Posted on 07/12/2023 5:31:08 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Jan. 11 was a typical day for Isaac VanWasshenova, a trash collector for Waste Management. The 35-year-old from Barnesville, Ohio, got in a truck at the depot and headed to the streets of Mt. Lebanon.
While picking up trash, he looked forward to seeing people he knew and talking with the children who sometimes ran outside to see him.
“I always want to do my job 100%, but I also want to be kind to people,” he said recently. “You never know what people are going through. If they need something, I tell them, ‘Just ask.’”
About an hour into his shift, VanWasshenova was standing on the sidewalk on Kenmont Avenue, getting ready to pick up a trash can when he was struck by a car that veered onto the sidewalk, knocking him 30 feet into the bushes.
The driver took off but her car was later recovered at her home not far from the scene. She has been charged with aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI and failing to stop and render aid. The case is pending.
Neighbors who heard the crash came to VanWasshenova’s aid while waiting for first responders to arrive. He suffered several major injuries, including a traumatic brain injury and skull fracture, and was placed on a ventilator in Mercy Hospital’s intensive care unit.
His fiancé, Erin Empeno, was urged to set up a Go Fund Me page for VanWasshenova. She resisted at first because she knew he wouldn’t want it. But eventually she did and was astounded by the response, especially from people whose lives he had touched while collecting their trash for the past five years.
Within days, the online fundraising campaign had reached its $25,000 goal and currently stands at almost $49,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Simple Life Lesson....Be Kind!
Nice story. Hard working guy that everyone loves. Our trash peeps are thugs that look like they’re fresh out of prison.
Not being able to smell or taste food is really annoying. I was epileptic or a few years after a head injury and after a seizure I couldn’t taste food. We all say something is tasteless from time to time but I didn’t know what that really is until I experienced real “tasteless.” For a day, sometimes two after a seizure the only thing I could put in my mouth was ice cream. The cold and texture substituted for the missing taste. Eating was unpleasant in the extreme.
Not long after we moved into our customers we started giving our regular garbage truck driver a monetary Christmas gift.
Since we began doing that he brings our can up to the garage every week.
Seeming to be of an advanced age, Willie always has a smile and a kind word when I see him and if he sees me first he always gives me two blasts on his truck horn.
The money we give him averages out to only around a dollar a week....money very well spent IMO.
Current home not customers......stupid phone
I wondered about your post, and then thought of auto correct and remembered that AI has already taken over my brain to the degree that I forgot what I was going to write... smart ass computer program.
Work hard, complain less, help others. What a great example.
I disconnected the autocorrect 2 years ago. I figure I make more sense with just a letter or two wrong than an entire word or two.
Yeah I tried that once......for me it’s aggravating either way. 😏
The garbage men in my city don’t leave their trucks. An arm picks up the receptacle, dumps it in the back of the truck, then replaces it on the end of the driveway.
Wow, that really blows. While I’m the eat-to-live kinda of fellow, what food I enjoy are of the spicy, high flavor type.
One of the perks of life.
Detest photos with no description of anything.
Apparently a photo of him, while at “Hocking Hills in Ohio where he hiked and relaxed.”
Don’t look at them then.
Having a photo without any words is amusing? How dumb. Why bother.
Complaining on a post that was about one man because of a picture of one man, and needing that explained to you? Talk about dumb.
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