Brome Hill

Stories and more from an old Iowa farm boy and recovering newsman

Tag Archives: Tom Curry


by 2 Comments

Hi, ho, hi, ho — there was plenty of work to go … around at MCSA

Olmes Medrano, an employee for North Construction, works to install a security door in the hallway that leads to staff offices at Muscatine Center for Social Action.

Olmes Medrano, an employee for North Construction, works to install a security door in the hallway that leads to staff offices at Muscatine Center for Social Action.

Let’s put today at MCSA in the file labeled busy.

Or maybe hectic.

Regardless of the adjective you choose, this post was written to the accompaniment of electric drills and saws. A scorecard was almost needed to keep track of the workers and jobs they were tackling. For a while today, they included workers from:

  • Trane Heating and Air Conditioning Services & Systems, who fixed a furnace problem in the Family Shelter.
  • Lucas Communicatons, who will be installing a new telephone system.
  • North Construction, who are finishing a renovation of the bathroom in the Emergency Shelter and have begun installing a new security door at the front desk in the lobby.
  • Nelson Electric, which sent Beau Nelson, one of my buddies at the Muscatine Community Y, to do electrical work for the new security door.
Tom Curry, left, MCSA building manager, works with resident Michael Vivians to empty out the Learning Center at MCSA.

Tom Curry, left, MCSA building manager, works with resident Michael Vivians to empty out the Learning Center at MCSA.

In addition to that flurry of activity, Tom Curry, the MCSA building manager, moved computers out of the Learning Center, which is the first part of a project that will:

  • Divide the Learning Center in half while managing to keep all 10 of its computers in use for MCSA residents and the public.
  • Move three employees into a new office in the other half of the former Learning Center.
  • Move me into the office that adjoins the office of MCSA Executive Director Maggie Curry.
  • Move Teresa Cardoza, an MCSA caseworker, into my old office.
  • Open up Cardoza’s old office, which will become shelter space for families.

And in addition to everything else, I met with the MCSA Marketing Committee, a new resident moved into one of the rooms in the Men’s Dorms and a mom and her daughter moved into the Family Shelter. Oh, and my friend, Danelle Much, the Family Nutrition Program Assistant for Iowa State University Extension in Muscatine and Louisa counties, met with some residents of the Family Shelter for a new program on healthy lifestyle choices.

All in all, just another day at the office. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.


by Leave a comment

Give me an ‘A’

MCSA IIThis post is the result of a perfect storm whose conditions include my:

  • Needing to blog about something.
  • Being asked today by a friend on Facebook: Did you find your ‘A’ yet?
  • Getting heckled over the weekend about the missing ‘A’ on the southeast side of the MCSA building at 312 Iowa Ave.

For those who don’t know, here is what the folks in my former profession would call the nut graph: Since 1991, MCSA — or the Muscatine Center for Social Action — has been the homeless shelter in Muscatine, Iowa.  As of today, it is home to 49 adults and 10 children. It’s where I have been deputy director since late October.

MCSA ISome people may have wondered about the nonprofit shelter’s name if they approached the building from the south. That’s because the ‘A’ on that side of the building is missing. It fell off two or three weeks ago and shattered into several pieces. The matching sign on the north side of the building remains in place and intact.

Building coordinator Tom Curry picked up the pieces and has ordered a replacement ‘A’ from the business that installed the signs a couple of years ago. The missing ‘A’ will be reinstalled as soon as possible.

And that means there is no truth to what I was jokingly (at least I think it was meant as a joke) asked this weekend: So when is the ‘M’ going to fall off so that you’ll just have your initials on the side of the building?

As comedian Dana Carvey might have said while doing his imitation of the first President George Bush: Not gonna happen. Wouldn’t be prudent.

With any luck, we will have the sign fixed very soon.


by 3 Comments

A moving day in an unexpected way

A few thoughts from Day No. 3 as deputy director at Muscatine Center for Social Action …

Tom Curry

By the end of the day, I was moved into my new office, where the computer and everything works. This wouldn’t have happened if not for Tom Curry, the building coordinator at MCSA. You know you’ve got great new co-workers when one of them leaves at mid-afternoon for a doctor’s appointment, where he was diagnosed with bronchitis. But instead of getting a prescription filled and going home for the rest of the day, Tom came back and worked several hours until my office was set up.

In addition to wrestling with the computer and its spider web of cords and cables, we had to move a fair amount of somewhat-heavy office furniture out into the hall so the desk could be put where I wanted it. Of course, that meant some of the furniture then had to be moved back into the office.

In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a big lug. If I’ve ever been really good at just one thing it might be picking up and carrying heavy objects. For as long as I can remember, I’ve often been the first person called when family or friends needed to move something. I’m joking a bit, but as a teenager, my dad often greeted me by saying, “Chris, pick that up and move it.”

All of this makes a little thing that happened Wednesday stand out.  In his job as building coordinator, Tom often works with some of the residents of the men’s shelter at MCSA. They help with cleaning and other chores — provide a little muscle when it’s needed.

Wednesday, a couple of them literally wouldn’t let me help move something heavy that I wanted moved. I can’t really remember when that has ever happened before.

I’m learning that some of my friends in Muscatine don’t know much about what happens at MCSA. And some Muscatine residents, if they even think of MCSA, may have a negative image. I want them to know about my experience Wednesday.

The residents at MCSA are people — the same as you or me. They make mistakes. They are capable of learning from their mistakes. They also are capable of doing good even if they sometimes don’t. They want to feel appreciated, liked, respected.

I don’t know how else to explain the sight of watching three men I had just met moving a credenza for me AND making sure I couldn’t help them.

Theirs is a story I’m going to help tell until it is known by everyone in Muscatine.


by 8 Comments

Hand job: Disovering the ulnar bursa

MUSCATINE, Iowa — The moral of today’s story is: It stinks to get old.

Of course, the story itself is longer than five words and I’m going to work through the pain to type them all.

The beginning: Sunday night, Maggie Curry, executive director of the Muscatine Center for Social Action, sent an email in which she asked if I’d be available Monday to help move some furniture.

Sepp and Leona Fortenbacher of Muscatine had donated some furniture, Maggie said, for a family being counseled by Barb Fick, MCSA’s community resource  coordinator and housing advocate. Maggie said her husband, Tom, who is also head of maintenance at MCSA, might need some help picking up the donated items, which would be big and heavy.

In no particular order, I think Maggie asked if I could help because she knows I am:

1. On the board of MCSA.

2. Unemployed at the moment and not as busy as I might be otherwise.

3. Kind of a big lug who has often been asked through the years if I could help move furniture.

To make a long story short, Tom, three other volunteers and I spent about two hours picking up a bedroom set, a sofa and a love seat.

So why does it stink to get old? Mainly because I can barely make fists this morning with both hands. My typing is a little slower than normal.

Some of the bedroom furniture, in particular, was heavy and hard to hold while working it through doors and hallways. And I can tell you my hands and fingers were carrying too much weight and my arms, shoulders, back and legs weren’t carrying enough. With some trepidation, I must confess it appears my hands have been overlooked in the extra time I’ve been spending lately at the gym.

I say all of this reluctantly because I have friends who are:

1. Family-practice doctors who may read this only to tell me I’ve done some kind of damage to tendons in my fingers or to the ulnar bursa (which is where most of the soreness appears to be located, based on my reading of the accompanying graph.)  Note: BTW, did you know there are no actual muscles in your hands? I didn’t until I started working on this. The muscles we use to operate our hands are in our wrists and arms.

2. Fitness and trainer-types at the Muscatine Community Y who will no doubt have something worked up by the next time they see me to improve my hand strength.

I can hardly wait for that even if I am hoping Maggie doesn’t call again for at least a day or two.

Actually, I was happy to help. And thank you, Sepp and Leona, for your very nice donation to MCSA.

Today’s quote: One can be the master of what one does, but never of what one feels. — Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (1821-80)

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 1,334 other followers