confidence.”

To many in the Wyandotte community, however, Icenogle has done plenty, not only to help special education students but others as well. So says Joe Egan, a co-worker who coordinates the grounds operations.

“Don is second to none,” Egan says. “He helps everybody and goes out of his way to help anybody in this building, whether a fellow employee or a student. He’s the kind of guy who’ll go out of his way to give you a hand and never complains. You can’t even tell when he’s having a bad day because he always has his hand up first. He loves this city, and he loves the district.”

For his service to his community, Icenogle is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award, which seeks to recognize public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

Since joining the school district, Icenogle has gone out of his way to help the community. Through his union, AFSCME Local 1055 (Michigan Council 25), he has helped organize basketball tournaments to raise money for needy families. He helped create the AFSCME Local 1055 Scholarship Foundation, which benefits students who overcome obstacles. The local also participates in the Toys for Tots program and helps U.S. military veterans by providing them donated clothing, food and toiletries.

But there’s one aspect of his job that Icenogle seems especially to enjoy, and that is working with special education students.

“One day I asked my boss if I could teach students in the special education program some of the skills that I use as a custodian, since many of these kids are going to need practical skills to get jobs, and he was okay with it,” Icenogle says.

Since then, he has taught some of the students at the high school the skills of his trade.

“Some people, when they call you a janitor or a custodian, they think lowly of us at first,” Icenogle says. “But we work hard, a lot of us do, and we’re just as important as any other public service worker.”

Every once in a while, Icenogle says, he catches up with or hears from one of the students that he’s mentored. Like the time he ran into a former student at Kroger’s, where the young man was employed.

“He told me he was doing bagging and some cleaning in the store, and that the training he’d had with me made him believe that he could do it,” Icenogle recalls. “I felt very proud of him.”

Icenogle may not have pursued a career in teaching, but he found a way to make a difference in the lives of special education students.

A probation officer puts juveniles on ‘the right path,’ even as he faces a detour

March 17, 2022

If he could do it all over again, Don Icenogle might choose a career in special education.

A custodian at Roosevelt High School in Wyandotte, Mich., Icenogle grew up with a brother, Dave, who had an intellectual disability. Now that he’s approaching retirement, Icenogle says, after nearly two decades with the public school system, he regrets not having done more to help students like Dave.

“I would have liked to have been a special education teacher because I think I would have been really good at it,” he says. “But I was very shy at school, and I wasn’t sure of myself. I didn’t have the confidence to think that I could someday become a teacher. It took me a long time to gain that confidence.”

To many in the Wyandotte community, however, Icenogle has done plenty, not only to help special education students but others as well. So says Joe Egan, a co-worker who coordinates the grounds operations.

“Don is second to none,” Egan says. “He helps everybody and goes out of his way to help anybody in this building, whether a fellow employee or a student. He’s the kind of guy who’ll go out of his way to give you a hand and never complains. You can’t even tell when he’s having a bad day because he always has his hand up first. He loves this city, and he loves the district.”

For his service to his community, Icenogle is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award, which seeks to recognize public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

Since joining the school district, Icenogle has gone out of his way to help the community. Through his union, AFSCME Local 1055 (Michigan Council 25), he has helped organize basketball tournaments to raise money for needy families. He helped create the AFSCME Local 1055 Scholarship Foundation, which benefits students who overcome obstacles. The local also participates in the Toys for Tots program and helps U.S. military veterans by providing them donated clothing, food and toiletries.

But there’s one aspect of his job that Icenogle seems especially to enjoy, and that is working with special education students.

“One day I asked my boss if I could teach students in the special education program some of the skills that I use as a custodian, since many of these kids are going to need practical skills to get jobs, and he was okay with it,” Icenogle says.

Since then, he has taught some of the students at the high school the skills of his trade.

“Some people, when they call you a janitor or a custodian, they think lowly of us at first,” Icenogle says. “But we work hard, a lot of us do, and we’re just as important as any other public service worker.”

Every once in a while, Icenogle says, he catches up with or hears from one of the students that he’s mentored. Like the time he ran into a former student at Kroger’s, where the young man was employed.

“He told me he was doing bagging and some cleaning in the store, and that the training he’d had with me made him believe that he could do it,” Icenogle recalls. “I felt very proud of him.”

Icenogle may not have pursued a career in teaching, but he found a way to make a difference in the lives of special education students.

Ohio job and family services specialist is all about her community

March 14, 2022

Earlier this year, Sheila Back received an email from her union that made her laugh out loud.

“My life has been so stressful lately,” she says. “The other day I was so stressed out, I was telling myself I can’t take it anymore. I had to remind myself that God won’t give me more than I can handle. And then I got an email telling me I had won a Never Quit award. I started laughing.”

Our union’s Never Quit Service Award recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better. Back is a member of AFSCME Ohio Council 8.

In addition to being a specialist with the Montgomery County, Ohio, Department of Job and Family Services, Back was elected in November to serve as trustee of Jefferson Township, defeating an incumbent. It’s a position she sought because she loves her community and wants to make a difference.

“I was born in Jefferson Township and came back because this is home to me,” she says. “It’s a beautiful place to live, and I love this community. But in some ways it’s falling apart, and I know that I can’t complain unless I’m willing to do something about it.”

AFSCME encourages its members to run for elected office. As our union’s Secretary-Treasurer, Elissa McBride, put it recently, “It’s great to have elected officials who support workers, but it’s even better to have elected officials who are workers.”

Though the past few months have been difficult for Back, she is well connected in the community and has received ample support, including from co-workers.

“Sheila is really into the community and is really good at getting people excited about their community,” says Tracy Brown, a co-worker who nominated Back for the award. “At work, she’s always been a great team player. She always covers for me when I’m absent and does a great job. She’s just an outstanding person at work and in her own life. We all love her and appreciate her attitude.”

Back sees everything she does as part of her mission to make her community better. In addition to her new role as trustee, she has been running a nonprofit neighborhood association of Jefferson Township volunteers for nearly a decade, with the goal of “being of service to our fellow brothers and sisters,” she says.

As a Job and Family Services specialist, she helps determine Medicaid eligibility for residents who apply or reapply for medical benefits. Hearing the stories of those less fortunate also motivates her volunteer work.

"I’ve always had a heart to help people,” Back says. “My parents always instilled that in me. I grew up with the mentality that if you’re a friend of our family, then you’re family to us. I also grew up believing that you can’t forget where you come from. You have to reach back and help somebody else.”

When things get tough, Back likes to recite a poem she’s grown fond of. It’s called “Don’t Quit,” by Edgar Albert Guest.

It ends with this line, which captures our union’s Never Quit spirit: “so stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit – it’s when things seem worst, you must not quit.”

Rhode Island animal control officer cringes at how the movies portray her profession

February 28, 2022

When Tara Sekator was a child, her grandparents had a dog named Spooky.

“Spooky died when I was just a little girl, and I used to throw tennis balls toward heaven thinking Spooky could get them,” recalls Sekator, who is now an animal control officer for the town of South Kingstown, Rhode Island.

She missed Spooky. When she was 5 years old, Sekator asked her parents for a dog of her own and they obliged. She named her Scruffy.

When she was 11 or 12, she began volunteering at a local shelter. When she was 15, she had her first job at a local kennel.

Her love of animals hasn’t stopped.

“The only compliment that I’ll ever give myself is that I’m really good at reading animals and reading their behavior, so I’ve always gravitated towards animals,” she says.

But as much as she loves her job, which she does as an employee of the town’s police department, she dislikes the misconceptions people often have of animal control officers.

“People watch Disney movies and they think that animal control officers take dogs away and put them behind bars,” Sekator says. “I watch those movies now and I cringe.”

Part of Sekator’s job, which is to keep the public safe, is education.

“I’m trying to break down that barrier,” she says. “I want to get rid of the persona of the animal control officer as the bad guy. That’s not how it is.”

For her service to her community, Sekator, a member of AFSCME Local 1612 (Council 94), is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

“Tara loves animals,” says Amanda Nelson, an assistant manager of the town’s animal shelter who works with Sekator and nominated her for the award. “She always wants to do the best for people and for animals, is always trying to find ways to help others. She is a great asset to our town.”

In the movies, Sekator says, animal control officers are often portrayed as carrying snare poles, which they aggressively use to subdue their victims. But the reality is quite different.

“I’ve only used a snare pole twice in my whole career, and only on an aggressive dog,” she says. “We use different ways to approach animals, it’s often treats or squeaky toys. It’s always about your tone of voice, how you communicate with them.”

What motivates her to never quit, Sekator says, is her love of animals.

“At the end of the day, you have to remember that the animals can’t speak, so we’re the voice for the voiceless,” she says. “They don’t get to pick their owners. If I’m giving information to an owner, not only am I helping that person, but I’m helping the animal, and that’s what matters.”

A probation officer puts juveniles on ‘the right path,’ even as he faces a detour

February 15, 2022

“I’m not hired to judge. I’m hired to help you get rehabilitated,” says Deputy Probation Officer Stacy Ford, of his philosophy in working with the juveniles living at Camp Afflerbaugh, a detention center run by Los Angeles County Probation Department.

Withholding judgment isn’t easy, but it’s essential for Ford, our latest Never Quit Service Award winner, to do his job.

The 20 or so teenagers Ford supervises in the sprawling camp have committed murder, rape, robbery and other serious crimes.

“If I focused on what they did, I would hate those kids,” says Ford. “Some of them have done some egregious things.”

But Ford, a member of AFSCME Local 685 (Council 36) and a 15-year veteran of the L.A. County Probation Department, would rather focus on getting the teenagers he works with on the right path. In addition to making sure the juveniles receive the services they need, from drug treatment counseling to mental health counseling to education, Ford plays many other roles.

“I wear multiple hats,” says Ford. “I could be a father to some, an uncle, a brother, a pastor. I’m dealing with multiple kids with all kinds of issues. I don’t wear the same hat for all kids.”

Ford has one goal in mind: “I’m motivating them to live a productive life. While they’re with me, I’m trying to steer them on the right path.”

That’s easier said than done.

Meeting resistance

Kids who’ve never had a father figure, who’ve grown up entrenched in gangs, may be apprehensive when someone like Ford tries to connect with them.

“They don’t want to hear it,” Ford acknowledges.

For others, his efforts to help may trigger memories of past abuse. His solution? Listening and humor.

“That’s always worked with me. I have a personality with a lot of humor. I make the situation not be as bad as it appears to me. So we connect,” Ford says.

Working with young people has always been Ford’s calling. He’s been a youth pastor and, before becoming a probation officer, Ford was an L.A. school bus driver for 22 years.

“This is what I do,” says Ford. “I enjoy motivating young people to do the right thing.”

There are success stories as well as failures. Ford says that he’ll often see kids who’ve come through Camp Afflerbaugh when he’s grocery shopping or at the mall nearby.

“I’ll hear a kid say, ‘Deputy Ford!’ I’ll look back and see the kid working. They’ll say, ‘I got out and I’m working. I’m doing good.’”

Theodore Cha, who nominated Ford for the Never Quit award, wrote in his nomination statement that Ford sets an example for his co-workers.

“He truly represents the professionalism of (a) probation officer, helping delinquents and teens to grow their lives to become productive community members,” Cha wrote.

Waging a secret battle

That Ford has the wherewithal to stay upbeat and humorous among kids convicted of such serious crimes is remarkable on its own. But even more remarkable is that since 2018, Ford has been battling sinus cancer, and has had to endure devastating treatments.

“When they diagnosed me, they didn’t give me any hope. They said I had a rare form of cancer. It was spreading rapidly. I was going to have to several surgeries, chemo and radiation treatments for about a year,” Ford recalls. “During that time, I kept praying. I had goals to accomplish before I died.”

One of those goals was to write and publish a book. Since he was a child, Ford had always been interested in writing. Despite his grueling treatment regimen, Ford wrote nine manuscripts, one of which, “Suicide is Not an Option,” is based on a teenager he worked with at Afflerbaugh.

“He wasn’t a bad kid, but he was a drug addict. He was very smart. He was good at reading and math, excellent in all sports. The only problem is, he was a victim of domestic violence. His stepfather would beat him and his mom,” Ford says.

Ford became close with the kid, who was eventually released after nine months. One day, Ford heard some fellow officers talking and learned that the boy had committed suicide.

“The drugs had taken a toll on him,” Ford says. “His relationship with his mother was horrible and his girlfriend had just broken up with him. He decided to take his own life.”

Even during the depths of cancer treatment, treatments so severe they damaged his hearing (he now requires hearing aids), Ford was motivated to write a book to “let kids know that life is bad, but it’s not that bad. There are outs. You don’t have to take your life.”

Now, a year into remission, Ford is grateful for his job, which gives him purpose.

“I never stopped working when I was sick,” he says. “If I didn’t do that, I would die.”

Never Quit winner provides ‘safe space,’ ‘comfort’ to D.C. elementary school students

by AFSCME Staff  |  January 27, 2022

Jessica Salute, a teacher at Stanton Elementary School in Washington, D.C., recalls a student asking her who the principal was.

“Who do you think it is?” Salute replied.

She found it both funny and revealing that the student wondered out loud if the school’s principal was “Ms. K.”

Saqiyna Gray, known as “Ms. K” to students and their families at Stanton Elementary, is a paraprofessional/small group reading specialist. But everyone around her, including the principal, Harold McCray, agrees that she is so much more than that.

“I feel like Ms. K is really like the heartbeat of Stanton,” he says. “Ms. K to the students is a safe space. She’s the one that they’ll turn to if they’re having troubles, if they feel scared or they’re worried about something. She’s a comfort for them. I’ve never seen someone work as hard as her. She’s one of the first ones here and one of the last ones to leave.”

For her service to her community, Gray, a member of AFSCME Local 2921 (District Council 20), is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

“Ms. K, to me, has this uncanny ability to be firm but so nurturing at the same time,” Salute says. “She just has it so naturally, and so for the kids, I think they feel the ultimate comfort with her because they know she expects so much from them, but she follows that up with all the care, love and respect that they need.”

Every day, Gray visits different classrooms and works one-on-one with students who need additional reading help. But she aims to be more than that for them, and the students seem to appreciate being able to confide in her and find an empathetic ear.

“I feel like when you take that extra step it lets them know that they have someone that has their back,” Gray says. “I want to make sure when my students leave here that they have the skills to be able to go out into the community, go out into the world, and spread more leadership, and spread more things that they learned here while with me and with this school.”

Running toward danger, 20 years later

January 18, 2022

It was a middle-of-the-night chance encounter that led Never Quit Service Award winner Christopher Osborne to a 20-year career as an EMT. It happened on his birthday, Jan. 18, 2001, when Osborne heard a loud crash near his home in Sacramento, California. He had been awake that rainy night, unable to sleep because of a college exam he had the following day.

“I heard a loud boom,” recalls Osborne. “There was a lot of lightning. I looked outside. I lived next to I-5, and I could see there were lights off the freeway facing the wrong direction.”

The flashes of light Osborne had seen were not lightning; they were the lights of a tractor-trailer that had fallen from the interstate. The crash was the sound of the cab as it plummeted from the overpass above.

Osborne didn’t hesitate. He left his home and ran toward the scene of the accident.

“It was really raining and muddy outside. I ran [the length] of a few football fields,” to where the semi had landed. Osborne could see that the entire cab was destroyed. “I started yelling for the truck driver. I found him in a creek. He was still conscious.”

The man was in bad shape: an open compound fracture at his elbow, a bad laceration underneath his left eye and trouble breathing. Even without the medical training he has now, Osborne knew it was a life-or-death situation.

“He thought he was going to die. He probably would have if I hadn’t found him. I asked if he had kids and he said he did. ‘You have to stay alive for your kids,’” said Osborne, who held the man’s hand as they waited for emergency services to arrive. “I helped load him onto the ambulance gurney. He didn’t want me not to hold his hand or leave him.”

The man was lifted onto the ambulance gurney and whisked away to the hospital. Osborne returned home. Two days later, he received a call from UC Davis Medical Center, the Level-1 trauma center where the man had been taken.

“A nurse called me and said the driver wanted to talk to me in person. I went, and the first thing the nurse said is: ‘You know you saved his life.’ Then I talked to him. The driver said: ‘I owe you my life.’ A month later, I looked into the EMS program at Consumnes River College, applied there and went into [their] fire program several months later.”

Osborne, a member of United EMS Workers-AFSCME Local 4911, has always been someone to rush toward danger, the type of person who will pull over when he sees a car accident on the road.

“I can’t explain it,” says Osborne, who now works as an EMT-field training officer for American Medical Response in Yolo County and also serves as a fire captain for Suisun City Fire Department in Solano County.

It’s not just bravery that’s been the hallmark of his career as an EMT. It’s the fact that, according to his work partner, Travis Hunter, who nominated him for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, Osborne is always going above and beyond.

“I could not ask for a better partner,” Hunter wrote in his nomination. “Christopher gives over 110% every day. He’s a wonderful asset not only to the emergency medical services field but to others around him as well.”

Hunter added that not only is Osborne an incredibly competent and hard worker, but he brings a “caring and compassionate bedside manner” to the job as well.

“Christopher doesn’t think of himself as a hero or someone that deserves praise or recognition. He is a very humble and a service-oriented person. He was truly born to help others,” Hunter says.

Unlike the man whose life he saved at the dawn of his career, Osborne doesn’t always get the chance to follow up with the people he serves. Nevertheless, two decades later he remains motivated by what he calls “little wins.”

“When you deliver a baby, when you save someone’s life in a car crash, when you save someone in cardiac arrest … those little wins make up for all the losses,” he says.

Osborne is a firm believer in peer counseling to help dampen the toll the job can sometimes take. He also relies on the power of family, friends, travel and a good sense of humor to keep him steady.

Along with a hobby of collecting rare comic books, Osborne is still charging toward danger 20 years later. And he doesn’t plan to stop.

Boston Library carpenter foreperson doesn’t just fix doors – she opens them for others

by AFSCME Staff  |  December 15, 2021

It was a middle-of-the-night chance encounter that led Never Quit Service Award winner Christopher Osborne to a 20-year career as an EMT. It happened on his birthday, Jan. 18, 2001, when Osborne heard a loud crash near his home in Sacramento, California. He had been awake that rainy night, unable to sleep because of a college exam he had the following day.

“I heard a loud boom,” recalls Osborne. “There was a lot of lightning. I looked outside. I lived next to I-5, and I could see there were lights off the freeway facing the wrong direction.”

The flashes of light Osborne had seen were not lightning; they were the lights of a tractor-trailer that had fallen from the interstate. The crash was the sound of the cab as it plummeted from the overpass above.

Osborne didn’t hesitate. He left his home and ran toward the scene of the accident.

“It was really raining and muddy outside. I ran [the length] of a few football fields,” to where the semi had landed. Osborne could see that the entire cab was destroyed. “I started yelling for the truck driver. I found him in a creek. He was still conscious.”

The man was in bad shape: an open compound fracture at his elbow, a bad laceration underneath his left eye and trouble breathing. Even without the medical training he has now, Osborne knew it was a life-or-death situation.

“He thought he was going to die. He probably would have if I hadn’t found him. I asked if he had kids and he said he did. ‘You have to stay alive for your kids,’” said Osborne, who held the man’s hand as they waited for emergency services to arrive. “I helped load him onto the ambulance gurney. He didn’t want me not to hold his hand or leave him.”

The man was lifted onto the ambulance gurney and whisked away to the hospital. Osborne returned home. Two days later, he received a call from UC Davis Medical Center, the Level-1 trauma center where the man had been taken.

“A nurse called me and said the driver wanted to talk to me in person. I went, and the first thing the nurse said is: ‘You know you saved his life.’ Then I talked to him. The driver said: ‘I owe you my life.’ A month later, I looked into the EMS program at Consumnes River College, applied there and went into [their] fire program several months later.”

Osborne, a member of United EMS Workers-AFSCME Local 4911, has always been someone to rush toward danger, the type of person who will pull over when he sees a car accident on the road.

“I can’t explain it,” says Osborne, who now works as an EMT-field training officer for American Medical Response in Yolo County and also serves as a fire captain for Suisun City Fire Department in Solano County.

It’s not just bravery that’s been the hallmark of his career as an EMT. It’s the fact that, according to his work partner, Travis Hunter, who nominated him for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, Osborne is always going above and beyond.

“I could not ask for a better partner,” Hunter wrote in his nomination. “Christopher gives over 110% every day. He’s a wonderful asset not only to the emergency medical services field but to others around him as well.”

Hunter added that not only is Osborne an incredibly competent and hard worker, but he brings a “caring and compassionate bedside manner” to the job as well.

“Christopher doesn’t think of himself as a hero or someone that deserves praise or recognition. He is a very humble and a service-oriented person. He was truly born to help others,” Hunter says.

Unlike the man whose life he saved at the dawn of his career, Osborne doesn’t always get the chance to follow up with the people he serves. Nevertheless, two decades later he remains motivated by what he calls “little wins.”

“When you deliver a baby, when you save someone’s life in a car crash, when you save someone in cardiac arrest … those little wins make up for all the losses,” he says.

Osborne is a firm believer in peer counseling to help dampen the toll the job can sometimes take. He also relies on the power of family, friends, travel and a good sense of humor to keep him steady.

Along with a hobby of collecting rare comic books, Osborne is still charging toward danger 20 years later. And he doesn’t plan to stop.

Law enforcement trailblazer retires from Alaska State Troopers

December 09, 2021

Anne Sears, a former member of the AFSCME-affiliated Public Safety Employees Association, Local 803 (PSEA), never imagined being a police officer as a child, but she knew she felt called to help people and serve as a role model.

“I had parents that told me I could do whatever, even be president, but certainly I never thought I would get into law enforcement. And I did,” Sears said in an interview in October with Alaska Public Media. “You know, when I was in the village, and people would realize where I was from, they took some pride in that. And I hope that maybe some other little girls and boys from the village think they can do the same thing that I did.”

Sears, her husband Jay, who was also a state trooper, and their colleagues were also the stars of the now-canceled reality television series, “Alaska State Troopers,” which aired on the National Geographic channel from 2009 to 2015. With assignments taking her all over Alaska, working in both its largest cities and smallest towns, it was this reality show that made Sears a popular figure when interacting with the public.

“That show opened a lot of doors for me just in the villages alone because people would, of course, recognize me, they’d want to take pictures with me,” she said. “Even folks I was dealing with that I was having to arrest, eventually, after things, you know, settled down, we would talk about the show and seeing me on the show. It was an amazing thing to be a part of.”

Sears was popular not just in her community; she also was respected by Alaska’s elected officials, including the governor. In 2017, when she won an AFSCME Never Quit Service Award for going above and beyond the call of duty in serving her community, then-Gov. Bill Walker sent a letter of congratulations and Fairbanks Mayor Jim Tankersley attended a ceremony held in her honor.

Yet, despite how much Sears may have loved her career and improved the lives of her fellow Alaskans, there came a time when she was ready to hang up her hat. As she looks ahead toward retirement, Sears sees nothing but possibilities.

“I worked for 43 years. You know, kind of coming up to my retirement date, it felt really strange just thinking that I’m not going to be working after all this time,” said Sears. “And now it feels like a relief. Like, I’m free. I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. I feel pretty amazing.”

New Mexico registered nurse is ‘a great guide to doing the right thing’

by AFSCME Staff  |  December 01, 2021

Anne Sears, a former member of the AFSCME-affiliated Public Safety Employees Association, Local 803 (PSEA), never imagined being a police officer as a child, but she knew she felt called to help people and serve as a role model.

“I had parents that told me I could do whatever, even be president, but certainly I never thought I would get into law enforcement. And I did,” Sears said in an interview in October with Alaska Public Media. “You know, when I was in the village, and people would realize where I was from, they took some pride in that. And I hope that maybe some other little girls and boys from the village think they can do the same thing that I did.”

Sears, her husband Jay, who was also a state trooper, and their colleagues were also the stars of the now-canceled reality television series, “Alaska State Troopers,” which aired on the National Geographic channel from 2009 to 2015. With assignments taking her all over Alaska, working in both its largest cities and smallest towns, it was this reality show that made Sears a popular figure when interacting with the public.

“That show opened a lot of doors for me just in the villages alone because people would, of course, recognize me, they’d want to take pictures with me,” she said. “Even folks I was dealing with that I was having to arrest, eventually, after things, you know, settled down, we would talk about the show and seeing me on the show. It was an amazing thing to be a part of.”

Sears was popular not just in her community; she also was respected by Alaska’s elected officials, including the governor. In 2017, when she won an AFSCME Never Quit Service Award for going above and beyond the call of duty in serving her community, then-Gov. Bill Walker sent a letter of congratulations and Fairbanks Mayor Jim Tankersley attended a ceremony held in her honor.

Yet, despite how much Sears may have loved her career and improved the lives of her fellow Alaskans, there came a time when she was ready to hang up her hat. As she looks ahead toward retirement, Sears sees nothing but possibilities.

“I worked for 43 years. You know, kind of coming up to my retirement date, it felt really strange just thinking that I’m not going to be working after all this time,” said Sears. “And now it feels like a relief. Like, I’m free. I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. I feel pretty amazing.”

California curator ‘cares not only for the animals at the zoo, but for animals worldwide’

November 17, 2021

When Heather Vrzal first started working with animals 38 years ago, she recalls somebody warning her that the pay would be bad and the hours even worse. But, she says, it didn’t matter.

She didn’t care either that she had to drive an hour and back every day for a part-time job. She loved animals and knew that her love of animals would last a lifetime.

She was right.

Today, Vrzal is a curator at Happy Hollow Park & Zoo in San José, California, where she has worn just about every hat, sometimes all at once. In the process, she has channeled her love and passion for animals to support the conservation and sustainability efforts at the heart of all programs and activities at the zoo.

“Heather is extremely passionate about what she does,” says Kelley Walsh, a former senior zookeeper at Happy Hollow. “She cares not only for the animals at the zoo, but for animals worldwide and the planet. She’s very committed to doing her part to make this a better world and she’s always been that way. I’ve never seen such dedication in a person to make sure everything keeps running and everything is right.”

For her service to her community, Vrzal, a member of AFSCME Local 101 (Council 57), is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

Although the favorite part of her job has been working with animals – especially big cats – Vrzal says interacting with the public is a big component of what she does.

“Seeing the faces of kids when they come in for the first time brings a lot of satisfaction,” she says. “I’ve met amazing people over the years.”

She recalls an incident with a woman years ago who approached her to tell her she was against animals being kept in zoos.

“We got to talking about animals and what we do in conservation here at Happy Hollow, and by the time our conversation was over, I had completely won her over,” Vrzal says. “It’s the little moments that you have in your career that are really important and help enrich your life.”

The zoo is home to more than 130 animals from more than 50 species. The zoo and the park sit on 16 acres of land and include an amusement park with rides and games for children. Owned and operated by the City of San José, Happy Hollow partners with a nonprofit foundation of the same name that accepts public donations.

Vrzal’s teenage daughter is a volunteer at Happy Hollow, though she is not considering zoology as a career path.

“I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing,” Vrzal says. “You have to do this kind of work because you love it, not because you get well paid for it. You have to be really dedicated to the animals. And it’s dangerous. But for me, it’s been worth every minute.”

Nearly four decades after she began her career, Vrzal says what’s motivated her all along is the same thing that got her started.

“I got into this because I love animals, and through that love of animals I’ve gone to Africa and I’ve learned photography and I’ve learned to dive and I’ve met people in my community,” she says. “Everything to me was new and exciting and rich, so how could I just come in and do my basic job – how boring would that be?”

Now that she’s nearing retirement, Vrzal, who is a Reiki practitioner, says she’s trying to look forward.

“There’s a chance I might offer Reiki for animals,” she says. “They benefit from it just like people do.”

Houston’s green building expert ‘lives and breathes his job’

by AFSCME Staff  |  October 27, 2021

When Heather Vrzal first started working with animals 38 years ago, she recalls somebody warning her that the pay would be bad and the hours even worse. But, she says, it didn’t matter.

She didn’t care either that she had to drive an hour and back every day for a part-time job. She loved animals and knew that her love of animals would last a lifetime.

She was right.

Today, Vrzal is a curator at Happy Hollow Park & Zoo in San José, California, where she has worn just about every hat, sometimes all at once. In the process, she has channeled her love and passion for animals to support the conservation and sustainability efforts at the heart of all programs and activities at the zoo.

“Heather is extremely passionate about what she does,” says Kelley Walsh, a former senior zookeeper at Happy Hollow. “She cares not only for the animals at the zoo, but for animals worldwide and the planet. She’s very committed to doing her part to make this a better world and she’s always been that way. I’ve never seen such dedication in a person to make sure everything keeps running and everything is right.”

For her service to her community, Vrzal, a member of AFSCME Local 101 (Council 57), is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

Although the favorite part of her job has been working with animals – especially big cats – Vrzal says interacting with the public is a big component of what she does.

“Seeing the faces of kids when they come in for the first time brings a lot of satisfaction,” she says. “I’ve met amazing people over the years.”

She recalls an incident with a woman years ago who approached her to tell her she was against animals being kept in zoos.

“We got to talking about animals and what we do in conservation here at Happy Hollow, and by the time our conversation was over, I had completely won her over,” Vrzal says. “It’s the little moments that you have in your career that are really important and help enrich your life.”

The zoo is home to more than 130 animals from more than 50 species. The zoo and the park sit on 16 acres of land and include an amusement park with rides and games for children. Owned and operated by the City of San José, Happy Hollow partners with a nonprofit foundation of the same name that accepts public donations.

Vrzal’s teenage daughter is a volunteer at Happy Hollow, though she is not considering zoology as a career path.

“I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing,” Vrzal says. “You have to do this kind of work because you love it, not because you get well paid for it. You have to be really dedicated to the animals. And it’s dangerous. But for me, it’s been worth every minute.”

Nearly four decades after she began her career, Vrzal says what’s motivated her all along is the same thing that got her started.

“I got into this because I love animals, and through that love of animals I’ve gone to Africa and I’ve learned photography and I’ve learned to dive and I’ve met people in my community,” she says. “Everything to me was new and exciting and rich, so how could I just come in and do my basic job – how boring would that be?”

Now that she’s nearing retirement, Vrzal, who is a Reiki practitioner, says she’s trying to look forward.

“There’s a chance I might offer Reiki for animals,” she says. “They benefit from it just like people do.”

With patience and humility, Isaias Lona keeps his city safe

October 12, 2021

Isaias Lona, a hazardous materials inspector, may appear to be a laid-back, patient guy, according to his co-worker Jennifer Rojero, but he’s no pushover. You can’t be when the safety of your community is at stake, and when you’re part of a team whose responsibilities are as broad as Lona’s.

Whether it’s conducting fire inspections, hazardous waste inspections, wastewater treatment inspections or any of the safety checks that Lona performs to ensure that the businesses in Gilroy, California, are operating safely, being patient yet rigorous with clients are hallmarks of Lona’s approach.

However, according to Rojero, who nominated Lona for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, Lona is a standout teammate for many other reasons.

“He’s made our agency much more efficient,” says Rojero, who credits Lona, a member of AFSCME Local 101 (Council 57), with using his knowledge of database management to update and automate what used to be a mostly paper-based system.

Lona and Rojero are responsible for an unusually broad portfolio, combining the work of three agencies. It makes their jobs unique and challenging.

“We do a lot and wear a lot of hats,” Rojero says.

Lona, however, consistently goes beyond his day-to-day responsibilities, and has been a mentor to Rojero, who is newer to the field and joined the team after Lona.

Rojero says that Lona took her out on inspections so she could understand how best to work with clients – their motto is education over enforcement – and he even created training templates she and others could study to put her on a surer footing.

Lona’s success also stems from his ability to put clients at ease. There’s a built-in trepidation that comes with the inspector-client relationship. While they do issue citations for violations, Rojero says Lona “is such a patient person. He knows how to talk to business owners. He will guide the person. Sometimes you encounter very angry people.”

Lona’s approach? Let them vent, then educate them about the steps they need to take to correct the violation and how to navigate the paperwork or training that needs to be completed.

That approach is particularly useful, says Rojero, with Spanish speaking business owners, who appreciate the fact that Lona is bilingual.

“Spanish speakers feel a lot more comfortable talking to him,” says Rojero. “We both know the technical terms in Spanish and we’re able to spell it out in layman terms. When they hear an inspector is coming, they’ll feel really tense. But we can joke around to ease the tension. You form a relationship with the business owner.”

Lona, who grew up in Watsonville, California, and went to San Jose State University, earning a degree in environmental sciences, brings deep experience to his job as an inspector. Stints transporting hazardous waste, working as a chemist and later as a consultant in the hazardous waste field gave him the wealth of knowledge he uses today.

“No one ever calls a consultant because everything’s OK,” jokes Lona.

He had to solve problems quickly.

“I’m using my experience to help out not only the city, but also the clients. At the end of the day,” Lona says, with characteristic humility, “if they’re happy and they comply, that’s what matters. We want to make the community safe, and keep the businesses safe as well.”

‘She always shows up’: Never Quit winner advocates for survivors of sexual violence

September 27, 2021

Cheyenne Garstad is an advocate coordinator at the Middlesex County, New Jersey, Center for Empowerment, which is part of the county’s Department of Public Safety and Health.

She trains and manages volunteer advocates who support survivors of sexual violence and provides such support herself. This may involve being present at every stage of a police investigation following a crime of sexual violence, answering a hotline for survivors, being on call 24/7 every other week and more.

“My job is difficult, but it’s difficult on a different level than that of a rocket scientist,” Garstad says.

“Cheyenne has an enduring capacity to hold space for people in ways that go above and beyond what is reasonable,” says co-worker Jeffrey Anthony. “I don’t think people appreciate how much she gives on a daily basis.”

To “hold space” is to be present with someone; showing empathy; acknowledging and validating whatever a person is going through at that moment. Anthony says Garstad has an amazing ability to provide emotional support to survivors despite the constant exposure to their trauma.

“She does her job with compassion and integrity for every survivor and every advocate,” he says. “She always shows up for people.”

For her service to her community, Garstad is a winner of AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

Garstad is a licensed clinical social worker and licensed therapist, and she has a master’s degree and several years of post-master’s experience in social work. To her, what she does isn’t just a job, it’s a calling.

“I was born to be a social worker,” she says. “I have known since I was 14 years old that I was for sure going to school to do this.”

It was while studying for her master’s at Rutgers University that she found out about the Center for Empowerment.

“I first applied to be a volunteer here and did that for 2 ½ years,” Garstad explains. “Now I run the advocate program where I train and supervise all of the other volunteers. It was a great transition for me.”

There is hardly a typical day on the job for Garstad. Some days she is at the courthouse providing support for a survivor or testifying in front of a judge. On other days, she is training new advocate or might be with a survivor at a police station or a hospital.

“The biggest part of what we do is empowerment,” Garstad explains. “We make sure that survivors know their rights. We make it clear that they have a choice in everything that we do, and we follow their lead. We never tell survivors what to do – we don’t give them advice. We provide options and then allow them to make whatever choice meets their needs. And whatever they decide, we support them in that.”

With a job like Garstad’s, it’s important to have a strong support system of your own. Garstad says she relies on her family – she and her wife have a 2-year-old daughter and a baby on the way – as well as on her teammates at the Center for Empowerment. Her own mother is a volunteer at the center.

Despite how emotionally taxing her job is, Garstad loves what she does. She says she is motivated to go above and beyond by the survivors themselves.

“Ultimately I enjoy going to a police station and being there for someone, not letting them go through that alone,” she says. “That is the thing I enjoy doing. That is the thing that makes me feel not just good but like it’s worth it. Sometimes it’s as simple as showing up.”

Never Quit winner ‘brings a sense of humanness’ to patient care

by AFSCME Staff  |  September 15, 2021

Cheyenne Garstad is an advocate coordinator at the Middlesex County, New Jersey, Center for Empowerment, which is part of the county’s Department of Public Safety and Health.

She trains and manages volunteer advocates who support survivors of sexual violence and provides such support herself. This may involve being present at every stage of a police investigation following a crime of sexual violence, answering a hotline for survivors, being on call 24/7 every other week and more.

“My job is difficult, but it’s difficult on a different level than that of a rocket scientist,” Garstad says.

“Cheyenne has an enduring capacity to hold space for people in ways that go above and beyond what is reasonable,” says co-worker Jeffrey Anthony. “I don’t think people appreciate how much she gives on a daily basis.”

To “hold space” is to be present with someone; showing empathy; acknowledging and validating whatever a person is going through at that moment. Anthony says Garstad has an amazing ability to provide emotional support to survivors despite the constant exposure to their trauma.

“She does her job with compassion and integrity for every survivor and every advocate,” he says. “She always shows up for people.”

For her service to her community, Garstad is a winner of AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

Garstad is a licensed clinical social worker and licensed therapist, and she has a master’s degree and several years of post-master’s experience in social work. To her, what she does isn’t just a job, it’s a calling.

“I was born to be a social worker,” she says. “I have known since I was 14 years old that I was for sure going to school to do this.”

It was while studying for her master’s at Rutgers University that she found out about the Center for Empowerment.

“I first applied to be a volunteer here and did that for 2 ½ years,” Garstad explains. “Now I run the advocate program where I train and supervise all of the other volunteers. It was a great transition for me.”

There is hardly a typical day on the job for Garstad. Some days she is at the courthouse providing support for a survivor or testifying in front of a judge. On other days, she is training new advocate or might be with a survivor at a police station or a hospital.

“The biggest part of what we do is empowerment,” Garstad explains. “We make sure that survivors know their rights. We make it clear that they have a choice in everything that we do, and we follow their lead. We never tell survivors what to do – we don’t give them advice. We provide options and then allow them to make whatever choice meets their needs. And whatever they decide, we support them in that.”

With a job like Garstad’s, it’s important to have a strong support system of your own. Garstad says she relies on her family – she and her wife have a 2-year-old daughter and a baby on the way – as well as on her teammates at the Center for Empowerment. Her own mother is a volunteer at the center.

Despite how emotionally taxing her job is, Garstad loves what she does. She says she is motivated to go above and beyond by the survivors themselves.

“Ultimately I enjoy going to a police station and being there for someone, not letting them go through that alone,” she says. “That is the thing I enjoy doing. That is the thing that makes me feel not just good but like it’s worth it. Sometimes it’s as simple as showing up.”

Empathy guides California nurse Scott Jones

August 30, 2021

Sometimes you’re lucky to have a co-worker who not only makes your job more enjoyable, but who changes how you think about your work. For Janette Laster, a psychiatric technician at Sutter-Yuba Behavioral Health inpatient psychiatric facility, that person is her longtime colleague, Scott Jones, a winner of the AFSCME Never Quit Service Award.

“He really made me into who I am today,” said Laster, who has worked at the facility for a decade. During her early training, she says, “I remember watching his interactions with patients as if they were family members. It was the first time I had seen a nurse with that kind of empathy. It was a beautiful thing to see. I said, ‘That’s the kind of nurse I want to be.’”

The inpatient unit where Jones, a member of AFSCME Local 905 (Council 57), has worked for the past 20 years admits patients whose psychiatric symptoms are severe. These patients may be confused, unable to care for themselves and unable to get the resources they need.

“Our main clientele is our local mentally ill homeless population,” says Laster. “We have a lot of violent people, sex offenders and substance abuse. It’s a pretty hard field.”

The reason that Laster nominated Jones for a Never Quit award is his unfailing ability to treat all his clients the same – always with maximum empathy.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re homeless or live in a mansion,” says Laster. “He’s an amazing teacher for all of us.”

Jones, a registered nurse, says quite simply: “I enjoy working with the clientele.”

His philosophy is based on listening.

“People have a tendency to want to give advice,” says Jones. “But that’s not what [the patients] really need. They need to be listened to. They don’t just want a direction like ‘calm down.’ That doesn’t give them enough direction, enough empathy.”

Being heard is crucial for patients. Jones adds that before he responds, he tries to remember to give himself empathy, recognizing his own needs, which aids in guessing what needs his patients have, allowing him to then convey empathy to them.

Jones says he and co-workers like Laster work with their clients face-to-face, all day – they can’t hide in an office. It can be a challenge to stay centered but staying centered is crucial for modeling behavior, which is more enriching to the patient.

Though Jones is 66 years old and has spent the better part of his career at the Sutter-Yuba facility, he says watching patients get on stronger footing still provides great satisfaction.

“It’s great to see some of the individuals who have really transformed their lives or stabilized enough to be more independent,” he says.

Another factor in Jones’ job satisfaction? His co-workers. 

“I look forward to them every week. We are all working on improving ourselves so it will be a more fulfilling experience for the staff and the individuals in our care,” Jones says.

There’s little question that for both the patients and his colleagues, Jones’ enduring presence is a blessing for all.

‘For the love of the kids’: Michigan food delivery driver is Never Quit award winner

by AFSCME Staff  |  August 16, 2021

Sometimes you’re lucky to have a co-worker who not only makes your job more enjoyable, but who changes how you think about your work. For Janette Laster, a psychiatric technician at Sutter-Yuba Behavioral Health inpatient psychiatric facility, that person is her longtime colleague, Scott Jones, a winner of the AFSCME Never Quit Service Award.

“He really made me into who I am today,” said Laster, who has worked at the facility for a decade. During her early training, she says, “I remember watching his interactions with patients as if they were family members. It was the first time I had seen a nurse with that kind of empathy. It was a beautiful thing to see. I said, ‘That’s the kind of nurse I want to be.’”

The inpatient unit where Jones, a member of AFSCME Local 905 (Council 57), has worked for the past 20 years admits patients whose psychiatric symptoms are severe. These patients may be confused, unable to care for themselves and unable to get the resources they need.

“Our main clientele is our local mentally ill homeless population,” says Laster. “We have a lot of violent people, sex offenders and substance abuse. It’s a pretty hard field.”

The reason that Laster nominated Jones for a Never Quit award is his unfailing ability to treat all his clients the same – always with maximum empathy.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re homeless or live in a mansion,” says Laster. “He’s an amazing teacher for all of us.”

Jones, a registered nurse, says quite simply: “I enjoy working with the clientele.”

His philosophy is based on listening.

“People have a tendency to want to give advice,” says Jones. “But that’s not what [the patients] really need. They need to be listened to. They don’t just want a direction like ‘calm down.’ That doesn’t give them enough direction, enough empathy.”

Being heard is crucial for patients. Jones adds that before he responds, he tries to remember to give himself empathy, recognizing his own needs, which aids in guessing what needs his patients have, allowing him to then convey empathy to them.

Jones says he and co-workers like Laster work with their clients face-to-face, all day – they can’t hide in an office. It can be a challenge to stay centered but staying centered is crucial for modeling behavior, which is more enriching to the patient.

Though Jones is 66 years old and has spent the better part of his career at the Sutter-Yuba facility, he says watching patients get on stronger footing still provides great satisfaction.

“It’s great to see some of the individuals who have really transformed their lives or stabilized enough to be more independent,” he says.

Another factor in Jones’ job satisfaction? His co-workers. 

“I look forward to them every week. We are all working on improving ourselves so it will be a more fulfilling experience for the staff and the individuals in our care,” Jones says.

There’s little question that for both the patients and his colleagues, Jones’ enduring presence is a blessing for all.

From librarian to logistician to homeless advocate, Zack Shlachter tackles the pandemic

July 26, 2021

Never Quit winner is hard at work fulfilling a childhood mission

July 12, 2021

Michigan nurse Maggie Schaefer put off retirement to fight COVID

June 28, 2021

When the coronavirus pandemic hit Michigan in 2020, Maggie Schaefer could have retired from her job as a nurse at McLaren Flint Hospital. After all, she’d been on the job for more than 30 years, and at 66, she had kids, grandchildren and a long list of places she wanted to visit.

But this Never Quit Service Award winner chose to remain in her job, not only to continue to serve her patients, but to fight alongside her fellow nurses, ensuring they had what they needed to battle through the pandemic.

Reflecting on the scene at the hospital over the past year, Schaefer says, “It was like a M.A.S.H unit. Our ICU was completely full. They had changed another floor into an ICU, and then there was also an overflow floor. Two other telemetry floors became COVID units. It was very stressful, but the nurses stepped up and did what they had to do.”

For some of her fellow nurses at the 360-bed hospital in Flint, Michigan, that meant separating themselves from their families at the outset of the pandemic, staying in motor homes or trailers, to ensure they would not bring anything home to their loved ones.

Other nurses who were able to retire did so. But Schaefer, a case manager and the chief steward of AFSCME Local 875 (Council 25), had other things on her mind. First came getting nurses the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) they needed in the pandemic’s earliest days, when the nature of COVID-19 and the proper guidelines to prevent contracting it were still evolving.

“It was a daily fight for things to keep the nurses protected and to protect the patients,” recalls Schaefer.

But the true value of nurses during the pandemic went far beyond their usual responsibilities.

“When patients were dying, it was the nurses who got the phones and tablets so families could say goodbye [because they couldn’t be there in person]. The nurse was everything: They were the pastor, friend … everything. As RNs, we’ve never had to deal with any kind of a pandemic. This was all uncharted territory,” says Schaefer.  “Everyone did their best, so we can all stay safe and do our jobs safely.”

Doing her best meant Schaefer advocated and agitated day by day, month by month for her fellow nurses.

“Our local is very strong,” says Schaefer. “We stood together to get what we needed, including  incentives and to make sure they had the equipment they needed to do their jobs safely.”

Fighting for Schaefer isn’t a new thing. For the past 20 years, she has made safer nurse-to-patient ratios a centerpiece of her activism.

“As a result, we were able to get staffing ratios in our collective bargaining agreement and we negotiated a monetary penalty for … violations. It was a long fight to achieve this. My mantra is ‘Safe staffing saves lives,’” Schaefer says.   

Finally, after a grueling year, as the pandemic begins to ebb and as more people are being vaccinated, Schaefer is preparing for something she’s put off: retirement. After checking off locales on her bucket list and being with her loved ones, Schaefer says happily, “Then from there, I don’t have a plan.”

Plan or no plan, after the year – and the career – that Schaefer has had, she’s earned her rest.

Charles Smith preserves Rhode Island’s hallowed veterans cemetery

June 14, 2021

During pandemic, school nurse aide did ‘whatever was necessary’ to protect students, staff

by AFSCME Staff  |  May 27, 2021

Never Quit winner is Jamestown, N.Y., city worker who saved two from house fire

May 17, 2021

To Joe Pollaro, an equipment operator for the City of Jamestown, N.Y., every day on the job is different.

Some days he is out hauling chips from the brush dump to the landfill. Other days he’s involved in road construction or sidewalk repair. In the winter he might be assigned to plow the city’s snowy streets.

But in his 15 years on the job, the morning of March 23 was unlike any he’d ever worked.

Pollaro, a member of AFSCME Local 418 (Council 66), was on his way to his assigned job site when he saw a woman seeking help from a vehicle on the road. She was pointing uphill towards a neighborhood he knew well, and the first thing that came to his mind was that maybe there had been a burglary.

“A few weeks before someone had broken into a garage,” said Pollaro, who knows the homeowners. “So, I thought maybe it happened again.”

He drove around the block until he saw what it was. The corner house was on fire.

He jumped out of his truck and ran toward the house just as three people exited the burning structure. There were flames in the stairwell. They had made it out in the nick of time. Pollaro asked them if they were OK, and they told him that two more people were upstairs.

“I was walking around the house thinking, how can I get in there to help them,” Pollaro recalled in an interview. “I didn’t know where they were until I heard screaming from the back.”

A young woman and an older man who turned out to be her father were screaming for help from a second-story window they had kicked out. Smoke and flames were billowing out the window. Pollaro knew they didn’t have much time.

“I don’t even know why I told them to jump and that I’d catch them,” he said, “but I knew they had no other choice.”

Pollaro didn’t so much catch them as cushion their fall. He fell twice to the ground – first when he caught the young woman, then her father – acting as a buffer. Nobody got hurt. When the fire department showed up, Pollaro got back in his truck and left for his job.

“I wasn’t shaken up during the process, not at all,” Pollaro said. “Later when I got to the brush dump, somebody told me I looked like I was ready to take somebody on. It was probably the adrenaline.”

He added, “I grew up in that neighborhood and still have a lot of friends in the neighborhood. The way we were raised was we helped our fellow neighbors, we looked out for one another. I’m just glad I was there at the right time. I thank God I was able to help somebody.”

For saving two people’s lives while on his shift, Pollaro is a winner of AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, which honors public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty.

AFSCME President Lee Saunders praised Pollaro’s heroism last week during remarks to Council 66. He pointed out that Pollaro didn’t miss a beat after saving the lives of the two people.

“After ensuring that paramedics were on the scene, Brother Pollaro got back in his truck and completed his shift,” Saunders said. “Just another day in public service.”

Pollaro says he is motivated to go above and beyond the call of duty by a strong work ethic he learned from his father and grandfather and by the pride he feels in serving his community.

“I do feel a responsibility to at least report or investigate an incident when I can,” he said. “Any time you have an opportunity to help your fellow man, more people should do that. I think things would be a lot better.”

AFSCME member’s quick thinking saves life

by Kelly Benjamin, AFSCME Florida  |  April 26, 2021

A 30-year veteran City of Daytona Beach employee and AFSCME Local 2066 member Ted Wolfe saved a life in early March when he came upon a 57-year-old man slumped over his steering wheel in the middle of a busy intersection.

As others panicked and shouted that the driver was dead, Wolfe calmly sprang into action, checking his pulse and confirming he was not breathing. Assisted by a local nurse, Tammy Leggett, who came upon the scene in the nick of time, the pair quickly removed the gentleman from behind the wheel and began performing CPR.

“I really didn't even have time to think about it,” said Wolfe. “It was all instinct and the fact that I had just completed a CPR course just a week before.”

The City of Daytona Beach offered CPR training to about 100 employees last month as part of its monthly safety training program. Wolfe, a sewer line technician who inspects water and sewage systems for leaks, thought the training was a good idea.

“It really paid off very quickly,” he said. 

Wolfe immediately began chest compressions while Leggett, an ER nurse, began breathing air into the man's mouth.

“For the first few moments, I pumped and pumped but got nothing," said Mr. Wolfe, “but then, suddenly, the man's face twitched and the color started coming back. I yelled, ‘Come on, dude, come on, dude,' and he started to come around.”

An ambulance arrived a few minutes later and the resuscitated man was taken to a hospital and is expected to make a full recovery. 

For his life-saving efforts in an emergency, Mr. Wolfe was recognized by the American Heart Association as a HeartSaver Hero. AFSCME Florida also plans to honor Mr. Wolfe, an everyday front-line worker. AFSCME International named him a Never Quit Service Award winner.

“Ted Wolfe epitomizes what public service is all about,” said AFSCME Florida President Vicki Hall. “His spirit, dedication, and selflessness illustrates how public service work isn't just a job, it's a calling.”

Behavioral health worker in Pennsylvania is Never Quit Service Award winner

by AFSCME Staff  |  April 22, 2021

A 30-year veteran City of Daytona Beach employee and AFSCME Local 2066 member Ted Wolfe saved a life in early March when he came upon a 57-year-old man slumped over his steering wheel in the middle of a busy intersection.

As others panicked and shouted that the driver was dead, Wolfe calmly sprang into action, checking his pulse and confirming he was not breathing. Assisted by a local nurse, Tammy Leggett, who came upon the scene in the nick of time, the pair quickly removed the gentleman from behind the wheel and began performing CPR.

“I really didn't even have time to think about it,” said Wolfe. “It was all instinct and the fact that I had just completed a CPR course just a week before.”

The City of Daytona Beach offered CPR training to about 100 employees last month as part of its monthly safety training program. Wolfe, a sewer line technician who inspects water and sewage systems for leaks, thought the training was a good idea.

“It really paid off very quickly,” he said. 

Wolfe immediately began chest compressions while Leggett, an ER nurse, began breathing air into the man's mouth.

“For the first few moments, I pumped and pumped but got nothing," said Mr. Wolfe, “but then, suddenly, the man's face twitched and the color started coming back. I yelled, ‘Come on, dude, come on, dude,' and he started to come around.”

An ambulance arrived a few minutes later and the resuscitated man was taken to a hospital and is expected to make a full recovery. 

For his life-saving efforts in an emergency, Mr. Wolfe was recognized by the American Heart Association as a HeartSaver Hero. AFSCME Florida also plans to honor Mr. Wolfe, an everyday front-line worker. AFSCME International named him a Never Quit Service Award winner.

“Ted Wolfe epitomizes what public service is all about,” said AFSCME Florida President Vicki Hall. “His spirit, dedication, and selflessness illustrates how public service work isn't just a job, it's a calling.”

Michigan’s Emilie Stack, protecting her community through public health

March 29, 2021

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula comprises a huge swath of land, but remains a tightknit community all its own. It’s that sense of community that drives Emilie Stack, Marquette County’s emergency preparedness coordinator.

Her dedication, sense of mission and desire to help her community through the pandemic are the reasons her Department of Health and Human Services coworker, Sarah Derwin, nominated Stack for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award.

“She’s been a really critical part of our public health team,” says Derwin, who, along with Stack, is a member of Local 1613 (Council 25). “She’s been a big driver in getting our community vaccinated.”

As the emergency preparedness coordinator within the Division of Emergency Preparedness, Stack plays a vital role in coordinating the public health response to the pandemic, as well as responding to other public health issues, like the H1N1 flu.

Stack is a linchpin between state and local agencies, including regional health care, homeland security, long term care, tribal nations and other partners. Where previous emergencies have required Stack to coordinate the local response to a dam flood, for example, her resolve and commitment, according to Derwin, have remained the same in addressing the pandemic.

“We’re all pretty proud of her,” Derwin, a health educator, says, describing how Stack leaned into addressing Marquette County’s pandemic response, while also working to ensure her fellow union members had what they needed to do their jobs.

Stack acknowledges that having grown up in the Upper Peninsula, or the “UP,” as Michiganders refer to is, is part of what drives her service.

“I want to protect my family and my community. I feel a sense of loyalty. In the UP, we all take care of one another,” Stack, a native of Kingsford, Michigan, says. But she also adds: “I really do have a passion for public health. I enjoy my job as emergency preparedness coordinator.”

Stack says that over the past year, her role has evolved, from monitoring the oncoming pandemic as news began to break about the virus coming out of China, to information-sharing and education, to surveillance, all the while stopping the virus’ spread. Now, the emphasis is on vaccinating Marquette County’s 67,000 residents.

Staying on top of the avalanche of COVID-19 developments and safety guidelines has been part and parcel of her role as emergency preparedness coordinator. But sharing that information—through Facebook, Zoom meetings and more—taps skills Stack developed as a public health educator and her near-decade long experience with the health department.

Though her job can be overwhelming, Stack says what motivates her is quite simple: “We all like to take care of one another.

The Union Difference

by AFSCME Staff  |  March 10, 2021

Arizona paramedic and Never Quit winner was first inspired by fifth grade teacher

by AFSCME Staff  |  March 02, 2021

Hawaii’s Peter Oshiro has his co-workers’ backs

January 25, 2021

Over the past 11 months, AFSCME members have been fighting on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, keeping our country running often at great personal risk. Winning that fight means having co-workers and leaders willing to speak out for the tools we need to do our jobs safely and effectively.

One of those people is this month’s Never Quit Service Award winner, Hawaii’s Peter Oshiro, a member of Local 152 (HGEA).

Nominated by Devin Madan, a Maui-based public health safety inspector and fellow member of Local 152, Oshiro has fought to ensure that his co-workers have the personal protective equipment they needed to do their jobs when the pandemic hit Hawaii.

Madan and his fellow inspectors who work in the Food Safety Branch of the Environmental Health Service Division of Hawaii’s Department of Health are responsible for not only ensuring that Hawaii’s restaurants are operating safely and sanitarily, preventing the spread of foodborne illnesses and viruses, but that everything from tattoo parlors to mortuaries to swimming pools are following public health guidelines.

It’s a face-to-face job, requiring inspectors visit establishments across the state.

When the pandemic hit, though, inspectors like Madan didn’t have the PPE they needed to do in-person inspections. What’s more, they were given a whole new set of COVID-related rules to enforce.

That’s where Oshiro, an environmental health program manager, who’s also an associate HGEA member because he believes in the value of his union, stepped in. He refused to send his employees out without the N95 masks and other sanitary equipment they needed. When his superiors balked at the price of the masks, Oshiro paid for them out of his own pocket.

“Peter was really good,” Madan recalls. “He was focused on protecting us and making sure others were following precautions, too.”

As the pandemic unfolded, Madan says that Oshiro’s policy was: “I’m not doing anything unless our workers are safe.”

According to Madan, Oshiro also fought for clear guidance on how to interpret new COVID-19 rules and regulations, such as how to limit occupancy to safe levels and ensure people are wearing masks.

“He’s always been an advocate. He gets us what we need to do our jobs,” says Madan. “For food safety, we need clear guidance. He’s really good about helping us interpret operational definitions and being transparent,” both to workers and to the public.

Oshiro, who has been an environmental program manager for nearly 11 years, says, “If I don’t have employees who are healthy and positive, you cannot have an effective workforce. I have to make sure employees are protected.”

For workers who prevent the spread of disease and who need to see the locales they’re inspecting, the pandemic posed a unique challenge.

Oshiro recalls, “Once the state locked down everybody, I pulled staff from the field. That was in March. We made sure that until everyone was cleared to go back in the field, my staff was not doing inspections.”

Instead, in order to allow businesses to open safely, Oshiro says, “We used technology and smartphones to do virtual inspections. We didn’t want to hold up industry. We wanted to get people back to work.”

Because Hawaii’s economy is so dependent on tourism, reopening businesses safely has been crucial. To prepare for his staff’s return to field work, Oshiro wanted to be prepared.

“We’re in a very high-contact job. We made sure people had real PPE, including wipes, spray disinfectants and face shields. This is what my staff told me they needed,” says Oshiro.

While Oshiro and his team have continued to do their jobs throughout the pandemic, to keep Hawaii running, they, like so many public service workers across the country, are facing furloughs and even layoffs due to the economic ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

That’s why the top priority of the Biden-Harris administration and the incoming Congress must be delivering robust aid to states, cities, towns and schools. Rather than cutting public services, Oshiro reminds us: “We’re the people who’re going to prevent disasters from happening.”

In Hawaii – and across the country – it’s time to adequately fund the front lines.

New York child protective services worker was ‘guiding light’ during pandemic

January 11, 2021

In the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, when little was known about the deadly virus or how to prevent its spread, many public service workers across the country continued to serve while putting their lives and those of their loved ones at risk. They did so knowingly and out of a sense of duty to their communities.

Valerie Martinez, a senior social caseworker with the Westchester County, N.Y., Department of Social Services, in the New York City suburb of Yonkers, was one of them.

“When we started working remotely from home and coming to the office only once a week, many child protective services workers were leery about going out to people’s homes,” says Julia Diaz, Martinez’s supervisor at the Department of Social Services.

Diaz is referring to home visits, which child protective services workers must conduct to confirm or deny first-hand allegations of child abuse and neglect, among other reasons.

“Certain things can be done on the phone and other things cannot,” Diaz explains. “Valerie volunteered for all of those home visits. She came into the office and was given the gloves and the suit and the full PPE that she had to wear to go into the homes. She was fearless yet cautious, and she accepted the challenges. We were able to walk the home and see the children through Valerie’s narratives describing in detail how the children looked, how the home looked, how the parent acted or behaved. She was our eyes. She was our guiding light.”

For her service to her community, Martinez, a member of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA/AFSCME Local 1000), is a recipient of our union’s Never Quit Service Award, which seeks to recognize public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty in making their communities better.

“Yes, it’s scary,” Martinez admits, when asked if she was afraid of catching the virus during one of her home visits. “I think about it every day. None of my immediate family has had it, but I have a cousin who passed away from COVID. … I try to stay safe and do my job. I always take the necessary precautions; I wear a mask and practice safety. I do my job because I know that people need us.”

Going into a home to check on allegations of child abuse or neglect always involves a level of risk.

“You never know what is happening in someone’s home before you go in there,” Martinez says. “You never know if there is somebody in the home hiding because something happened criminally, so you’re taking a risk every time you walk into these homes.”

Yet for Martinez and her colleagues, the pandemic raised the stakes in an unprecedented way. Martinez says she accepted the challenge because she loves her job and because she knows that through her service, she is making a huge difference in the lives of many families.

“Many times after I work with a family, they call me back, even a year later, and a lot of them are so thankful because they never thought they could turn their lives around, but with our assistance they were able to overcome certain things,” she says. “They’re very appreciative. It feels great to help people.”

Lucy Eddy shows compassion, love to those with developmental disabilities

December 14, 2020

The people who live at the Abbott Road house in Ithaca, New York, vary in age, in race and in their backgrounds. However, what they all have in common are intellectual, emotional or developmental disabilities serious enough that they require full-time care to fulfill their most basic needs.

They also all rely on Lucy Eddy, a direct support assistant, to care for them and to ensure they live with a sense of dignity.

“They’re her family,” says Michael Surace, who works for the New York State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, and who nominated Eddy for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award.  “She advocates for them strenuously, and sets a great example for new hires. She ensures that they all are dressed appropriately and cleaned no matter who she’s working with. She treats them like they’re her relatives.”

According to Surace, Eddy, a member of CSEA Local 449, sets the tone for other staff who work at the Abbott Road location. It’s a model based on compassion, respect, yet also firmness – a canny knack for knowing her residents and knowing how she can encourage them to accomplish small tasks.

Some of her residents cannot speak or walk. Others suffer from severe cerebral palsy or serious intellectual impairments. It’s not uncommon for Eddy to spend hours coaxing or performing elaborate rituals to put the residents – some of whom have severe OCD – at ease in an effort to get them to perform basic tasks.

For one resident, she might put on certain music to encourage him to bathe. For another, she might play a game, cheer and dance to get her to use the toilet. It can be exhausting and emotionally taxing work.

Yet, Eddy says, “I love my job. I love to make a difference, and I love to see them do the simplest thing. It’s as rewarding as any job could be.”

Eddy’s belief that all her residents deserve her utmost care, love and respect was cemented through her relationship with her husband, who has cerebral palsy, as well as a friend who had Huntington’s Disease, a fatal genetic disorder affecting the brain.

“They’re normal people, who wanted normal things,” recalls Eddy. “They had feelings, rights, wants and needs.”

Eddy took it upon herself to care for them – as she does today with the Abbott Road residents – to ensure all their needs are met. Her dedication and compassion has been passed down to her daughter, who also works with her.

Sometimes, Eddy can be especially outspoken in advocating for the residents, some of whom have no families. But she says she’s willing to ruffle a few feathers on behalf of the people she serves.

Still, she admits there are times when the job gets the better of her.

“I struggle. I’m not going to kid you,” says Eddy. “There are days when I ask if I made a difference in their lives. I’ll get home, and my husband will ask me about my day, and I’ll burst out crying.”  

The pandemic makes Eddy’s job even harder, and she and the staff have had to get creative to keep the residents engaged. For example, outside field trips, once an important and rejuvenating facet of daily life, have all but disappeared.

Eddy pitched the idea of making COVID-safe field trips for members for whom off-campus trips are crucial.

“I called Mike [Surace], and asked if I could take one of the residents in the van and go through the drive through at Dunkin’ Donuts,” she says. “Or we’ll go for a country ride.”

These small distractions make a huge difference in the residents’ lives. And while life has changed for the time being – with more indoor singing, dancing and crafts – one thing that remains constant is Eddy’s devotion to her clientele.

Amid a pandemic, a librarian doubles down for Los Angeles

November 30, 2020

There’s a certain magic that happens during one of Toktam Gholami’s story time sessions at the Westwood branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.

Keeping 60 or so infants, children, parents and caregivers engaged, much less entertained, is no easy feat. But Gholami, a children’s librarian and a winner of the AFSCME Never Quit Service Award who has been working at the Westwood Branch for a little over a year, is something of a magician herself. Week after week, this AFSCME Local 2626 member makes the story time sessions she runs both educational and powerful experiences.

However, story time is only one aspect of what Gholami does.

The Los Angeles Public Library has a robust STEAM (science, technology, engineering and math) program. As part of this program, Gholami might facilitate classes using LEGOs or teach kids biology using live insects. Gholami also works at the reference desk and coordinates and runs school visits, sharing with L.A. students the power of the library’s many resources.

“I have one of the biggest collections on the West Side,” says Gholami. “That comes with a big budget, and I’m always focused on adding new, high quality materials to my collection.”

What happens, though, to these enriching, in-person library experiences when they disappear overnight, as they did in March, when much of the country shuttered due to the pandemic?

The library goes online

For Gholami, the pandemic meant she and her fellow librarians had to mix things up – fast.

“I’m a public servant, and I love helping people,” says Gholami. “I feel compelled to do this. When we closed, I started looking for ways to help our community and provide library services.”

She and her colleagues were determined to bring their story times online. That meant Gholami had to scramble to find out which titles they could get permission to share over the World Wide Web. Then they had to coordinate streaming readings that would be beamed out all over the world through LAPL’s YouTube, Instagram and Facebook pages.

It was an unusual but rewarding experience for Gholami.

“We can see people watching from the other side of the world.”

Suddenly, Gholami had new audiences in Europe, the Middle East and beyond.

While caring for her own first-grader from home, Gholami helped transform the library’s children’s programming through the spring, summer and fall. That included October’s recent “Hallo-week” events.

Even if L.A.’s kids could not trick or treat, Gholami wanted to preserve the day’s festivities. 

Helping her city through a disaster

For Gholami, the pandemic has only reinforced her sense of community. When Mayor Eric Garcetti activated the city’s disaster service work assignments in March, it fell on Gholami and other public service workers to adapt to new disaster-related roles.

The learning curve has been steep, yet Gholami says, “As a public servant, I took the oath to serve as a disaster service worker in times of crisis. I had to quickly gain new skills and contextualize my existing skills to adapt to the situation.”

Her assignments have varied. Using her Farsi language skills (Gholami was born in Iran), she has translated the mayor's weekly messages to ensure the Persian community receives the latest coronavirus news. She also worked on L.A’s senior meals hotline, helping to sign up volunteers and distribute food among seniors who couldn’t leave their homes.

The most emotionally taxing role has been working as a contact tracer. Given the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, the role has Gholami working non-stop, while still performing many of her library responsibilities. It’s exhausting yet rewarding work.

As a contact tracer, Gholami saves the lives of Angelinos by notifying them of the need to quarantine and educating them about the dangers of COVID-19. She sees a clear parallel between her work now and her work as a librarian.

“To me, it seems to be all about saving lives, whether by educating and skill-building at the library, or by conveying the county health orders. There was a joy [working] at the reference desk,” says Gholami of her responsibilities in pre-COVID-19 times. “Now, I’m getting that doing contact tracing. It makes my day when people are doing OK.”

Former strangers in L.A. are now part of her extended community.

“I’m grateful for what I’m doing for the community,” Gholami says. “It’s made me feel like I’m doing my part. I know that when I get back to the library, I will be a different person. I’m taking away a rich experience while bringing my skills and expertise to the table.”

At home for veterans in Michigan, the rewards are subtle but last a lifetime

November 16, 2020

At the Grand Rapids, Mich., Home for Veterans, where Cathy Scott has served as a licensed practical nurse for 26 years, members express gratitude in subtle ways.

“Most days you’re going to get a smile or a hand pat,” says Scott, who works in the Alzheimer’s unit. “But it’s the little things the members do that make you have a good day.”

The members are veterans of America’s wars and their dependents, such as spouses. Over the years, Scott has cared for former service members going back to World War II. Most members at the home today served in the Vietnam era.

Recognition is the last thing on Scott’s mind. To be a good nurse, she says, you must make it all about the members.

“We’re there for them; they’re not there for us,” she explains. “We work in their home.”

On a normal day, Scott goes through the routine of providing members their various treatments, getting them ready for medical appointments, helping with transfers, assisting doctors with medical orders and so forth. But the rewards and memories that come from her work are formed through the relationships that develop over time.

“No one person is the same,” she says. “I have so much respect for them. They talk about where they’ve been and what they’ve done; some are happy, some are sad. We’re grateful to them. I learn from them. They’ve done some things that seem impossible. I don’t think I could have done what they’ve done.”

Because she works in the Alzheimer’s unit, many of the members she cares for are often in a different time and place than the here and now.

“You don’t try to change it, you just go along with them,” Scott explains. “You have to have a sense of humor. You have to be able to adapt, and we’re there for that. You see a lot of flashbacks, and when you sense that they’re in flashback mode, you have to adjust to where they are mentally. I’ve enjoyed learning about them and how to care for them. There’s never a dull moment, for sure.”

Being a good listener is just one of the qualities of a good nurse. Empathy, compassion and respect are a few of the others.

Scott, according to fellow nurse Tammy Porter, has them all.

“Her patients always come first,” Porter says. “I have watched her cry with families when their loved one passes away. I have watched her hold her patients’ hands as they take their last breath, so they are not alone when they go to the next phase of their journey. She is one of the best nurses, employees and friends I have ever known. I am the nurse I am today because of her.”

For her service to her community, Scott, a member of AFSCME Local 261 (Council 25), is a winner of AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award. The award seeks to recognize public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better.

Sometimes, Scott acknowledges, her work can be mentally and physically draining.

“You learn to laugh and you learn to cry,” she says. “Sometimes you laugh first, and then you cry later. There are mentally rewarding days and mentally exhausting days. But we’re there for them, it is what it is.”

When Scott started out, the job was so hard that she didn’t think she would last more than five years. What keeps her going on tough days, she says, is knowing that her job has a purpose.

“I think what keeps me going at the end of a rough day is knowing that somewhere along the way, I’ve made a difference,” she says. “Some members, a lot of the time their family members don’t come see them anymore, and so we become like their family. They rely on us. I know I can’t be everything to everybody, but if at the end of the day I know that I’ve made a little difference, I’m OK with that.”

L.A.’s Justo Franco: Creating order amid chaos

October 26, 2020

Justo Franco had been hoping for a smooth day at work. As the main caregiver for his mother, who was battling cancer, it fell on the shoulders of the 40-year-old to not only drive her to and from her chemotherapy treatments, but to watch over her at the home they shared near Los Angeles’ Koreatown neighborhood.

“It doesn’t affect how I do my work,” says Franco, a transit operations supervisor for Los Angeles’ Bus Operations Control Center (BOC), “but it’s always on my mind.”

As pandemic ravaged New York City region, this morgue worker refused to quit

October 15, 2020

There are parts of Mike Vikara’s job that he can’t talk about with just anyone, and it’s not because he’s a government employee with top secret clearance or a mathematical physicist who deals with concepts few would understand. It’s because he works in a morgue.

Vikara is a forensic pathologist assistant for the Nassau County, New York, Medical Examiner, where he helps conduct external examinations of dead bodies and perform autopsies.

While most people would prefer not to think about death, Vikara and his colleagues embrace the subject. In doing so, they provide an essential public service to their community, offering crucial answers to end-of-life questions and peace of mind to a deceased person’s loved ones.

“We’re not out there in the public eye like emergency responders, and people tend not to think about what happens at the very end of life,” says Vikara, who is also a member of AFSCME CSEA Local 830. “We rarely get recognition like that, and we don’t mind. We’re not out there looking for any praise, we’re just there to help people, help families find answers and maybe some kind of closure.”

Despite their familiarity with life’s final stage, it would be wrong to assume that Vikara and his colleagues had an easier time coping with the fallout of the coronavirus. On the contrary, while the impact of the pandemic has spared almost no one and many have suffered devastating losses, few have experienced its human toll in quite the same way.

“As you’re doing your job, you don’t understand the impact that it’s having on you emotionally and mentally. You’re just focusing on getting the job done,” Vikara says. “But when you get home, you sit there and you think, ‘I can’t believe what I just saw today.’”

“I’ve been in the death care industry for 22 years, and this is nothing like what I could have imagined or prepared for,” he added. “I’d come home and just couldn’t believe how many dead bodies I’d seen in one day. It was so prolonged, day after day, it felt like it wasn’t going to end. This will last a lifetime in your memories. Hopefully, we’ll never see anything the likes of it again. It’s truly mind-boggling.”

On a normal day before the virus struck, the team at the medical examiner’s office would see between five and 15 dead bodies. But when the pandemic picked up speed back in the spring – with the New York City region becoming one of its epicenters – the numbers shot up.

“We wound up getting trailers in the back of the building because we didn’t have room for all the bodies,” Vikara recalls. “Our highest count was 222 bodies at one time.”

As Vikara confronted a situation he could never have foreseen, the one thing that didn’t change was his commitment to his job, his colleagues and the community he serves, according to Vikara’s colleague, Giorgio Mutino.

“There were so many deceased bodies coming in at any one time, and Mike was constantly there,” says Mutino, who is also president of the medical examiner’s unit of Local 830. “He has stepped up above and beyond what he needed to do.”

For his service to his community, Vikara is a winner of AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty.

“I feel that what keeps me going is the fact that I love my job and am passionate about it,” Vikara says. “I’ve worked with a few people for many years and they are the greatest people in the world. If there’s anything that got you down, they’re there to pick you up. Some things you can’t talk about with someone who’s not involved in this field because they won’t understand it. But your colleagues are there with you every day.”

“I honestly love what I do,” he said. “If I had any choice to pick something different, I would pick this again.”

When a moment of reckoning becomes a moment of opportunity

September 28, 2020

The path to becoming the director of The George Washington Carver Museum, Cultural and Genealogy Center in Austin, Texas, wasn’t straightforward for Carre Adams.

Though his background was in both the arts and Black history, after spending almost a decade as an artist, Adams was ready for a change. He was still driven by making art, but he wanted a steady paycheck and health insurance: two things that a life as an artist didn’t provide.

He took a lucrative job in corporate sales for a cable company. When it came to the paycheck and the health insurance, the job fit the bill. But Adams’ thirst as an artist wasn’t being quenched. Eventually, he left that corporate job in search of a position that would not only provide a steady paycheck but fulfill him as an artist and allow him to expose his community to works of artists he admired.

That job came in 2015 at The George Washington Carver Museum, Cultural and Genealogy Center, a museum named after the scientist and inventor. Adam’s first position was as an arts instructor. But there was a twist.

“The day that I arrived, I learned the former exhibit coordinator had recently retired,” said Adams, a member of AFSCME Local 1624. “It seemed unexpected, but the curator looked at my resumé and knew I was more than capable of installing an exhibition. She asked if I would pinch hit. I said no problem.”

Little did Adams know that exhibit needed to be put up within 48 hours. Adams wasn’t going to let the lightning fast turnaround time stop him, especially when the exhibit, “Can U See,” was of an artist he’d long admired: John Yancey.

“One of the drawbacks of doing a good job is you get more work,” joked Adams. “For the next eight to nine months, I basically served as the interim exhibit coordinator.”

Over the next several years, Adams channeled every ounce of energy into making the museum the best it could be. More than an arts exhibit space, the museum provides educational programming for youths and adults, and has a separate genealogy facility where people can research their heritage, and more.

“I really cared about making sure [the Austin] community had a space they were proud of,” said Adams. “I dropped so much blood on the floor of the gallery. There were nights I slept at museum to get things done because we were underfunded and understaffed. I had friends come and help me paint walls [for exhibits].”

That dedication was the reason that Adam’s former co-worker, Benson Thottiyil, nominated him for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award.

 “He does a wonderful job working with staff members to create incredible educational programs and exhibits,” says Thottiyil. “He goes above and beyond working with groups of wonderful, talented professionals to create these exhibits by working with them side by side.”

Others saw his dedication, drive and dreams for the museum, too. As positions opened, Adams applied for them, and eventually became the lead curator and culture and arts education manager, the head leadership role at the museum.

Adams’ fresh vision and thirst for innovation has come at the right moment for the museum. The confluence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the national reckoning over race has meant that he’s been able to channel his energy in new directions for the museum.

New exhibits, like “The African American Presence in 19^th Century Texas,” and new partnerships with organizations like Fusebox, a nonprofit arts organization in Austin, as well as new digital and social media campaigns, means that the museum is expanding its reach, becoming more dynamic while preserving its original mission.

“We figured out ways to creatively continue doing our work,” said Adams. “We got to a place where we released the idea of a museum existing inside four walls. We’re in broadcasting and we’re producing in a new kind of way. This moment of reckoning is also a moment of opportunity.”

It’s an opportunity that Adams doesn’t plan on missing.

When a trailblazing correctional officer went down the walk at Angola

September 14, 2020

In the late 80s, Shirley Coody, now an assistant warden at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, attempted what few, if any, women correctional officers had done before: “go down the walk.”

The so-called “wild side” at Angola, the largest maximum-security prison in the United States, was an all-male inmate housing complex. And to “go down the walk” in that area was to go into the offenders’ living quarters and make the rounds, keeping the peace if necessary and trying to elicit respect from the men, most of whom were serving life sentences for violent crimes.

It was a tough job for anybody, let alone a petite woman like Coody.

But Coody had wanted the job. In fact, she had fought for it. When the prison administration had advertised promotional opportunities for men only, she had filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and won.

Since she had just been appointed a lieutenant, she felt that she had something to prove, namely, to succeed at a job that only men were supposed to be able to do. She felt that she could not afford to fail.

On the night she first went down the walk at Angola, “I was scared to death,” recalls Coody, a winner of AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award. “What I’d heard until that point was what my male counterparts said about the offenders, which was that they were murderers and rapists, that they were uncontrolled and just waiting for an opportunity to take advantage of you.”

On that first night, “I went on the big yard and into the housing areas, and I went down the walk and pulled a 12-hour shift and walked out. I wasn’t murdered or raped. In fact, as I found out later, the offenders were very protective.”

As Coody continued to serve in her new position, she found out something unexpected.

“I started to notice that when I went down the walk, there was always an inmate awake, apparently keeping watch,” she recalls. “So, one day I asked them about it, and they said, ‘We’re watching out for you because we want you to make it. If a small, blonde woman like you can make it, then we’re not the monsters people think we are.’”

Coody succeeded, and continues to succeed. Her trailblazing career has been a series of steps up the correctional ladder, from captain to major to lieutenant colonel and now assistant warden for administration services. She is also president of AFSCME Local 3056 (Council 17).

“They say women are weak and can’t handle the job, but we are not the weaker sex,” she says. “Give us an opportunity to prove ourselves. If I can’t handle the job, I’ll go back, but at least give me the chance.”

Coody says what motivates her is to make a difference. “Angola has changed so much over the years. There’s been tremendous change,” she says. “But there’s only change if you’re willing to fight for it, to make it good for everybody and not just yourself. If you don’t stand up for yourself and for what’s right, you’re going to lose.”

Coody is an inspiration to many, says her colleague Helen Braswell, a lieutenant at Angola who nominated Coody for the Never Quit award.

“She serves as an example to all of the females here,” says Braswell, who met Coody at the prison several years ago and worked under her. “All females can move up in rank now to higher positions that were unheard of in the 70s and 80s. Shirley inspires everyone she works with. She has a lot of strength and knowledge, and she passes it down like a teacher to a student.”

From dial-up to digital, CSEA’s Joe Acampora led the way

July 21, 2020

You won’t see AFSCME members like Joe Acampora at the scene of a car accident. You won’t find him treating sick patients in a hospital. And you won’t see him driving by you in the cab of a truck, clearing snow-choked roads for your morning commute.

But the vital work that this CSEA Local 860 member did for 30 years touched the lives of nearly every resident of the Mount Vernon, New York, community he serves. Acampora just retired as an IT professional, and he led Mount Vernon out of the technological dark ages of the 1980s to today’s high-speed virtual world.

The one-stop online public services that many Mount Vernon residents now have at their fingertips, allowing them to pay taxes or their utility bill via the internet, are because of Acampora’s know-how.

“He’s been a consummate professional,” says Acampora’s co-worker, Hans Marshalleck, who nominated Acampora for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award. “When you look at the value of a union employee, he’s a shining example. He’s been consistent for so many years at a high level of excellence. There’s no gold watch for him, no politician lauding him. He just comes to work and does an excellent job and goes home to his family.”

Acampora’s career paralleled revolutions in networking, the internet and personal computing. According the Marshalleck, “Through Joe’s guidance, we lifted the IT department into the modern age. We went from VT320 green screen terminals to using HP Windows 10 machines today.”

Acampora paints a vivid picture of the early technology he faced out of college as a programmer/analyst when he came to work for the city of Mount Vernon, located in Westchester County, New York.

“There was one computer in the whole building. It looked like a little mini-fridge,” recalls Acampora. “There were 50 terminals with green screens. The disk drives looked like top load washing machines. The actual discs were big platters that you lowered into the [drives’] cavities.”

From those primitive beginnings, Acampora began to shape Mount Vernon’s technology footprint.

“We developed some really good systems,” said Acampora. “Payroll was a system that I created from scratch. Parking ticket collection – I made a lot of enhancement to that.”

Acampora developed software for tax collection and led Mount Vernon to become one of the earliest jurisdictions in New York to automate vehicle registration data requests and delivery using the internet to communicate with the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles.

Having someone like Acampora in-house meant the city didn’t have to outsource and license expensive software from vendors. Thanks to his know-how, he saved the city millions of dollars throughout his career by Marshalleck’s estimate.

Though Marshalleck credits Acampora with paving the way for the city’s IT evolution, Acampora says it was a group effort.

“It was always teamwork with the assistance of chief accountants and the Finance Department,” says Acampora. “They would provide requirements for accounting, and I would provide the technical implementation of that.”

The 2000s brought a further explosion in technology, as Acampora became a manager of information systems. Despite all the changes, as well as the shifts and pressures that come with navigating different city administrations, Acampora stayed the course, according to Marshalleck.

“He’s remained cool throughout,” said Marshalleck.

Now, with a user base of 230 terminals that touches every city department, the core services that Acampora engineered make up the backbone of city services.

And, luckily, because Acampora and his team had already set up remote work capabilities for events like snowstorms, they were well-prepared for the transition to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While Acampora may have technically retired just a few weeks ago, he says he may return to his old department to help out as needed. There’s no doubt that the “2.0” version of Joe Acampora will bring the same know-how, but hopefully with the newfound serenity that comes with retirement.

Connecticut Nurse and Mother of Two Is All About Her Patients – And Her Boys

May 06, 2020

Editor’s Note: We celebrate National Nurses Week, which begins today, with this story of a Connecticut nurse on the front lines of the fight against the COVID-19.

Yajaira Perez, a registered nurse at MidState Medical Center in Meriden, Conn., is all about her patients.

Jessie Udeen, a former colleague, remembers a night when she and the other nurses on duty were having an especially tough time inserting an intravenous tube on a patient who needed antibiotics. Perez was off duty. It was 3 o’clock in the morning. When Udeen texted her friend about the situation, Perez volunteered to come in.

“I don’t have a normal sleep cycle, so I was awake anyway,” Perez recalls. “I sort of snuck into the hospital, put in the IV, and left. Then I went to the gym.”

While Perez makes it sound like a small thing, she potentially saved a life.

“Yajaira is amazing with putting in IVs,” Udeen says. “We’d had a very hard time with this particular patient that night. Yajaira knew he needed antibiotics or wouldn’t survive.”

For her service to her community, Perez, a member of Connecticut Health Care Associates District 1199/NUHHCE/AFSCME, is a winner of AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, which honors public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty.

Udeen nominated her for her “impeccable patient-care skills,” her “accountability, authenticity and ability to bring a smile to anyone’s face,” and for being “extremely hardworking and dedicated.”

A Humble Engineer Keeps NYC’s Ferries Afloat

March 16, 2020

With degrees in marine engineering, mechanical engineering and management, Local 375 (District Council 37) member Earl Baim might appear overqualified, at least on paper.

However, Baim is a vital member of a very small team of Department of Transportation engineers responsible for the constant maintenance and construction of New York City’s ferry system. The crown jewel in the system is the iconic Staten Island Ferry, which transports some 70,000 New Yorkers every day.

According to Baim’s boss, A’gota Fejes, without the 32-year veteran on the team, they’d all be sunk.

“His hand is everywhere,” says Fejes, a civil and structural engineer, who is based out of the St. George Terminal in Staten Island, where the Staten Island Ferry originates. “He’s a very sharp person. He’s diligent, he’s efficient, wise … he’s a great support not just to me but to everyone he works with.”

Baim helps oversee and ensure that the ferries, the shore facilities and docks they travel to, and, occasionally, other ferry vessels and piers throughout the city are all in a state of good repair. He also advises the contractors and consultants who support keeping the ferries running, making sure the piers that host them are being properly maintained and constructed. That doesn’t include overseeing the procurement, bidding and due diligence involved in working with various contractors.

According to Fejes, Baim has the unique talent of being able to speak to a range of people, from a variety of tradesman, such as dock builders and craftsmen, to other engineers, as well as those in upper management roles.

“He’s so good with everyone,” says Fejes. “When he works on a problem, he’ll spend a couple days on it.”

Another important fact about Baim that Fejes points out: “Earl doesn’t take shortcuts” when it comes to safety. Safety always comes before cost and expediency.

Even though Fejes has 30 years’ experience working as both a civil and mechanical engineer on buildings and deep foundations, she says that she relies heavily on Baim’s vast knowledge of the New York City ferry and transit system, and speaks to him at least twice a day for counsel.

Baim might be one crucial linchpin in a major mass transit system, but he thinks of himself in far more modest terms.

“I’m just an engineer here,” says Baim, who allows, “I’m really a construction project manager and a design project manager.”

But like so many AFSCME public service workers, Baim, while shunning the spotlight, exemplifies the importance of having seasoned, skilled, dedicated public service professionals involved in such vast and complex operations.

Baim trained at SUNY-Maritime College in the Bronx, where he earned his degree in marine engineering. Out of college, he designed vessels for the government and for private steamship companies.

When he became a city employee, he eventually returned to New York University, picking up additional degrees in civil engineering and management to bolster his knowledge and so he could be conversant with a wide range of professions. That knowledge paid off during one of the highlights of Baim’s career, the 10-year construction of the 200,000-square-foot Whitehall Ferry Terminal.

In his time off, Baim doesn’t venture far from the sea. He has two small sailboats he takes around Jones Beach near his home on Long Island. He also enjoys taking in New York’s museums and cultural institutions, as well as studying Italian.

Though his interests are varied, Baim’s aspirations are quite simple: “I enjoy building things and improving the world I live in.”

When a Team’s Secret Weapon is the Custodian

by Pete Levine  |  February 24, 2020

A Friend in Foxtrot

February 10, 2020

For the residents of the Foxtrot unit of the Rhode Island Veterans Home in Bristol, Rhode Island, days can be long, with little to brighten them. The 36 veterans who comprise the Foxtrot unit, ranging in age from mid-70s to nearly 100, all suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Many are confined to wheelchairs; most can no longer carry on a conversation.

The fight to maintain their dignity, to honor their service, and to give them something to look forward to each day is fought by the people who work at the veterans home, and one in particular: a cook’s helper and AFSCME Local 904 (Council 94) member, Mark Simonson.

Though Simonson was trained as a nursing assistant, he switched roles several years ago to become a cook’s helper, which offered him an unusual entrée into bettering the lives of the veterans he sees every day.

“He’s a one-of-a-kind individual,” says his former colleague, Bobby Mouzon, a respiratory therapist who nominated Simonson for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award. “When residents come to eat, he treats them like they’re in a fine dining restaurant. He’ll take off their jackets for them, put on clothing protectors. He treats them like they’re members of his own family.”

Desserts are one of Simonson’s specialties, according to Mouzon, which Simonson decorates and presents to residents with great fanfare. Simonson will also cue up old time jazz or pop tunes to make the dining experience as special as it can be.

It’s not just the members of the Foxtrot unit who benefit from Simonson’s thoughtful gestures. It’s the families of the veterans. While many struggle watching their parents and grandparents grapple with dementia, they’re relieved, according to Mouzon, to know that Mark is watching over their relatives.

“And if someone doesn’t have anybody,” says Mouzon, “they always have Mark.”

Simonson, a former Navy radioman, sees his job as a special privilege.

“A lot of these guys are wheelchair-bound or can no longer carry on a conversation. They don’t have much to look forward to except our interactions three times a day. I want to make it valuable for them,” says Simonson. “I want to make their dining experience pleasurable.”

Simons credits watching the Food Network with teaching him the culinary skills that bring a little extra flair – a dollop of whipped cream, a decorative strawberry – to the desserts he serves the residents.

“I believe presentation in food is everything,” he says.

There are other small but important touches, too, like baking cookies in the afternoon, making sure that everyone gets coffee, tea or an ice cream sandwich if they want it.

But Simonson’s impact at the veterans home goes far beyond the dining room.

“I’m there when these guys pass. I hold their hand. When they’re on a morphine drip, I have a bottle of water for them. I sit there and talk to them,” says Simonson. “I’ve been to a few of the guys’ funerals. When the families tell me that I was their friend, that’s what makes the job rewarding.”

While the job has no shortage of difficult moments, Simonson credits his co-workers and the veterans themselves with helping preserve his youthful spirit.

“They keep me young. I’m 61, but you’d never know it.”

Simonson is currently taking advantage of AFSCME’s Free College Benefit through Eastern Gateway Community College, earning a degree in business health care management. Though he could retire now, he plans on waiting until he’s 66.

There’s too much to do, he says, including going to the local dollar store to buy Valentine’s Day decorations for the dining room.

Cafeteria Worker at Florida High School Keeps it Real with Students

January 27, 2020

Norma Motard is an assistant cafeteria worker at DeLand High School in the city of the same name, located roughly halfway between Orlando and Daytona Beach, Florida.

She works at the School Way Café, a partially federally funded program that provides nourishing meals to students. A cashier at the café, she’s also responsible for handing out juices and fruits to students.

When the students come in for breakfast and comment on how tired they are, she empathizes with them, reminding them, “I had to get up this morning and go to school too, you know.”

When she notices one of them wearing a Harry Potter clothing item, she strikes up a brief conversation, because she, too, has read all the Harry Potter books (“I couldn’t believe I read a 900-page book!” she jokes).

She has a smartphone but only checks the weather on it, she says, because now that she’s “59 and everything” she’s taken up sewing, and she sometimes gives students little gifts she made for them.

In other words, Motard keeps it real, and in doing so she connects with the students in a unique way. So says Kami French, the school’s cafeteria manager, who nominated Motard for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award. Motard, a member of Local 850 (AFSCME Florida), is a winner of that award, which our union gives to public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty.

“We have a great staff here and they all work really hard,” says French of the eight assistant cafeteria workers who each play a role in feeding 1,000 students every day. “I should nominate them all for the award. But Norma has been here for a long time. She knows all the kids by name. She’s wonderful with them, she takes an extra second to notice something about them and talk to them about what they like. She really goes above and beyond for our students because this is her family, they’re all her kids. You really feel that from her.”

Motard has two adult children of her own in their 20s. She began this job two decades ago when her girls were little.

“It was the perfect mom job, 8 to 2,” she says. “I could drop off the kids at school and come here. It was a perfect fit.”

As her girls grew up, they went to DeLand High School, which made it even easier.

But even now, it still feels like the perfect job, and she’s proud to say she’s the “first one in, last one out.”

It’s a job she plans to keep doing until she’s ready to retire.

Help Our Sisters and Brothers in Puerto Rico

January 16, 2020

On a normal day, Sandra Pacheco, an administrative assistant in Puerto Rico’s Department of Transportation and Public Works, begins her day at 7 a.m., filing paperwork for her colleagues in the field. It’s a job that Pacheco, who is president of her local, AFSCME Local 3889, Council 95 (Servidores Públicos Unidos de Puerto Rico), does with pride and dedication.

But the last three weeks have been anything but normal for her and many other Puerto Ricans, including AFSCME members and retirees, especially on the island’s southwest coast.

An earthquake that struck on Dec. 28 turned out to be the first in an ongoing series of temblors and aftershocks numbering about 1,400. A 6.4-magnitude quake on Jan. 7 killed one person and injured dozens and is said to be the most destructive in Puerto Rico in a century.

“It is the worst that we have lived through,” says Pacheco, a resident of Guánica who is staying with one of her aunts in nearby Yauco after an earthquake nearly brought down her house. “A hurricane announces itself, but this doesn’t. The ground begins to shake noisily, and it really damages your nerves. People’s emotional health is truly devastated.”

Pacheco says she is most worried about her daughter, who lost her house and is living with her family out of their car. These days, Pacheco spends most of her time receiving aid and helping others, such as delivering water and other provisions to people in need.

 “The government of Puerto Rico and AFSCME have been helping us,” she said in an interview Monday. “This past Sunday they brought us water, soap, toilet paper. … Yesterday, the power was back on and thank God we have food.”

But there is still a great need for tents for people sleeping outdoors and for mosquito repellent, Pacheco says.

Puerto Rico – which is still recovering from Hurricane Maria and faced fiscal and political crises – is home to more than 11,000 AFSCME working members and 2,300 AFSCME retirees.

AFSCME President Lee Saunders issued a statement this week, calling on the Trump administration to implement “a robust and immediate aid effort to ease the suffering and devastation facing the commonwealth.”

“The entire AFSCME family has the people of Puerto Rico in its thoughts and prayers as they continue to face unthinkable conditions and personal hardship,” Saunders said. “Puerto Rico’s public service workers are tireless in their efforts to keep their communities safe, healthy and strong even though they, too, face displacement from their homes, vast power outages and the threat of disease.”

AFSCME is mobilizing to assist Puerto Rico’s communities by providing shipments of water and other vital necessities.

With Poise and Compassion, Heather Mikesell Protects Children in Fairbanks, AK

January 13, 2020

It’s a critical job that comes with little glory and a lot of pressure. But for ASEA/AFSCME Local 52 member Heather Mikesell, a child protective services case worker, making sure that the kids of Fairbanks, Alaska, are safe is its own reward.

She and her teammates face high caseloads, difficult family dynamics, scarce resources and a built-in skepticism for the essential role they play in their community.

Despite those obstacles, however, according to Ann Parson, Mikesell’s co-worker who nominated Mikesell for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, Mikesell is a consummate professional: composed, focused and respectful, always treating the families with whom she works with dignity.

“She’s been a consistent, compassionate, knowledgeable worker,” says Parson. “She’s a great role model and mentor for newer workers.”

Mikesell works for the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. She is the tip of the spear of the child protective system, the first person to make an in-home visit with kids and their parents to assess whether a child is safe, or whether that child is in danger and needs to be removed from the home.

The families she works with may be in crisis, struggling with poverty or drug addiction, or even criminal activity that might endanger the life of the child. In many respects, Mikesell and her team of child protective services workers are like first responders. Often, when they enter a home, they are met with skepticism or even hostility.

 “We’re not people’s favorite,” says Ann Parson, whose job is to work with families after Mikesell has made her initial determination about a child’s near-term future. “The job we do isn’t warm and fuzzy. But it’s a necessary job.”

Contrary to the popular misconception that her role is to simply remove kids from their homes, Mikesell says the reality is just the opposite. Whenever possible she tries to find a way to keep a child in their home, with their families. The cornerstone of making that decision rests on building a rapport with the families she’s assigned. Communication and empathy are key qualities.

“You have to talk to people, not at them,” says Mikesell. “I’ve had people come in hot with me and by the time we’re able to sit down and have a conversation, we’ve left on a good note. I’ve been able to get parents engaged in [support] services, so I can get out of their lives. I tell them the ultimate thing is for us to never talk again.”

By working with law enforcement, educators, medical professionals and other support services professionals, Mikesell will develop a plan that will first and foremost safeguard a child, while also helping families get out of crisis and back on track.

If the best-case scenario means Mikesell never has contact with families who’ve turned a corner, some of the most painful episodes that weigh on Mikesell are when newborns need to be removed from their parents.

“It’s gut wrenching to have to remove a child from their mother. It’s such a critical time and that contact is so essential. But newborn infants are the most vulnerable of the vulnerable. When you’re dealing with abuse, we have to err on the side of caution,” Mikesell says.

In those heartbreaking cases, Mikesell will scramble to find a relative who can care for the infant to preserve that family bond. In some cases, she’ll even transport a mother’s breast milk to a newborn to maintain the important mother-child connection.

“We’re always thinking outside the box, while still maintaining the safety of the child and getting the parents into the services they need,” says Mikesell.

Whether a child is an infant or much older, any time Mikesell has to remove a child from their home, it takes a toll on her. Her job comes with high turnover and high burnout, notes Ann Parson. Nevertheless, Parson adds, “Heather has stepped into a leadership role.”

Mikesell draws on a deep well of solidarity and respect among her co-workers as a source of strength during difficult times on the job.

“Even though the work is very challenging and there’s never enough time to get it done, I do very much enjoy working with my colleagues,” says Mikesell. “I like how we come together to have each other’s backs.”

While the job has many harrowing moments, one of the highlights is working with the kids who she’s dedicated to protecting.

“They have some of the best personalities. Every kid’s story is different,” says Mikesell with a laugh. Another unique characteristic of kids: their resilience. Mikesell borrows that quality every day in her own work.

Dedicated to Making Her Hospital Work for all Patients

December 20, 2019

A Minor Gesture Makes a Major Difference

December 09, 2019

At a hospital 100 miles away, worried sick about their son, the Beals family of Sioux City, Iowa, learned of yet another complication – their home was about to be flooded due to a water main break.

But Chris DeHarty, president of AFSCME Local 212 (Council 61), and an underground utility worker, stepped up to take care of things, going above and beyond his call of duty and allowing the family to be together for their infant’s medical tests.

For that, DeHarty is the winner of an AFSCME Never Quit Service Award.

BART Worker Honored as Hero After Saving Man From Being Hit by Train

by Martin Ricard, AFSCME Council 57  |  December 02, 2019

Beating the Expectations, Believing in His Community

November 26, 2019

Former DC 37 Vice President Springs into Action to Save Two from Burning Car

November 25, 2019

Jim Tucciarelli was on Staten Island Saturday night, driving home, when he saw a vehicle in flames. Inside, a man and a woman were trapped.

Tucciarelli, 67, is the former vice president of AFSCME District Council 37 and the former president of Sewage Treatment and Senior Sewage Treatment Workers, AFSCME Local 1320. He served on AFSCME’s Judicial Panel from 2000-2018.

A public service worker for New York City for more than 42 years, Tucciarelli fought to protect the jobs and improve the lives of the city’s sewage workers, volunteered at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks and was an advocate for 9/11 responders. He retired earlier this year.

Tucciarelli said he heard crying from the woman in the front passenger seat. The car was beginning to fill up with smoke.

“She said she couldn't move her leg,” he told ABC Eyewitness News. “I said, 'it may hurt, but I'll move it for you' - I got her leg around.”

When he went back to help the driver, Tucciarelli found him unconscious. "I was able to reach in and unbuckle the seatbelt,” he said. “Flames were coming through floorboard and the vehicle was starting to fill up with dark smoke. I was starting to choke. I couldn't breathe - I had to get out of the vehicle."

Luckily, just then, police officers showed up on the scene and rescued the man. The two victims and Tucciarelli were taken to a hospital.

"I'm not a hero or anything,” Tucciarelli said. “We're human beings - anybody would do that.”

But Tucciarelli did not become a hero Saturday night – he already was. And what made him one was his lifelong service to his community, his dedication to making his city better and his union leadership on behalf of public service workers in New York and across the nation.

As a proclamation presented this year to him reads, on the occasion of his retirement and on behalf of the more than one million members of AFSCME, “Your dedication to the members of this union and to public service is an example and inspiration to us all. Thank you for your leadership and may you enjoy a long and joyous retirement.”

Even in retirement, Tucciarelli continues to inspire us all.

Tulsa Water Distribution Admin Is ‘Awesome Person’ and Problem Solver

November 18, 2019

If you happen upon a water main break, you might see workers in hard hats, their truck and the deep hole they’ve dug to fix the leak. Whom you don’t see is the worker behind the scenes who helps crews ensure that our homes and business are supplied with clean water.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, one of those unseen workers is Laura Chance.

“Laura goes above and beyond to make sure that all of us in the field have everything we need and she takes care of all the problems, from time cards to computer problems,” says Cody Harris, a crew leader who works for the city’s Water and Sewer Department. “She helps over 100 of us probably, and if we have any questions, she’s always available, night and day. She’s an awesome person.”

Chance, a member of AFSCME Local 1180, is a winner of our union’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to serve their communities.

Originally from Tulsa, Chance has lived all over the United States as a result of her husband’s military service. She began a career in public service 4½ years ago, when she joined the city’s water department as an office administrator.

“I wanted a change from my previous job and I thought it would be nice to work with crews that are actually out in the field,” she says. “I wanted to be part of a group of hardworking employees with boots on the ground.”

Hard work it has been. Since joining the department, Chance has played a key role in transitioning its operations from a paper-based to a computer-based system. And she has trained most of the department’s employees on how to use the new system.

“There was some reluctance to the new system at first, but everybody came around eventually since they didn’t have much of a choice,” she recalls. “Everybody’s pretty comfortable with it now. It’s a nice program that we were able to customize and adapt to our own needs.”

The new system makes it easier to track work orders and verify whether a given job has been completed.

“With as many jobs as we have, given our aging infrastructure, the new system helps with asset management,” Chance says. “We can use it to test different parts of the system and check their condition so we can replace them if necessary.”

Chance says she is motivated to go the extra mile because she wants to be there for her colleagues.

“I’ve just always wanted to make sure I do the best job I possibly can to help the people I work with,” she says, “and if it makes their lives easier, then it makes it all worthwhile for me.”

For Nevada Psychiatric Nurse, His Union Helps Him ‘Concentrate on Caring for People’

by AFSCME Staff  |  October 29, 2019

California Nurse Once Thought About Quitting but Persevered

October 15, 2019

It was Brian Zeringue’s first year on the job at the University of California, Los Angeles, and he wanted to quit. A registered nurse in the intensive care unit, he’d been caring for a sick patient who died.

It was the first time that a patient had died on him and it was hard.

“I took a day off to deal with it and my colleagues called me at home,” recalls Zeringue, who is now a cardiac nurse in the electrophysiology lab at the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center and a member of the United Nurses Association of California (UNAC)/AFSCME Local 1199. “One of them asked me, ‘How are you doing?’ And I said, ‘Oh, I think I need to go back to law school.’”

But Zeringue’s colleague, a veteran nurse, would have none of it.

“She told me that I had done a great job, and that I was the man for the job,” he says. “And so, I went back to work and kept pushing for it. I didn’t quit, and it was because someone believed in me when I wasn’t completely confident about myself.”

Zeringue is a winner of AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty to make their communities better. He was nominated by Jess Mangubat, a colleague and registered nurse.

“Many times over the last few years, I have observed Brian’s hard work on the front lines and he always goes above and beyond to help patients and staff,” Mangubat says. “His dedication to the patients is extraordinary. He’s very respectful, very professional, and he does whatever he needs to do for them.”

Zeringue, whom many colleagues know as a health and fitness buff, says he first embraced a never-quit approach to life when he joined the Marines at age 18.

“I’m 45 years old, and every day I strive to stay motivated to never quit,” he says. “I get that from the Marine Corps.”

Being a nurse, Zeringue says, comes with many rewards.

“It has taught me more about how to be humble and to be compassionate,” he says. “When you’re at someone’s bed side and they’re coming to their end, you reflect on your own brevity and shortness of life and that every life is delicate, and we have to be willing to serve and help each other out.”

In the 16 years that he’s been a cardiac nurse, things haven’t always been easy, but Zeringue doesn’t think about quitting anymore.

“The most rewarding part of my work is when somebody says, ‘Thank you … thanks for taking care of me,’” he reflects. “That’s not why I do my job, but when somebody is grateful it reminds me that we are all called to serve with the talents we have, and we have to make the best use of them.”

The Union Difference on Union 411

by AFSCME Staff  |  August 27, 2019

He Helps Nevada Students See Campus and They Inspire Him

by Jay Hutchison  |  August 26, 2019

It’s back-to-school season, a time when many students feel anxious about the year ahead. College, especially, can be a difficult transition, and more so for young adults who are learning their way around a new campus without being able to see it clearly – or at all.

AFSCME Local 4041 member Larry Coffey, the winner of a Never Quit Service Award, provides crucial assistance for such clients.

Coffey, based in Las Vegas, works as a certified orientation and mobility specialist at the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation and Employment (DETR) in the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR). VR assists people with physical or mental disabilities to access or maintain employment, including clients with visual impairments that can range from severe low vision to no-light perception.

Most of Coffey’s clientele is arriving at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), as the upcoming semester gets under way. He assists students in what he refers to as “transitioning ages.” Generally, his clients are transitioning between high school or college age, although he works with people of all ages. 

“Every time I get a student who goes out there, I end up walking the campus to figure out some of the ways they can get around,” says Coffey. “Some of them are totally blind and for the most part follow edges referred to as shorelines.”

The UNLV campus is 358 acres – or the size of 267 football fields. For clients with little to no light perception, it can be extremely challenging to get around. Coffey’s commitment to supporting these students is crucial to helping them navigate golf carts, vegetation, construction, large open spaces, and a whole range of other obstacles. 

“My clients keep me in awe all the time. I am amazed and proud at how independent they are and how successful they are,” he says. “To be honest, I don’t know if I would have the guts to do it.” 

Coffey teaches students the proper techniques for using the mobility cane, crossing streets, riding the bus and going up and down stairs, among other things.  

“That’s the thing I love about my profession,” he says. “We have such an impact on people’s lives and really impact the quality of life. … I enjoy working with this population. I’m not in it for the money. It’s a calling.”

Offering Comfort Amidst the Cinders

August 12, 2019

For most of the country, Nov. 8, 2018, might not stand out the same way it does for California social worker Lance Ferris. But for Ferris, who’s based in Chico, California, that was a day that changed his life and the lives of those in his community forever.

On that day, the worst and most destructive wildfire in California’s history, the Camp Fire, destroyed parts of Chico, nearly all of its neighboring town to the east, Paradise, as well as large swatches of Butte County. It was a day marked by extraordinary devastation and extraordinary, enduring acts of empathy by people like Ferris, a winner of a Never Quit Service Award.

For the past 13 years, Ferris, a member and steward of Local 2620 (Council 57), has been the only social worker in an outpatient clinic whose goal is to help parolees leaving the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation transition back into society. It’s a job that requires skill, focus and a deep well of empathy every day. And as the only clinical person in his office, it’s a role that can be isolating.

“I work on behalf of folks who have been incarcerated who are reintegrating into the community,” says Ferris. “[Their crimes] could be anything that’s low level, or even lifers who are getting out of prison. I provide individual and group therapy and case management services.”

No matter who his clients are or what their crimes might have been, Ferris approaches each with the same professionalism and clinical poise.

“How I feel about their offense is off the table when I’m working,” says the Brooklyn native. “I’ve always been able to create a space for people to have real therapy. That’s been the core of the work I do. That’s my training, who I am, and what I’m committed to. I work very hard at it.”

Ferris has been involved in his community for many years, counseling patients in a private practice he runs in addition to his job at the Department of Corrections and facilitating yoga and cycling classes as well. Despite being a college town, this semi-rural region of Northern California lacks for many of the resources you’d see in larger cities. It’s a place where residents, many of whom are retirees, prize their independence and can live a life off the grid.

But when the Camp Fire ripped through his community, leaving almost 90 people dead, destroying tens of thousands of structures and leaving tens of thousands more homeless, the trauma that permeated the area’s residents meant they needed to come together quickly.

“We’ve never seen anything like this,” says Ferris. “I’ve never seen this level of trauma.”

It was a community full of neighbors who’d lost loved ones or whose loved ones were missing; people whose homes and lives had been destroyed; a community wiped out; and first responders grappling with doing their jobs yet stunned by the horrors they’d seen.

Faced with an unprecedented crisis, Ferris did what he knew how to do best: he counseled people.

“I made myself available to do trauma work,” said Ferris, who was uniquely qualified to address many of the crises his fellow residents and first responders were experiencing. “I do a very special intervention called ‘Brainspotting.’ It has a great efficacy in reducing primary and second trauma with survivors of natural disasters.”

In the days, weeks and months to come after the fire, Ferris found himself holding counseling sessions for community members in need at his office or elsewhere throughout the town. Whether it was someone who’d become homeless after the fire, or someone who’d lost a pet, Ferris used his broad set of clinical skills to try to comfort the person sitting across from him.

“Suddenly, you saw folks who’d wanted to live a quiet life off the grid needing help,” he said.

Ferris said that the gyms where he taught yoga were now filled with people who’d come down from Paradise with nowhere else to go. While the trauma his clients faced after the fire differed from the parolees he counseled, the attention he paid to them and his rigorous approach to their therapy remained the same.

“If you take a look a trauma, there was the initial impact of the fire, but now they are rebuilding their lives. People are being triggered off the wall. It’s big,” said Ferris.

In nominating Ferris for the Never Quit Award, fellow Local 2620 member Deanna Stilwell wrote that Ferris’ job is challenging as it is. After the Camp Fire, “Lance immediately went into high gear, where he continues to give extraordinary care on a daily basis to a vulnerable population whose lives were turned upside down in seconds,” Stilwell wrote.

Nine months later, life still isn’t back to normal in the region. Much of the area in Butte County that the fire had torn through is still in ruins. While the rest of the country has moved on, Ferris and his neighbors haven’t. He’s returned to work now, resumed his life, but there are no pat endings to his community’s story.

“The aftermath was frightening for months. The impact has been huge,” said Ferris. “Where do you land? I still don’t have the answer.”

Cool Under Pressure

July 29, 2019

Paying it Forward in Parma

July 15, 2019

You would never know that a tragedy led Annie Hoffman to become a special education teacher’s assistant. Nearly a decade ago, Hoffman had been working in retail when her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Wanting to care for her mom while also raising a young son who had special needs, Hoffman began looking for a job with more accommodating hours. She found a part-time position as a “noon monitor” – an aide who watches over students during lunch hour –at a local school.

That job allowed Hoffman, a member of Local 160 (OAPSE), to take care of her mother in what proved to be her final years. It also became an unexpected outlet for her to channel her enthusiasm, playfulness and, in Hoffman’s own words, “goofiness,” to the students with whom she works and colleagues who delight in working with her.

“She has a glow to her,” says Barb Batista, a door monitor at Pleasantview First Step Preschool in Parma, Ohio, where Hoffman works. Batista nominated Hoffman for a Never Quit Service Award. “She brightens up a room whenever she enters it.  She has a great attitude and demeaner that’s contagious. She is so likeable – everyone loves her.”

Hoffman moved steadily from noon monitor to a brief stint as a cafeteria monitor to special education assistant at Pleasantview. Some of the preschoolers that Hoffman and Batista work with may be on the autism spectrum or have other physical or developmental disabilities, but no matter who the child is, Hoffman shares the same warmth and energy with every child.

“She’ll walk past me since I’m the door monitor and she’s always singing and dancing and laughing. She makes the kids smile, but she also makes me smile,” says Batista. “You can totally tell that she was made for this position. She’s a natural with the students.”

Though Hoffman hadn’t planned on a career in education, she says, “This is where my heart is. I’m where I’m supposed to be.”

While Hoffman’s approach might seem all fun and games, she’s serious about the attention and care her students receive.

“Every kid has a story. I might be the first face they see in the morning that’s smiling at them,” Hoffman says. “I make sure to meet them at their level. I want to be fun and funny, and even if I only get eye contact from a kid at the beginning of the year, by the end of the year, I’m going to make sure that kid’s smiling. It’s a high.”

Working in special education carries an extra level of meaning for Hoffman. Her son also attended Pleasantview preschool years ago. Adopted from Russia, where he’d spent his first year in an orphanage, his speech was delayed (he didn’t end up talking until he was 4 years old) and he had other challenges. But the teachers at Pleasantview helped him. Now, going into eighth grade, he’s active in sports, camping, writing, and other activities.

“I’m paying it forward,” says Hoffman. “I truly believe it starts at the very beginning. Pleasantview did such a great job with my son. Now, it’s my turn.”

One of the biggest pitfalls of the job, admits Hoffman, is dialing back her enthusiasm when she comes home.

“I’m the wackadoodle lady [at school]. I’m the lady who’s going to give the kids a crazy face or dance to make them smile,” says Hoffman. “But then I come home and I’m still acting goofy. My husband looks at me like I’m nuts.”

Job hazards aside, Hoffman is committed to the students of Pleasantview and has no plans to leave anytime soon – a lucky thing for everyone involved.

At Rogers High School in Minnesota, Special Ed Students Find a Safe Place in Becky Grupa

June 28, 2019

Becky Grupa comes from a family of seven brothers and sisters. She grew up outside Minneapolis and remembers riding the bus to school with her sister Victoria, who is autistic.

“She couldn’t speak, so instead she had her crying spells if she was in pain or frustrated, and some kids made fun of us,” she recalls.

The hardest thing about growing up with Victoria, though, Becky says, was “putting myself in her shoes.” The experience would prepare her for a career serving young people in her community.

Becky, a member of AFSCME Local 3331 (Council 65), is a special education paraprofessional at Rogers High School in Rogers, Minnesota, where she serves students with emotional and behavioral disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, anxiety or autism. Many come from troubled homes where they have faced more hardship than any young person ever should. What makes Becky supremely successful at her job, according to co-workers, is her ability to empathize and treat them on their own terms, as individuals.

“She just makes it so easy for kids to learn because she puts them at ease and lets them know that it’s OK if you don’t know something,” says Kristen Scott, also a special education paraprofessional. “Our special education kids are invisible sometimes, or they feel like they are, and so to have somebody see you — not because you’re not doing well or because you’re naughty, but because she sees them and recognizes them, that gives them what they don’t get in other places.”

Laura Ziebarth, a special education teacher, says Becky goes above and beyond in offering support to the students.

“One of the best qualities that Becky portrays is her nonjudgmental nature,” she says. “She is accepting of all students and recognizes that students have unique struggles, but they all need support and understanding. She is willing to sit with students and listen to their stories and offer support. … She never leaves a student without resources or an invitation to come back and talk if they need to.”

Becky has been working in special education for more than 23 years, 15 at the high school. For her service to her community and for being an inspiration to co-workers, she is a winner of AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty.

“I love going to work,” Becky says. “Every day is a fresh start for me. The key for me starting my day is to keep my eyes open, to listen and to have an open heart. That is what I pray for, that is my meditation before I come to school every morning.”   

Becky has four children of her own, all of them adults – the youngest graduated high school this year. They went to Rogers, too. She says having children of the same age as the students she serves helped her establish rapport.

“They look at me as just a mother figure,” she says of the special education students. “What I love about my job is getting to know the students, and getting to a point where they trust me, not necessarily that I have to be their friend but that I’m a safe place for them to come to.”

Sometimes a friendship develops, too.

“There have been many students who have made a difference in my life,” Becky says. “There are students who have overcome struggles that were similar to experiences I have gone through, even though I had a beautiful home life. … On a personal level, I let them know that they’re not alone and that the things they’re going through, it’s not their fault. Most importantly, that life goes beyond high school and they have a choice to break the cycle within their own families.”

NQSA Winner Marie Cetti and K-9 Uno: A Level of Companionship Like No Other

by AFSCME Staff  |  June 14, 2019

Becky Grupa comes from a family of seven brothers and sisters. She grew up outside Minneapolis and remembers riding the bus to school with her sister Victoria, who is autistic.

“She couldn’t speak, so instead she had her crying spells if she was in pain or frustrated, and some kids made fun of us,” she recalls.

The hardest thing about growing up with Victoria, though, Becky says, was “putting myself in her shoes.” The experience would prepare her for a career serving young people in her community.

Becky, a member of AFSCME Local 3331 (Council 65), is a special education paraprofessional at Rogers High School in Rogers, Minnesota, where she serves students with emotional and behavioral disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, anxiety or autism. Many come from troubled homes where they have faced more hardship than any young person ever should. What makes Becky supremely successful at her job, according to co-workers, is her ability to empathize and treat them on their own terms, as individuals.

“She just makes it so easy for kids to learn because she puts them at ease and lets them know that it’s OK if you don’t know something,” says Kristen Scott, also a special education paraprofessional. “Our special education kids are invisible sometimes, or they feel like they are, and so to have somebody see you — not because you’re not doing well or because you’re naughty, but because she sees them and recognizes them, that gives them what they don’t get in other places.”

Laura Ziebarth, a special education teacher, says Becky goes above and beyond in offering support to the students.

“One of the best qualities that Becky portrays is her nonjudgmental nature,” she says. “She is accepting of all students and recognizes that students have unique struggles, but they all need support and understanding. She is willing to sit with students and listen to their stories and offer support. … She never leaves a student without resources or an invitation to come back and talk if they need to.”

Becky has been working in special education for more than 23 years, 15 at the high school. For her service to her community and for being an inspiration to co-workers, she is a winner of AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, which recognizes public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty.

“I love going to work,” Becky says. “Every day is a fresh start for me. The key for me starting my day is to keep my eyes open, to listen and to have an open heart. That is what I pray for, that is my meditation before I come to school every morning.”   

Becky has four children of her own, all of them adults – the youngest graduated high school this year. They went to Rogers, too. She says having children of the same age as the students she serves helped her establish rapport.

“They look at me as just a mother figure,” she says of the special education students. “What I love about my job is getting to know the students, and getting to a point where they trust me, not necessarily that I have to be their friend but that I’m a safe place for them to come to.”

Sometimes a friendship develops, too.

“There have been many students who have made a difference in my life,” Becky says. “There are students who have overcome struggles that were similar to experiences I have gone through, even though I had a beautiful home life. … On a personal level, I let them know that they’re not alone and that the things they’re going through, it’s not their fault. Most importantly, that life goes beyond high school and they have a choice to break the cycle within their own families.”

NQSA Winner Marie Cetti and K-9 Uno: A Level of Companionship Like No Other

by AFSCME Staff  |  June 14, 2019

SQUARE NQSA Winner Marie Cetti and K-9 Uno: A Level of Companionship Like No Other

by AFSCME Staff  |  June 14, 2019

#NeverQuit: Tanishia Barnes

by AFSCME Staff  |  May 31, 2019

In No Uncertain Terms

May 21, 2019

EMS Week is a time to recognize the sacrifices that EMS professionals make for their communities and to honor these skilled heroes who rush into danger when we need them most. AFSCME EMS professionals play an essential role in the emergency response system, but their stories—and the wounds they suffer on the job—are often overlooked.

AFSCME Now talked to a New Mexico paramedic with a unique window into the challenges EMS professionals face. Despite those challenges, his dedication reflects the resolve of all AFSCME EMS professionals.

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Forty-five minutes east of Albuquerque, in the center of New Mexico, sits Torrance County, roughly 3,500 square miles of sparsely populated scrub land. This was AFSCME paramedic James Certain’s first beat. As one of only two paramedics in the entire county, Certain’s first foray into EMS came with unusual challenges.

“When you finish school, most people think they’re going to the big city,” says Certain, an Albuquerque native. “But things conspired to bring me out here. In most situations, you’re five minutes from the nearest hospital. My nearest hospital was about 45 minutes away.”

The scarcity of other paramedics nearby and the vast territory he had to cover meant that the 39-year-old, who works for the private ambulance company Superior Ambulance, climbed an especially steep learning curve in his rookie days.

“When you’re new and you get into rural service, the medicine part is maybe the easiest—it’s drilled into you during your training,” recalls Certain. “But when you start, you go through this horrifying moment where you realize you’re the only paramedic around. You can’t just call another unit if you need help. And our first responders are often volunteers with little training, so they’re looking to you.”

A call nearly ten years ago highlighted the importance—and the challenges—of serving in rural EMS.

Certain had shown up at a home of a man who’d been having trouble breathing.

“We’re pulling into a driveway, and the fire department had just gotten there,” he says. “They’d just initiated CPR. The guy was in cardiac arrest.”

As Certain began to examine the patient, he noticed something the volunteer firefighters had not.

“He was having an anaphylactic reaction,” he recalls. “I’m looking at this guy and I put a scope inside his mouth, and I can’t see anything. I couldn’t intubate.”

With no way to clear an airway to get the patient breathing, and with the man’s family and the fire department desperate for his help, Certain had no choice: he had to perform a cricothyrotomy, or a cric – among the rarest and most advanced procedures a paramedic can perform. It involves using a scalpel to cut open an airway in a patient’s neck.

“That was the one and only time I’ve had to do it, but I knew what I had to do,” he says.

The patient’s breathing resumed. He was going to survive. The next step, though, was to transport him to a hospital. A helicopter had arrived on scene but when they started to load him, the flight crew discovered that he was too big. Certain would have to drive him, doubling the amount of time of the journey.

Finally, after arriving at the hospital, Certain found himself having to justify the use of the lifesaving technique he’d performed to a new medical resident. Luckily, a seasoned ER physician backed him up, explaining that Certain was right to do what he did: He’d saved the patient’s life.

That experience taught him a lot about being a paramedic, and in particular, about what his life would be like as a rural EMS professional.

“You’re a leader and a teacher. You have to be a quick study and willing to help,” says Certain. The challenges of rural EMS work can be amplified by the lack of a professional network to quickly call in moments of doubt.   

After a two-year hiatus to work critical care EMS is Louisiana, Certain returned to EMS in New Mexico, splitting work between rural San Miguel County and the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Certain jokes that being a paramedic “is the best job I’d never want to do again. For me, work is never ‘work.’ I have friends who dread going to work. The one thing you learn about EMS is you either love it or hate it. If you don’t love it, you’ll quit. I’m doing what I was meant to do.”

For Certain, EMS Week is about a lot more than just thanking EMS professionals and setting aside the week to recognize their sacrifices.

“I’ve started to look at EMS Week as time to reflect as a community on what we’ve done and the tolls that we’ve paid,” he says.

Some of those tolls include EMS professionals who’ve been injured, assaulted or even killed on the job. And other sacrifices involve the emotional trauma of responding to calls involving abused children or elderly people.

These hardships, Certain reminds people, “barely make a ripple in the news.” The public needs to be made aware of them, and the EMS community needs to be given the time and resources to address them.

One of the ways Certain has tried to gain perspective and peace after a decade in EMS is learning to fly. The pursuit of a pilot’s license has allowed him to recharge and focus his energy on a new pursuit. However, wherever his new hobby takes him, Certain says EMS will remain a part of his life, keeping him grounded.

The Numbers Are In: AFSCME Members Are Sticking with Their Union

by AFSCME Staff  |  March 27, 2019

Our union gained more than 9,000 dues-paying members and nearly 19,000 dues-paying retirees in the last year, suggesting that billionaires and corporations are failing in their effort to “defund and defang” public service unions.

The numbers are in, and it’s clear that AFSCME members are sticking with their union. In our annual filing with the U.S. Department of Labor, we reported a gain of 27,735 dues-paying working members and retirees, and only a 6 percent drop in the total number of members, agency fee payers and retirees. This means that in the wake of the Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 ruling, our union retained 94 percent of workers it represents, crushing analysts’ expectations of a loss of up to 30 percent.

Barbara Jacobs: A Half Century of Service

March 18, 2019

Forty-eight years. That’s how long Barbara Jacobs has been giving her all to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, a small maritime college located in Buzzards Bay in Cape Cod.

With the exception of a short hospitalization more than 20 years ago, in 1997, Jacobs has shown up to work every day focused solely on helping the students, or cadets, as they’re called at the academy. Her title, Clerk V of the Mail Distribution Center, doesn’t begin to describe the extent of what Jacobs does at the academy, nor her commitment to it.

“She’s the epitome of the word, ‘worker,’” says her friend and fellow AFSCME Local 1067 (Council 93) member Maria Cullen, who nominated Jacobs for a Never Quit Service Award. “She has a work ethic that’s a rarity today. She’s energized and happy every single day at work.”

Jacobs is a one-person hub of the student mail room. She chats with cadets while ensuring all their mail and parcels are handled correctly, often providing – at her own expense – the tape, staples or stamps that cadets occasionally forget. For many of the cadets, some of whom come from as far away as Panama and China, Jacobs has, for the past half century, been their cheerleader and friend.

“They love her. She knows almost all of the students,” says Cullen, who works in the International Programs Office. “You hear them thanking her all the time.”

She Has Her Community’s Back; Her Union Has Hers

February 19, 2019

Amy Meredith is an assistant district attorney at the Travis County, Texas, District Attorney’s Office, and chief of the Public Integrity Unit. Over a career spanning almost two decades, she has been keeping her community safe by prosecuting some of Travis County’s most violent criminals.

Amy has tried almost 100 felony jury cases, including that of the so-called “garden rapist” Nicodemo Coria-Gonzalez, who raped at least four women; violent drivers like Rashad Owens, who intentionally drove his car into a crowd of people in 2014, killing four; and the first felony murder case in Travis County in which a drunk driver killed two children.

To her colleagues, Meredith is a leader who puts her community first and embodies our union’s never quit spirit, according to Travis County Judge Nick Chu.

A Guiding Light for New Jersey’s Blind

January 28, 2019

Copy of MN Member Rick Neyssen Proves Brains Beat Brawn

December 18, 2018

MN Member Rick Neyssen Proves Brains Beat Brawn

December 18, 2018

Minnesota’s Mark Ditsch is a Cheerful Warrior for his Community

September 10, 2018

Having a co-worker who makes coming into work fun, who stays positive during difficult times, who mentors colleagues, and who always puts his community first is a rarity. For the employees of the Carver County Public Works Department, situated 30 miles west of Minneapolis, that rare person is Mark Ditsch.

“He’s always got a positive attitude,” says Tim Meuleners, who works alongside Ditsch. “He’s always making people laugh and stepping up.”

Ditsch, an 18-year-veteran of Carver County Public Works and a member of AFSCME Local 2789 (Minnesota), Council 65, has made his positive attitude infectious, no small feat in a part of the country where snowstorms might require employees to plow snow for 16 hours straight.

“He’s a mentor to a lot of the younger guys,” adds Meuleners. “When he’s on a crew, you want to be on that crew. He’s just a fun person to be around. The younger guys really respect him. His mentality is that he lives here, and he wants to make it a better place.”

Whether they’re clearing snow during the winter and early spring, clearing culverts or patching roads during the summer, Ditsch makes an arduous job fun. Part of the reason others look up to him is because of his patience and understanding. While many seasoned veterans might get annoyed explaining how to use a piece of equipment over and over again, Ditsch never becomes frustrated and always takes his time walking new employees through what they need to know.

According to Meuleners, “He’s not one of these guys who’s going to say, ‘You should already know that.’ He’ll take the time explain it.”

Dan Pohl, who also works with Ditsch during the winter, agrees. “No matter how dumb the question, Mark is the one who’s going to guide you through it. Most people would tell you to pack sand,” jokes Pohl. “But not Mark.”

While he’s widely admired among his crew, Ditsch remains modest, a man of few words.

“I enjoy training the younger guys. I don’t lose my cool,” he says.

The former dairy farmer enjoys working in a job that keeps him moving and where the work varies.

“We’re never doing the same thing. Jobs change from week to week,” says Ditsch.

He’s not even bothered by waking at 2 a.m. during snow storms to get out and plow. In fact, it’s his favorite thing to do at work. People look up to Ditsch for a lot more than a laugh or a joke.

“He keeps us focused. He reminds us that we’re here for the safety of the public,” says Pohl. Which means that even when disagreements might arise with management, Ditsch redirects his co-workers to keep their eyes on the prize: serving their community.

We might all take a page out of Ditsch’s book: Have fun. Enjoy the people you work with. Take pride in your work and your community. That’s a simple recipe for success for any public service worker.

Never Quit Award Winner Says an Informed Public Makes for a Stronger Democracy

July 30, 2018

Theresa “Terry” Kraus is the agency historian at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Her job is to be an expert on all historical matters involving the agency, dig deep for the right context for today’s issues and policies, and help the agency learn from its past.

Her colleague, Terry Dempsey, nominated Kraus for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award. Dempsey described her as a “one-stop, one-person shop for information on the agency,” and as someone who regularly goes above and beyond the call of duty.

Kraus is a member of AFSCME Local 1653 (District Council 20) in Washington, D.C. She also has been judging the National History Day competition for junior and senior high school students for more than 35 years.

AFSCME Now: How did you get started in your career?

Kraus: I knew from a young age that I wanted to be a historian. In fact, I told my parents at the age of 10 that was what I was going to do. I always loved doing historical research, learning new things, and analyzing why things happened. I still get a thrill from working with old documents and discovering new [to me] historical materials and figuring out how everything fits together.

Can you describe your job, i.e., what you do daily?

I have one of the best jobs in the agency! Every day is a little bit different and provides me an opportunity to learn even more about the FAA. In general, I serve as the FAA’s subject matter expert on all historical matters. Like historians at other agencies, my primary role is to analyze and interpret the FAA’s past as a means of placing contemporary issues and policies within a larger context — in other words, learning from our past.

As a public service worker, describe your pride in serving your community.

I always wanted to work in the public sector. From a young age, it seemed like the ideal career. In addition to being able to do what I love, research and writing, it also allowed me to have a lot of contact with the public. I firmly believe that the more the public understands the work of our federal agencies, the better they understand the government and its responsibilities. An informed public makes our democracy stronger.

What motivates you to go the extra mile?

I’ve always been driven – perhaps the middle child syndrome. For me, it is a personal quest to be the best I can, whether personally or professionally. Also, my mom always taught me that, “If you don’t ask, you’ll never know.” This is my personal philosophy. Do not be afraid to ask the difficult questions, and if you need something, you have to advocate for yourself.

Are there any ways in which your union has helped you better serve your community?

I am so happy to be a union member. I joined our local not too long after it was organized, and over the years, I have served as a trustee and newsletter editor. When working in any bureaucracy, it’s reassuring to know the union has my back. The FAA is a great agency to work for, but, as with any large organization, there can be some challenges. The knowledge that the union is working for me allows me to concentrate on my history duties. Who could ask for more?

Never Quit Awardee Did Outstanding Work in Hurricane’s Aftermath

by AFSCME Staff  |  July 27, 2018

When the 2017 hurricane season ravaged the Caribbean and the Gulf Coast, AFSCME members were there to help rebuild their communities. People who already dedicate their lives to service stepped up and devoted more time and more resources than ever to serving others.

No one embodied this Never Quit spirit better than Ana Candelario Figueroa, a social services worker in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and member of Local 3234/ Servidores Publicos Unidos (SPU) (Council 95). As Hurricane Maria destroyed much of the island, Candelario was left in an office with no power, no Internet access, and few of the tools she uses to help the people of Puerto Rico.

But Candelario didn’t let that stop her from getting the job done. She worked twice as hard, reuniting families that were separated in the storm, delivering essential goods and doing everything in her power to help the people of her community rebuild their lives.

In honor of her incredible work and resilience, Candelario was named the 2018 AFSCME Never Quit Service Award winner at AFSCME 43^rd International Convention in Boston this month.

“We have to remember that there’s always someone in front of us who needs us. We have to put our mind, our heart, our soul, our spirit, our hands, everything we can do to rise up. Our first goal is to serve. We have a responsibility,” said an emotional Candelario, who was surprised by the honor. “I appreciate everything that you’ve done for us in Puerto Rico. I am so proud to be part of this organization.”

Her son, Jesus Antonio Candelario, was on hand to give his mother her award.

“I was lucky to have her there with me, and the people of Puerto Rico are lucky to have my mom there to work for them as we rebuild our island and our lives,’” he said. “She is not just a hero to me – she is a true hero who has dedicated her life to helping others. When I grow up, I want to help people just like my mom does.”

Local 420 Member Helps Deliver Baby in Hospital Emergency

by Diane S. Williams, DC 37  |  March 19, 2018

Although delivering babies is not part of his job description, Woodhull Hospital Service Aide William Vega says he just did what came naturally when he saw a pregnant woman and a male companion getting off a bus near the hospital one morning last fall.

“I heard screams and saw she was in distress,” said Vega, a 16-year New York City Health+Hospitals employee and Local 420 shop steward. “Through the fence I saw him trying to carry her, to hold her up. I ran into the lobby, grabbed a wheelchair and ran to help them.”

The birthing began just 10 feet from the hospital’s entrance.

“I rushed her straight to Labor and Delivery on the 7th floor,” Vega said. “As the elevator opened on seven, the baby’s head came out. The mother delivered right in front of the nurses’ station. Everyone pitched in.”

Vega was honored for his quick action at a hospital employee recognition ceremony in December.

“I don’t feel like a hero,” said Vega. “I always say, ‘It’s not a job – it’s an adventure.’ On any given day anything can happen. Just think, if I wasn’t there that baby would have been born on the cold and rainy streets instead of in a warm, clean hospital.”

Local 420 President Carmen Charles said, “Mr. Vega exemplifies the dedication and commitment our union members have to helping all New Yorkers. They make NYC Health+Hospitals, which is the largest public health care system in this country, one of the best.”

Driver’s Quick Actions Keep Students Safe

by OVE OVERMYER, CSEA  |  March 05, 2018

MAYVILLE, N.Y. – Thanks to the quick actions of Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) member and Sherman Central School District bus driver David Tenpas, 12 students are safe after their school bus experienced mechanical problems.

On Jan. 4, Tenpas, a CSEA member since 2015, was on his morning bus route with the students on board when the bus began to malfunction. Tenpas noticed the vehicle’s brakes were experiencing problems and immediately pulled the vehicle over.

According to local media reports, smoke soon appeared in the bus. Tenpas safely removed the students from the bus before it erupted into flames. No one was injured in the incident. 

“My training, experience and common sense just kicked in,” said Tenpas. “I did what I had to do.”

Sherman Central School District Superintendent Mike Ginestre credited Tenpas for his quick actions. 

“[Tenpas] noticed the brakes were running hot,” Ginestre said. “He’s a talented driver and did an excellent job getting the students off and getting them safely to another bus.”

Ginestre said a second school bus was called to the scene once the mechanical problems arose. He said students were outside for only three minutes in single-digit temperatures before they were picked up and taken to school.

After the students left, the bus became engulfed in flames, Ginestre said in local media reports. Firefighters with a local volunteer fire department that includes in its membership CSEA members extinguished the fire.

“Ensuring students safety is our No. 1 priority,” said Ginestre. “I just want to commend the bus driver and others for being there and doing the right thing.”

Mother’s Legacy Inspires Ohio State Worker to Never Quit

February 13, 2018

MAYVILLE, N.Y. – Thanks to the quick actions of Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) member and Sherman Central School District bus driver David Tenpas, 12 students are safe after their school bus experienced mechanical problems.

On Jan. 4, Tenpas, a CSEA member since 2015, was on his morning bus route with the students on board when the bus began to malfunction. Tenpas noticed the vehicle’s brakes were experiencing problems and immediately pulled the vehicle over.

According to local media reports, smoke soon appeared in the bus. Tenpas safely removed the students from the bus before it erupted into flames. No one was injured in the incident. 

“My training, experience and common sense just kicked in,” said Tenpas. “I did what I had to do.”

Sherman Central School District Superintendent Mike Ginestre credited Tenpas for his quick actions. 

“[Tenpas] noticed the brakes were running hot,” Ginestre said. “He’s a talented driver and did an excellent job getting the students off and getting them safely to another bus.”

Ginestre said a second school bus was called to the scene once the mechanical problems arose. He said students were outside for only three minutes in single-digit temperatures before they were picked up and taken to school.

After the students left, the bus became engulfed in flames, Ginestre said in local media reports. Firefighters with a local volunteer fire department that includes in its membership CSEA members extinguished the fire.

“Ensuring students safety is our No. 1 priority,” said Ginestre. “I just want to commend the bus driver and others for being there and doing the right thing.”

Finding a Home in the U.S. Through Her Service to the Community

February 12, 2018

Maria Goldberg and her family came to the United States in 2005 after they had endured ethnic and religious discrimination in Russia. They were granted refugee status here, but faced the challenge of remaking their lives.

Since then, Maria and her family have found a home in New York City. For almost two years, Maria has been a public service worker and member of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)/AFSCME Local 1000.

Maria is giving back to her community, one in which she has found not only a new home but also a new sense of purpose. Serving the public, she says, is extremely gratifying.

“I feel that if I can help another person and I can give that person hope, then I can feel how thankful they are for what I’ve done,” she says.

Maria is a secretary at the New York State Public Service Commission, where she just started a new job. Before that, she worked for the state’s Department of Labor as a senior employment security clerk.

Isaac Berkowitz, a former colleague at the Labor Department, nominated her for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award. He says Maria shows great pride in serving the public and often goes above and beyond the call of duty.

“Maria was so conscientious and dedicated when working with customers,” he says. “She was great at her job and always did her best to make sure customers got what they needed.”

In her role at the Department of Labor, Maria helped unemployed residents find jobs or apply for unemployment benefits. She used her language skills to communicate with Russian immigrants who had little familiarity with English. And she followed through on tough cases that could take weeks or months to resolve.

At her current job, she serves residents who need help with utilities-related issues.

“I like that I can help people resolve the issues that are important to them,” Maria says. “They are usually very thankful.”

‘Rockman’ Returns Home to Serve His Community

January 28, 2018

Maria Goldberg and her family came to the United States in 2005 after they had endured ethnic and religious discrimination in Russia. They were granted refugee status here, but faced the challenge of remaking their lives.

Since then, Maria and her family have found a home in New York City. For almost two years, Maria has been a public service worker and member of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)/AFSCME Local 1000.

Maria is giving back to her community, one in which she has found not only a new home but also a new sense of purpose. Serving the public, she says, is extremely gratifying.

“I feel that if I can help another person and I can give that person hope, then I can feel how thankful they are for what I’ve done,” she says.

Maria is a secretary at the New York State Public Service Commission, where she just started a new job. Before that, she worked for the state’s Department of Labor as a senior employment security clerk.

Isaac Berkowitz, a former colleague at the Labor Department, nominated her for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award. He says Maria shows great pride in serving the public and often goes above and beyond the call of duty.

“Maria was so conscientious and dedicated when working with customers,” he says. “She was great at her job and always did her best to make sure customers got what they needed.”

In her role at the Department of Labor, Maria helped unemployed residents find jobs or apply for unemployment benefits. She used her language skills to communicate with Russian immigrants who had little familiarity with English. And she followed through on tough cases that could take weeks or months to resolve.

At her current job, she serves residents who need help with utilities-related issues.

“I like that I can help people resolve the issues that are important to them,” Maria says. “They are usually very thankful.”

CSEA Member’s Quick Thinking Saves a Life

by Jessica Ladlee, CSEA  |  January 16, 2018

WHITE PLAINS, New York — While they are filling potholes one day and plowing snow the next, there are certain parts of the workday for Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) member Jay Gonzalez and his co-workers that are practically a daily ritual.

One thing you can count on is them using their afternoon break to make a quick stop at a local store to grab a drink or snack.

When they made that stop on one recent summer day, however, Gonzalez, a motor equipment operator at the City of White Plains, remained in his work truck as his co-worker went inside.

That decision may have saved a life.

Splash Medics Is Saving Children from Drowning

January 02, 2018

WHITE PLAINS, New York — While they are filling potholes one day and plowing snow the next, there are certain parts of the workday for Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) member Jay Gonzalez and his co-workers that are practically a daily ritual.

One thing you can count on is them using their afternoon break to make a quick stop at a local store to grab a drink or snack.

When they made that stop on one recent summer day, however, Gonzalez, a motor equipment operator at the City of White Plains, remained in his work truck as his co-worker went inside.

That decision may have saved a life.

Off-Duty Lifeguards Save Stranded Couple in California

by Martin Ricard, AFSCME Council 57  |  November 27, 2017

OAKLAND, Calif. – East Bay Regional Parks lifeguards are trained to protect people at the beaches, swimming pools and lagoons throughout the Northern California region. Once those recreation areas are closed for the day, those lifeguards aren’t expected to keep on working.

But that’s exactly what AFSCME Local 2428 members Jack Davis and Adam Fishbaugh did recently when they rescued two people stranded in the estuary at an Oakland park.

Their rescue was not only a sign of their bravery and dedication to the lifeguard code. It’s another example of how AFSCME members never stop serving their communities – even when they’re off the clock.

“It’s one of those things that just happened,” Davis said. “It taught me to be more aware and that anything could happen at any time. You just need to be prepared.”

Nearing Retirement, but Not Slowing Down

November 13, 2017

After 23 years working for the city of New York, Paul Spicer isn’t sure he’s ready to retire. The 65-year-old sighs and chuckles: “Maybe I’ll hold on for another year or two.”

If Spicer does stay on, his colleagues and the clients he serves as a job opportunity specialist at Rider Job Center in Bronx, New York, will be grateful. They know that he’s got their backs, offering words of support and encouragement to whoever needs it.

Spicer, a member of Social Service Employees Union Local 371 (DC 37), wears a number of hats like many of his colleagues.

“We’re case workers, social workers, psychiatrists, doctors and accountants,” says Spicer.

When a family runs the risk of eviction or a head of household loses his or her job, it’s Spicer’s job to get them back on track. But that doesn’t just mean finding his clients new jobs.

“It means making sure their kids are still going to school. That their family is getting the medical care that they need. That they’re eating. That there’s no violence in the household, drug abuse or mental health issues,” says Spicer. “It’s a lot.”

What keeps the Staten Island native going?

“I like helping people. I like seeing them get back to self-sufficiency,” says Spicer. “I get a lot of satisfaction out of seeing people reach their potential.”

She Never Quits – Not on Her Co-Workers, Not on a Stranger Mortally Injured

October 30, 2017

Emily Augustin, a legal assistant for the Multnomah County (Oregon) District Attorney’s Office, was returning home with her brother after dropping off their parents at the airport when they came upon an accident scene.

A motorcyclist was lying on the ground, unconscious. His friend was trying to remove the injured man’s helmet and backpack.

“I’d taken CPR and first aid training, and the first thing is you don’t want to move the individual,” said Augustin, a member of AFSCME Local 88 (Council 75). “You want to make sure their airway is clear and to support their neck.” 

So that’s what she did, in addition to calling 911 and giving the operator the address of a nearby business. That’s when she realized the victim had stopped breathing.

“I started doing compression,” Augustin said, referring to the act of pressing on a victim’s chest to restore breathing. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation was not advisable, she said, because “he still had blood on his mouth and nose.”

After Augustin compressed the man’s chest for a minute or two, he resumed breathing. Soon, paramedics arrived to further stabilize the man and take him to a hospital. Sadly, the 43-year-old man died from his injuries several days later, police said. 

During the crisis, Augustin said she “felt pretty calm,” which “honestly kind of surprised me.” She credits her training and experience – and a bit of luck.

“It worked out at the right time, because we were actually running a bit late,” Augustin said. “I have such a passion for helping people, no matter what the situation is, and I feel whenever I am able to help, I jump in.”

That selfless thinking and life-saving attitude is just one of the many reasons why her co-worker, Amy Bacher, nominated Augustin for an AFSCME Never Quit Service Award.

“Emily is, overall, just a really great colleague,” said Bacher, a legal assistant at the District Attorney’s office and Augustin’s fellow member at Local 88. “If it’s a busy day, she’ll ask if anyone needs help. She’s always thinking about everybody else and how she can help them.”

Augustin’s job is to help process cases for review by the District Attorney. She gets them entered into the system and ensures that the attorneys have the necessary reports, criminal histories and other required materials. That’s her day job.

She also recently went back to Portland State University to obtain a bachelors’ degree in criminology with a minor in law. And she volunteers with the District Attorney’s Office as an advocate for sexual assault victims.

“She also donates blood – literally giving of herself,” said Bacher. “Not only is she a life-saver at work, she is one in real life, too. She’s the kind of person who sees an accident by the side of the road and doesn’t think twice. I don’t think everybody would do that.”

A Father’s Words Inspire a Lifetime of Service

by AFSCME Staff  |  October 16, 2017

Bill Seedman’s father once told him the worst thing in the world is wanting to work but not being able to find a job. Today, those words are echoed in Seedman’s devotion to his work at the Connecticut Department of Social Services, where he helps deliver education and training to people seeking work.

As a SNAP consultant, he ensures struggling people in Connecticut have the benefits they need to keep their families fed. He works with partners, providers, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make sure the state’s SNAP – or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program –runs smoothly and serves as many people as possible.

But Seedman’s dedication to service means more than helping people put food on the table.

With his father’s words ringing in his ears, he works to provide SNAP recipients with access to classes at local community colleges and elsewhere to help them in their search for steady and rewarding work.

Seedman, a member of Local 714 of Council 4, has had the opportunity to witness the impact his work has made on people’s lives. He recounted the story of a single mother, a U.S. Navy veteran, who was using SNAP benefits but looking for a new career. His office helped her find a training program for medical billing and coding, and now that’s what she does for a living.

Seedman’s work affects people far beyond Connecticut. He and SNAP administrators in other states learn from each other, sharing best practices to benefit their communities.

“When I met Bill, I was totally inspired by his commitment to public service and to the union,” said AFSCME Sec.-Treas. Elissa McBride, who met Seedman at an AFSCME Council 4 Secretary-Treasurer’s training. “It is great that SNAP recipients in Connecticut have tireless advocates like Bill. On top of all he does for the public, Bill is also serving his union as a local secretary-treasurer. That’s what I call the never quit spirit.”

But like so many people in public service, Seedman’s work is threatened by potential cuts outlined in President Donald Trump’s 2018 budget, which includes a 25 percent reduction in SNAP benefits nationwide. While Seedman believes his office’s focus on education and training makes it less likely to see as large cuts as others are likely to see, he knows it will mean reducing the number of people he can serve.

His dedication to serving others, inspired by his father, has put food in children’s mouths and put people back to work. Seedman sums it up simply: “It’s a great way to help people.”

AFSCME Retirees Never Quit!

October 12, 2017

Bill Seedman’s father once told him the worst thing in the world is wanting to work but not being able to find a job. Today, those words are echoed in Seedman’s devotion to his work at the Connecticut Department of Social Services, where he helps deliver education and training to people seeking work.

As a SNAP consultant, he ensures struggling people in Connecticut have the benefits they need to keep their families fed. He works with partners, providers, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make sure the state’s SNAP – or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program –runs smoothly and serves as many people as possible.

But Seedman’s dedication to service means more than helping people put food on the table.

With his father’s words ringing in his ears, he works to provide SNAP recipients with access to classes at local community colleges and elsewhere to help them in their search for steady and rewarding work.

Seedman, a member of Local 714 of Council 4, has had the opportunity to witness the impact his work has made on people’s lives. He recounted the story of a single mother, a U.S. Navy veteran, who was using SNAP benefits but looking for a new career. His office helped her find a training program for medical billing and coding, and now that’s what she does for a living.

Seedman’s work affects people far beyond Connecticut. He and SNAP administrators in other states learn from each other, sharing best practices to benefit their communities.

“When I met Bill, I was totally inspired by his commitment to public service and to the union,” said AFSCME Sec.-Treas. Elissa McBride, who met Seedman at an AFSCME Council 4 Secretary-Treasurer’s training. “It is great that SNAP recipients in Connecticut have tireless advocates like Bill. On top of all he does for the public, Bill is also serving his union as a local secretary-treasurer. That’s what I call the never quit spirit.”

But like so many people in public service, Seedman’s work is threatened by potential cuts outlined in President Donald Trump’s 2018 budget, which includes a 25 percent reduction in SNAP benefits nationwide. While Seedman believes his office’s focus on education and training makes it less likely to see as large cuts as others are likely to see, he knows it will mean reducing the number of people he can serve.

His dedication to serving others, inspired by his father, has put food in children’s mouths and put people back to work. Seedman sums it up simply: “It’s a great way to help people.”

Off the Streets and into the Fire

October 02, 2017

Jay Richards, an assistant supervisor with Boston’s parking enforcement division, is hard-wired to having his finger on the pulse of his community. As a native Bostonian who traces his roots in the city back some 385 years – to its very founding – Boston’s residents aren’t just random strangers to Richards, they’re like members of his extended family.

After 19 years working for the City of Boston’s Department of Transportation, Richards, a member of AFSCME Local 804 (Council 93), knows that on any given day, whether he’s investigating an abandoned car or working to get illegally parked vehicles out of tow zones, what happens to Boston happens to him. 

On August 3, as he was asking residents of the North End neighborhood to move their cars for the St. Agrippina di Mineo feast taking place later in the day, someone signaled to him that there was a fire at a condominium down the street. Richards sprang into action.

“My initial thought was ‘What’s the address?’” Richards recalls. He knew that would be the first thing he’d need to have to get emergency services to the right place.

But Richards couldn’t find the address of the large condominium building adjacent to Boston Harbor. All he could see was the plume of smoke rising from its roof. He didn’t hesitate or wait for help, though. He rushed into the lobby and began knocking on doors, alerting residents to the fire.

Inside, he was joined by Boston Harbor firefighters who’d also rushed from their post nearby. With the elevators turned off because of the fire, the group of impromptu heroes began climbing one steep flight of stairs after another, searching for the remaining residents.

A Routine Job Becomes a Job to Save a Life

September 18, 2017

Repairing a fire hydrant is the kind of necessary, but routine, work that public service employees perform every day. That’s what Garland Paynther and James Ingram were doing when a car on the nearby expressway crashed into a retaining wall. Their quick action saved the driver’s life.

On May 31, while working on that hydrant, the two Akron (Ohio) city water department employees noticed a car barreling off the nearby expressway off-ramp “about 20 feet from where we were working,” recalled Ingram, a water maintenance worker for the past 18 years and a member of AFSCME Local 1360 (Council 8).

The driver, he added, “shot across oncoming traffic, jumped the curb over the freeway overpass and hit the retaining wall, and ricocheted off that.”

“I grabbed my radio and called for help and we ran over to the car,” said Paynther, an equipment operator also employed by the city for 18 years, and who serves as grievance chairman for the same local.

They both ran to help.

“When we got to the car, we saw him slumped over and he wasn't moving,” said Paynther.

Ingram turned off the ignition while Paynther checked the driver’s weak pulse.

“Then I noticed he was changing colors,” Ingram said. “We knew we had to do something, so we pulled him out of the car and took turns doing CPR on him until the ambulance got there.”

“He told me to start applying CPR and chest compression,” added Ingram, who had learned the skills through the city about six months earlier, but had never had to use it to save a life. Now he was.

The driver regained consciousness, then lost it and regained it several times as the men worked to keep him alive. They stopped only when paramedics arrived and took over. The victim survived.

“Just instinct” Paynther said in response to a question about what made him respond the way he did. “It’s just instinct to want to help somebody. Plus, I'm retired military, and been in a couple wars, so I had a little training.”

“I’m glad to be in that position to help,” said Ingram. “I just hope I’m never in that position again.” 

The City of Akron expressed its appreciation on June 5 when Mayor Dan Horrigan presented the two with letters of special commendation. They each read:

“As a first responder to the scene, you took action and administered CPR until the medical unit arrived. Your selfless act clearly illustrates the dedication and commitment we have among our City of Akron employees. Thank you for your dedicated and loyal service to our community.”

AFSCME thanks them too. They demonstrate the commitment to their community that AFSCME members show every day, in ways both routine and extraordinary. 

Finding A Home Through His Public Service

September 05, 2017

It was Christmas eve and Alex Hamilton was getting ready to go home. Then the call came.

Hamilton is a maintenance worker for Sacramento public housing and a member of AFSCME Local 146 (Council 57). The caller said she was trying to cook dinner for relatives arriving the next day but her oven didn’t work.

Hamilton knew this wouldn’t be a quick fix. By the time he got downtown his shift would be over, and his employer wasn’t going to pay him overtime. He could’ve refused to help the caller, but that’s not him.

“I ended up getting out of there past 8 o’clock at night and I certainly didn’t get paid overtime, but I got her oven up and running again, and I felt good about it,” Hamilton says. “I wasn’t going to let anyone down in a situation like that.”

Minnesota Workers Save Plane Crash Victim

by Lynette Kalsnes, AFSCME Minnesota Council 5  |  August 22, 2017

Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) worker Doug Zarling was driving down the highway when he noticed something strange out of the corner of his eye. 

He saw a tiny plane taking off from the local airport, and it was going a little slowly.

“He wasn’t climbing, not going higher at all. He wasn’t taking off like he wanted to go somewhere,” Zarling says. “I was wondering what he was doing. He just banked to the right. That’s when he pretty much went straight down in the dirt.” 

Zarling’s co-worker, Erik Fitzgerald, was right behind him. The pair called 911, then dashed to the site of the wreckage.

“We could hear him in there yelling for help,” Zarling says, recalling the June 20 crash in Mahnomen, near the Minnesota-North Dakota border.

Fitzgerald talked to the pilot and asked how he was doing. They noticed the plane was leaking gas.

“We figured we’d better get him out of there,” Zarling says. “We unbuckled him and dragged him out 50 to 75 feet away from the plane.” 

A few more people arrived and shut off the gas from the plane.

“I’m just glad it didn’t blow up or anything,” Zarling says. “It was good we got him out of there. It could have caught fire.”

The patient was airlifted to a hospital in Fargo, N.D.

Zarling, a transportation specialist who works as a chief inspector on construction projects, has been with MnDOT for 41 years. He started out as a student worker like Fitzgerald. Zarling’s a trustee with AFSCME Local 637.

He brushes aside any notion their actions were heroic.

“I didn’t think it was heroic – I just wanted to make sure the pilot got out of plane,” Zarling says. “Anyone else would have done the same thing. Good thing I was in the right place at the right time.”

To read more about the rescue, go here.

Somali Refugee Is Like a Mother to Her Community

August 21, 2017

To Hawo Gurey, a Minneapolis child care provider, her work is not just a job – it’s a calling. Gurey’s journey to public service isn’t one you hear every day and it’s clear that service is an essential part of who she is. 

Gurey is a refugee from Somalia. In 1991, a civil war broke out. A nurse at the time, she healed victims of the fighting. But soon the violence came to Gurey’s doorstep. Militia members murdered her mother and Gurey was shot in the shoulder.

She fled with her children, then aged 7, 6, 5 and 4 to a refugee camp in Kenya. There, despite the terrible conditions – no running water or electricity – Gurey volunteered to treat the ill and the wounded. In 1995, after four years at the camp, Gurey and her family were resettled in Minnesota.

“No one wants to leave their homeland unless they have to,” she says. 

Gurey, who had never seen snow before coming to the United States, says nothing can prepare you for landing in the middle of a cold Minnesota winter.

“I remember the caseworker from the resettlement agency telling me it’s like being in the inside of a refrigerator,” she says, chuckling.

Gurey, a member of Local 3400 (Minnesota Council 5), soon found purpose in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, the heart of the Somali-American community in Minneapolis.

“I wanted to be there for my children when they left for school, and when they came home,” she says.

That motherly instinct and her commitment to serve those around her led Gurey to open a day care center at her home. In 2001, it became the first Somali-run day care center licensed by the state of Minnesota.

“I remember seeing many young mothers in the community and they needed help,” she says. “I’ve created a community within my house.”

Gurey can’t put an exact number on the children she has taken care of, but it numbers in the thousands. And, like 19-year-old college student Aisha Farah, they come back to visit.

“Hawo is a mom to me – she's clearly a mom to the community, and she empowers me to be a powerful woman because she's a powerful woman,” says Farah, adding that Gurey inspired her to become a nurse. 

Gurey has imparted her commitment to service to her children. One works in information technology for a hospital, another works for the state of Minnesota, another for Hennepin County, and the fourth is a nurse.

“The thinking they got from me is what led them to be ambassadors to help everyone from every background – to help people within the Twin Cities area,” says Gurey. 

Gurey hasn’t been back to Somalia since she left. It’s still too dangerous to return. Even if she could, she says, “My home is Minnesota. I’m American.”

If, one day, Somalia does become safer, Hawo says, “I’ll bring my union back with me.”

For now, she will continue serving her community tirelessly, like the loving mother she’s become to so many around her. And those brutal Minnesota winters? Gurey says, “Now, they are nothing. It wouldn’t be Minnesota without the cold.”

Custodial Heroes Save a Student’s Life

August 07, 2017

Shortly after the last class was dismissed at Cañada College near San Mateo, California, the custodial staff of Local 829 (Council 57) began to make their usual rounds. It was shortly past 10 p.m., and the bustle of daily campus life had calmed into a still summer night. 

The staff spread out on campus to work in their assigned buildings, when one long-serving custodian, Giao Van Bui (who goes by “BG”), noticed a student wandering around alone.

“Are you OK?” BG asked. 

“I’m fine,” she responded.

BG cautiously proceeded with his work, but felt uneasy about the student’s behavior. When she took out a piece of rope from her backpack, he knew something might be deeply wrong. Minutes later, he checked on her to make sure she was OK, only to find she had attempted suicide.

Frantically, he summoned his team on the radio. Local 829 members Carlos Mendez, King Lau, Edgar Nelmida, Jimmy Chow, Tuong Lu and Rosendo Zamora, along with Custodial Supervisor Ignacio Carlos responded and called 911. During a tense situation, Mendez, the lead custodian, reacted quickly to help the student down.

“I have sisters who are around the student’s age, and I also have a daughter and I thought about them. So I just wanted to save the student and get her down. That’s the only thing that crossed my mind,” Mendez recalled in an interview.

Shortly thereafter, first responders arrived and began providing care. Later that night, the custodians and staff were relieved to learn they had saved the student’s life. 

This Member Doesn’t See Himself a Hero. Everyone Else Does

July 24, 2017

It was going to be a special day and John Marciel had it all planned: He and his family would attend his eldest son’s high school graduation. Then they would relax at the Centerville Beach near Ferndale, California, about 260 miles north of San Francisco.

Saving a stranger’s life was not on the agenda.

Marciel, a Eureka resident and a member of AFSCME Local 1684 (Council 57), is a Humboldt County traffic control maintenance worker whose job is essential for driver safety: He paints the center lines and other safety markings on roads, installs reflective “rumble strips” that warn drivers when they’re leaving their lane and maintains traffic signs.

Marciel’s bravery – plus his familiarity with those traffic signs – is what saved the life of an 11-year-old child.

A Game Show Jackpot Will Change His Life – But Not His Public-Service Job

by Clyde Weiss and Anders Lindall  |  July 19, 2017

AFSCME member Delvar Dopson and his wife, Bonnie, hit it big.

They recently won nearly $400,000 on the NBC television game show “The Wall.” But the Bloomington, Illinois, sanitation worker says he’s sticking with his job despite the windfall, proving once again that AFSCME members never quit – not their union and not the communities they proudly serve every day.

“The Wall experience, of course, gave us a financial cushion, but we have always said that we would continue to work our jobs,” Dopson says, “and for me, serve the communities of Bloomington.”

Christopher Cummings Never Quits

July 12, 2017

AFSCME member Delvar Dopson and his wife, Bonnie, hit it big.

They recently won nearly $400,000 on the NBC television game show “The Wall.” But the Bloomington, Illinois, sanitation worker says he’s sticking with his job despite the windfall, proving once again that AFSCME members never quit – not their union and not the communities they proudly serve every day.

“The Wall experience, of course, gave us a financial cushion, but we have always said that we would continue to work our jobs,” Dopson says, “and for me, serve the communities of Bloomington.”

New York Librarian Brings Books to Homeless Children

July 10, 2017

At a time when public services, including libraries, are under attack, it’s up to AFSCME members who never quit, people like Colbert Nembhard, to keep our communities strong.

Nembhard, a member of AFSCME Local 1930 (DC 37), is a branch manager for the New York Public Library system and a leader in bringing library services to homeless children.

Eight years ago, he began visiting the Crotona Inn homeless shelter in the borough of Bronx for a family literacy workshop. The children gathered with their parents and Nembhard read library books to them, taught them children’s songs and gave their parents educational tips for improved interaction.

NYC EMTs Help Panic-Stricken Riders of Derailed Subway Train

by Alfredo Alvarado, AFSCME DC 37  |  July 05, 2017

NEW YORK – A train heading downtown during the morning rush hour derailed at the West 125th Street station in Harlem last week, ramming into a concrete wall causing a small fire in the tunnel. The accident left hundreds of panic-stricken passengers stranded underground in the dark on stalled trains, causing the transit system to be disrupted for several hours.

But AFSCME-represented public service workers resolved the situation with their customary calm professionalism.

Emergency Medical Technician Tuanika Brown and her partner, Ricky Delgado, arrived at the scene of the “A” train crash within a couple of minutes and began evacuating passengers from the station and providing first aid.

Feeling Fortunate, Paying it Forward

June 19, 2017

The way Margaret Smolko sees it, if you’re lucky enough to have a job as rewarding as hers, then you owe it to your community to give back.

That’s why for the past 18 years, Smolko, a residential services aide at Pennsylvania’s Ebensburg State Center, a facility for people with intellectual disabilities, has been a source of inspiration for her colleagues and the residents she serves.

Smolko helps people with a range of disabilities accomplish, as she put it, “the daily tasks of living.” For some residents, that might mean something as simple as helping them comb their hair or brush their teeth. For others, however, whose disabilities are more severe, her job entails everything from bathing to dressing to feeding.

Complicating matters is the fact that residents at Ebensburg range from 18-89, so the variety of assistance people need can vary greatly, making Smolko’s job that much more challenging. 

But according to Breanna Schellhammer, another aide at Ebensburg, Smolko doesn’t let anything stand in her way. That’s why she nominated Smolko for AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award.

“She always goes above and beyond in her work. She works full time, overtime, and she’s always putting together fundraisers. She’s really inspirational,” said Schellhammer.

Recently, Smolko, a member of Local 2407 (Council 13), along with her fellow AFSCME members working at Ebensburg Center, organized a fundraiser for a colleague with brain cancer.

“She made pierogis, bought all the supplies and organized everyone,” said Schellhammer.

More than just supporting a colleague in need, Smolko said, “The people I work with are all my family. If someone is in need, we help them.”

Laura Fulmer Takes Her Job Seriously. Her Community Loves Her for It

June 05, 2017

Laura Fulmer is all of 5-foot-3, but as the sole housing code enforcement officer for Youngstown, Ohio, she stands far taller. With courage and a sense of duty that impresses others, she places herself in harm’s way to ensure that the city’s residents can live in peace and be proud of their neighborhoods.

“When she drives down the street, people start cleaning up their yards. Good people cheer her when they see her,” said Karen Humphries, accounts coordinator in the city’s finance department and vice president of AFSCME Local 2312 (Council 8). “Everybody is just in awe of her. Thank God she’s here for the city.”

About five years ago, Humphries and her neighbors asked law enforcement to get rid of a family that was living illegally in a run-down house and terrorizing the neighborhood. But the police and sheriff didn’t get rid of them, but Fulmer was able to get the job done.

Fulmer said the family had illegally tapped the water supply and was dealing drugs. “The kids were stealing, there were a lot of broken-down cars” on the property, she recalled. Authorities also received allegations of spousal and child abuse.

She arrived with a backup police officer early one morning and told a male occupant that the place was filthy as a pigsty and smelled like one, too, and informed him she was shutting off the water. 

Delaware Member Finds Kids Safe Harbor

May 22, 2017

If you ask Tim Dennison what he does for a living, he’ll tell you that he’s a family service specialist for the state of Delaware. “I find kids permanent, caring homes,” he says modestly. His responsibilities, though, are far more complex than his title suggests.

Dennison’s job begins when the court system decides that a child’s parents are no longer competent enough for the child to return home. At that point, Dennison, a 27-year-old from Milford, Delaware, begins the taxing process of trying to match a child with the best, most suitable adoptive families available.

“The families these kids come from have hit rock bottom. They’ve lived lives of instability, turmoil and chaos. Something has gone wrong along the way,” Dennison says.

That something, more often than not, is drugs. Dennison and his colleagues in the Division of Family Services see the impact of the opioid epidemic every day.

“Nine out of 10 cases we see are opiate abuse by the parents,” Dennison says. “It’s sobering. You’re seeing families at their very worst. It puts life in perspective.” 

At Belleview Elementary, Van DeVries Is a Hero to Many

May 19, 2017

If you ask Tim Dennison what he does for a living, he’ll tell you that he’s a family service specialist for the state of Delaware. “I find kids permanent, caring homes,” he says modestly. His responsibilities, though, are far more complex than his title suggests.

Dennison’s job begins when the court system decides that a child’s parents are no longer competent enough for the child to return home. At that point, Dennison, a 27-year-old from Milford, Delaware, begins the taxing process of trying to match a child with the best, most suitable adoptive families available.

“The families these kids come from have hit rock bottom. They’ve lived lives of instability, turmoil and chaos. Something has gone wrong along the way,” Dennison says.

That something, more often than not, is drugs. Dennison and his colleagues in the Division of Family Services see the impact of the opioid epidemic every day.

“Nine out of 10 cases we see are opiate abuse by the parents,” Dennison says. “It’s sobering. You’re seeing families at their very worst. It puts life in perspective.” 

Alaska Trooper Wins AFSCME Award, and Governor Takes Notice

by Kevin Brown and Pablo Ros  |  May 08, 2017

Anne Sears, an Alaska state trooper and member of AFSCME Public Safety Employees Association (Local 803), is a recent winner of the AFSCME Never Quit Service Award for her extraordinary service helping victims of domestic violence and of child abuse.

Her dedication has earned her respect not just from her union but also from the governor of her state.

In villages and cities throughout the state, Sears helps protect the most vulnerable members of our communities.

“You hear about all the horrible things people do,” Sears told AFSCME for a recent article. “It’s exhausting.”

Her job may be emotionally draining, but she can’t imagine doing anything else.

“Somebody’s got to do it,” she says. “It might as well be me. I have the will to take on their tragedy.”

At a recent ceremony to honor Sears for receiving the Never Quit Service Award, elected officials took notice. Fairbanks Mayor Jim Matherly attended in person, and Alaska Gov. Bill Walker sent a letter of congratulations.

A Second Chance – to Live, Serve and Save a Life

April 24, 2017

Christopher Cummings’ life is a study in contrasts.

Where he was once homeless and alone, he is now a husband and father of four. Where he once ate out of a garbage can, he is now a proud public service worker who drives a garbage truck for Miami-Dade County, Florida. Where he once “ran around doing wrong,” he now serves his community on those very same streets and neighborhoods, helping make his community a better, cleaner place every day.

“Twenty years ago, God gave me a second chance,” says Cummings, 52, a member of Local 3292 (AFSCME Florida). “I take every day of my life seriously. Whatever I can do to help anybody, that’s what I do.”

On his birthday, March 21, Cummings considered taking the day off. Little did he know that instead he would find another opportunity to make the most of his second chance.

It was about 10:30 in the morning, and Cummings was a few hours into his shift, driving his garbage truck in Northwest Miami. Suddenly, he says, he saw a police car on a high-speed chase crash into another vehicle and flip over.

“My first instinct was to think that somebody needed my help,” Cummings said. “So I stopped what I was doing and I went over to help. By the time I got there the officer was yelling, ‘Get me out, get me out!’ The car was in bad shape, I had to bend the door frame to pull him out. I grabbed his bulletproof vest and pulled him, and was able to bring him to safety. I’m glad I was able to help.”

To Cummings, God works in mysterious ways.

“I remember at one time, I didn’t care about a life,” he says. “And now here I am, able to save a life.”

A Second Chance – to Live, Serve, and Save a Life

April 24, 2017

Christopher Cummings’ life is a study in contrasts.

Where he was once homeless and alone, he is now a husband and father of four. Where he once ate out of a garbage can, he is now a proud public service worker who drives a garbage truck for Miami-Dade County, Florida. Where he once “ran around doing wrong,” he now serves his community on those very same streets and neighborhoods, helping make his community a better, cleaner place every day.

“Twenty years ago, God gave me a second chance,” says Cummings, 52, a member of Local 3292 (AFSCME Florida). “I take every day of my life seriously. Whatever I can do to help anybody, that’s what I do.”

On his birthday, March 21, Cummings considered taking the day off. Little did he know that instead he would find another opportunity to make the most of his second chance.

It was about 10:30 in the morning, and Cummings was a few hours into his shift, driving his garbage truck in Northwest Miami. Suddenly, he says, he saw a police car on a high-speed chase crash into another vehicle and flip over.

“My first instinct was to think that somebody needed my help,” Cummings said. “So I stopped what I was doing and I went over to help. By the time I got there the officer was yelling, ‘Get me out, get me out!’ The car was in bad shape, I had to bend the door frame to pull him out. I grabbed his bulletproof vest and pulled him, and was able to bring him to safety. I’m glad I was able to help.”

To Cummings, God works in mysterious ways.

“I remember at one time, I didn’t care about a life,” he says. “And now here I am, able to save a life.”

For his bravery, Cummings was recognized by the Miami-Dade County government and honored with a proclamation. He also was given AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, which honors public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty.

Marcellous Stringer, a fellow sanitation truck driver and vice president of Local 3292, nominated Cummings for the Never Quit Service Award.

“For those of us who know him, it is somewhat unsurprising that he did it because that is who he is – someone who is always there saying a kind work, ready to help a coworker or neighbor, always willing to go the extra step because he knows how blessed each day on Earth really is,” Stringer said.

Cummings met the officer a month after the crash.

“It brought tears to my eyes,” Cummings said. “Just to see him and give him a hug. It was nice.”

Cummings says the officer called him “a brother for life,” and thanked him “for being there at the right time.”

The Miami-Dade Police Department declined to identify the officer.

Not just anyone would have reacted to a life-threatening situation the way Cummings did. When he ran over to help, he says, he wasn’t worried for his own safety: “I wasn’t thinking about me at the time, I was thinking about him.”

Cummings’s heroism isn’t limited to this one day. Public service workers like him never quit on their communities. They sacrifice daily, serving the public with pride to make our streets and neighborhoods cleaner, safer and better. And that’s what makes them true heroes.

Jimmie Rook of IA Brightens Vets’ Days Despite Hurdles

by Pete Levine  |  April 13, 2017

Christopher Cummings’ life is a study in contrasts.

Where he was once homeless and alone, he is now a husband and father of four. Where he once ate out of a garbage can, he is now a proud public service worker who drives a garbage truck for Miami-Dade County, Florida. Where he once “ran around doing wrong,” he now serves his community on those very same streets and neighborhoods, helping make his community a better, cleaner place every day.

“Twenty years ago, God gave me a second chance,” says Cummings, 52, a member of Local 3292 (AFSCME Florida). “I take every day of my life seriously. Whatever I can do to help anybody, that’s what I do.”

On his birthday, March 21, Cummings considered taking the day off. Little did he know that instead he would find another opportunity to make the most of his second chance.

It was about 10:30 in the morning, and Cummings was a few hours into his shift, driving his garbage truck in Northwest Miami. Suddenly, he says, he saw a police car on a high-speed chase crash into another vehicle and flip over.

“My first instinct was to think that somebody needed my help,” Cummings said. “So I stopped what I was doing and I went over to help. By the time I got there the officer was yelling, ‘Get me out, get me out!’ The car was in bad shape, I had to bend the door frame to pull him out. I grabbed his bulletproof vest and pulled him, and was able to bring him to safety. I’m glad I was able to help.”

To Cummings, God works in mysterious ways.

“I remember at one time, I didn’t care about a life,” he says. “And now here I am, able to save a life.”

For his bravery, Cummings was recognized by the Miami-Dade County government and honored with a proclamation. He also was given AFSCME’s Never Quit Service Award, which honors public service workers who go above and beyond the call of duty.

Marcellous Stringer, a fellow sanitation truck driver and vice president of Local 3292, nominated Cummings for the Never Quit Service Award.

“For those of us who know him, it is somewhat unsurprising that he did it because that is who he is – someone who is always there saying a kind work, ready to help a coworker or neighbor, always willing to go the extra step because he knows how blessed each day on Earth really is,” Stringer said.

Cummings met the officer a month after the crash.

“It brought tears to my eyes,” Cummings said. “Just to see him and give him a hug. It was nice.”

Cummings says the officer called him “a brother for life,” and thanked him “for being there at the right time.”

The Miami-Dade Police Department declined to identify the officer.

Not just anyone would have reacted to a life-threatening situation the way Cummings did. When he ran over to help, he says, he wasn’t worried for his own safety: “I wasn’t thinking about me at the time, I was thinking about him.”

Cummings’s heroism isn’t limited to this one day. Public service workers like him never quit on their communities. They sacrifice daily, serving the public with pride to make our streets and neighborhoods cleaner, safer and better. And that’s what makes them true heroes.

A Friend Never Quits on a Friend, or a Co-Worker. That’s Why He’s a Hero

by Clyde Weiss  |  March 27, 2017

The snow had fallen 9 inches in Red Wing, Minn., on Feb. 24. At the city’s wastewater treatment plant, snow packed down by vehicles had become “glare ice,” said Dan Johnson, an assistant wastewater treatment operator who also goes by D.J.

A member of AFSCME Local 737 (Council 65), D.J. was out in that snow and ice along with his co-workers, including Gordy Boldt, a utility operator in his early 60s, and former president of the local.

When Boldt’s plow truck got stuck in the snow and ice, D.J. and a seasonal worker called Jason Key fetched a tractor to pull it out. That’s when Boldt walked down the driveway and slipped on the ice.

“He went straight down and slid like a board,” D.J. recalled. “Gordy jumps up, brushes off and swears it hurts.” 

Later, when Key congratulated Boldt for pulling the truck from the snow, Boldt said, “What truck?”

Key thought he was joking. But Boldt insisted that he hadn’t pulled a truck from the snow and then denied other events that had happened to him that morning. Exasperated, Key took Boldt to see D.J. and said, “You gotta talk to Gordy. Gordy can’t remember anything,”

“I go, seriously, tell me that you’re OK. Do you remember hitting your head? He says, ‘I never fell,’” D.J. said.

D.J. examined his friend’s head and eyes, looking for a neurological abnormality like dilated pupils. Sadly, he had experience in this area. His son had died of a neurological condition at the age of 7.

D.J. knew he needed to get his friend to the hospital fast. At the emergency room, a doctor diagnosed a concussion and said it was “really good we got him there as fast as we could,” D.J. said.

Released that night, Boldt did not return to work for about six days, and still has no memory of the events of that snowy day. But he’s back to normal and jokes about forgetting to do this or that, D.J. said.

Dedication to your job and your community is also about being dedicated to your co-workers and workplace safety. By making sure his co-worker got the attention he needed, D.J. displayed a never quit attitude. His story demonstrates yet again why we say AFSCME members never quit – not on their community, not on their jobs and not on their co-workers.

AFSCME Never Quit Service Award.

“It’s a pretty tight-knit crew,” Drotos said of the wastewater plant workers. “We were all concerned and appreciative that D.J. did the right thing and got Gordy hospital care as soon as possible, which is the most important thing.”

D.J. said, “I wasn’t looking for recognition. I know if it was me, he would have done the same.” Nevertheless, he added, “It’s an honor.”

Do you know someone deserving of a Never Quit Service Award? Click here to nominate that AFSCME member.