Rejecting roadblocks – many with Down syndrome accomplish more than expected

Mark Gibson has a James Bond-ish job.

His office is protected by a wire fence about 20 feet tall topped with barb wire and rigged with alarms. Only people with a federal security clearance, like Gibson, are allowed to walk past the wire.

Inside, he shreds and destroys sensitive documents from six federal and state government agencies and several area hospitals. The trucks that fetch the document-filled boxes are emblazoned with the phrase “Better Shred Than Read.” Each is equipped with sensors so, if it lingers too long in one place, security is alerted.

“I love my job,” Gibson says. “I ride in the truck that picks up the boxes of papers; I help unpack the paper. I help shred the paper. I work hard at everything.”

Gibson, 46, has Down syndrome, yet that has never been an obstacle in his excellent performance of his job. He lives with his parents in Soddy-Daisy and a bus from Orange Grove Center, a Chattanooga institution that provides services for the mentally disabled, brings him to work five days a week.

World Down Syndrome Awareness Day is Saturday, and Orange Grove is a good place to learn more about the cognitive disability as well as debunk myths about what adults and children with the syndrome can do. Consider this, though: In 1983, the life expectancy for a baby with Down syndrome was 25; now it’s 60.

According to the National Down Syndrome Society, the change is partly thanks to medical advances, but it’s also because kids and adults now enjoy the confidence and stimulus that comes with being socially accepted by fellow Americans rather than sequestered at home or institutionalized.

Orange Grove offers clients like Gibson daily opportunities to socialize and push their intellects. They’re given work to do, tasks to complete; they’re treated just like anyone else at the center. In short, they’re included, not excluded.

About 95 percent of Down syndrome cases are caused when a fetus has one too many chromosomes, 47 instead of the normal 46. A sizable portion of Orange Grove’s 1,000 clients have the syndrome – but Development Director Heidi Hoffecker is unsure how many, saying the center does not break out numbers according to type of mental disability.

“Orange Grove exists as it is does today as a result of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, when people with mental disabilities were given the same rights to educational resources receiving federal funds as all Americans,” says Hoffecker. “About 80 percent of our funding is from the government.”

Here is what Orange Grove provided with the $36,361,773 in revenues it got for 2013-14, according to its most recent annual report. (The center’s expenditures for the same year were $37,505,256, records show.) It has a school, including a music class and a cafeteria that makes meals each day for workers, staff and 700 students. The latter age out of the system at 21.

The center also offers physical therapy, three swimming pools for hydrotherapy, job skills training and, thanks to partnerships with area companies, provides hundreds of paying jobs on its premises. It has a fleet of 160 vehicles, including buses for clients who need transportation and the shredding trucks that Gibson loves to ride in.

Many jobs at Orange Grove pay by the piece rather than the hour, day or week. Companies contract with Orange Grove for a job then the companies pay the center’s workers for doing the work. Hoffecker says she doesn’t know what the piecework rate is, but that it is determined by studies that determine how long it takes a mentally disabled worker to do one piece.

For example, stacks of red and white coolers inscribed with “Norfolk Southern Railroad” line one hall. Railroad workers pack their lunches in the coolers, which get smudged with soot and dirt during the workday. Orange Grove workers clean them and are paid according to how many coolers are cleaned. In a warehouse-sized room, other workers pack boxes for Ringgold-based Quick Care Headlight Restoration Kits. At another table, they ready promotional pens to be engraved by Chattanooga’s Gold Bond company.

In another room, an assembly line of Orange Grove workers strip wire, metal and parts from discarded electronics to sell for scrap. As Hoffecker walks by the tables, the workers wave to her and call out, “It’s payday today!”

“These jobs help Down syndrome workers learn about teamwork and breaking down a multi-part job,” Orange Grove Assistant Development Director Windy Brooks explains. “Some of them choose to go on to work at hotels or restaurants in the city.”

Dozens of workers of all ages work in Orange Grove’s recycling center, where they sort plastic, cardboard, rubber, paper, aluminum and other materials on a huge conveyor belt. Last year, they sorted and processed recyclables from 13,000 households. Hoffecker says Chattanooga officials would like to double the number of households served by the center.

“We can handle the additional households but only if we do some upgrades on the facility; we’re now looking for funding to do the upgrades,” Hoffecker says.

The center’s workers are paid by the hour, but even jobs in the huge recycling center do not pay federal minimum wage because, as Hoffecker notes, they “are not wage competitive.” To earn minimum wage or higher, a worker would have to land a job in the outside world. Some Down syndrome workers can handle such jobs; others cannot. For them, the jobs at Orange Grove provide pocket money, a chance to acquire a professional persona and skills like attention to detail.

The center also offers free care at what may be the world’s cheeriest dental clinic. Many Orange Grove clients have no dental insurance, so the center has a staff dentist and several dental hygienists. Even on a gray day outside, the clinic sparkles and shimmers with dozens of orange and yellow silk daisies and purple, magenta and green butterflies made from fabric and crystal beads dangling from the ceiling. Giant posters of Elvis Presley and Kiss greet patients as they walk toward the chair – but only after they make a selection on the corner jukebox, which is loaded with Def Leppard and other hard rocking bands.

“That jukebox is a critical part of treatment,” says dental assistant Jeannette Hames, laughing. “Our patients love to crank the music as loud as they can to drown out the sound of the drill.

“You wouldn’t think heavy metal would be soothing but they love it. I’ve worked here 37 years, and I know everyone’s musical tastes now.”

Hoffecker is visibly moved by the dedication of long-term employees like Hames, who offer Orange Grove clients the continuity of friendship and someone they trust to help them hone their conversational skills.

“The three mechanics on our staff are another example of people who could earn so much more elsewhere, but they care about our clients and get to know them and want to help them,” she says.

Contact Lynda Edwards at ledwards@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6391.