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Saturday, April 29, 2006
Helping someone can be simple
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
They met at Bally Total Fitness.
Ray Rook works out at the Norcross gym. Michael Hyler worked there as a porter. Sometimes the two would chat.
Rook, a retired IRS branch chief, was impressed with the 19-year-old Hyler. His work ethic. His mannerisms. This affable young man, Rook surmised, could do better. He told him so.
Last fall, Rook stopped by the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Lilburn to buy some shaving lotion. He struck up a conversation with an assistant manager. He told him about Hyler, a hard worker stuck in a dead-end job.
“He said, ‘Send him to me,’ ” Rook said.
Hyler dropped by, filled out an application and took a drug test. He got hired five months ago and works in the warehouse. He’s since gotten a raise and a promotion. He’s eyeing management, possibly as an assistant manager of a department.
Chalk it up to personal initiative — his and Rook’s.
“If he doesn’t come by the store, he’ll call me or I will call him,” said Hyler, a Chicagoan who lives in Lawrenceville with his mom. “Every time I talk to him or see him, I tell him thanks for helping out.”
Rook was 17 when he got his first job. He worked as a clerk with the War Department. It was 1945. A female supervisor showed him the ropes, ensured that he didn’t fail. Other bosses and supervisors did likewise during stints with the North Carolina National Guard, followed by decades with the IRS.
According to Wikipedia, the phrase “pay it forward” first appeared in Catherine Ryan Hyde’s novel, “Pay It Forward.” Warner Brothers made a movie that carried the same name. As a philosophy, it generally means exhibiting a desire to help others because you, at some point, have or will receive help.
Rook, now 78 and retired since 1983, is paying it forward.
“I would like to see Mike advance and have a successful career that would make his mother and family proud,” he told me via e-mail. “I hope that, once this happens, he will develop into a mature man who will someday help someone else get a good start in life.”
Rook contacted me after my column on George Brown ran Thursday. I wrote about Brown, whom I spotted soliciting work in the parking lot of the Dunkin’ Donuts on Jimmy Carter Boulevard.
In Gwinnett, we have some good souls who want to pay it forward. They want to help Brown, a total stranger, regardless of color or how he got in his current fix. A Lawrenceville man has offered free rent. A business owner who may have a full-time position for Brown asked that I have Brown contact him. Other readers have asked me to pass on the names of agencies and nonprofits that offer aid.
In his e-mail, Rook explained how simple it had been to help Hyler. All he did was pass the young man’s name on to a potential employer.
“Just maybe you can do the same for this gentleman,” he suggested.
Maybe I have.
• Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875. Or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
