50 Years, 50 Stories - Sterling Wind

This week’s “50 Years, 50 Stories” comes from Sterling Wind, who has been at Imagine! for almost 26 years. He’s covered a lot of ground at Imagine! during that time, and the story of his growth as an employee of Imagine! parallels the growth of Imagine! itself in many ways.

Thanks for sharing, Sterling!

Ay Caramba!

By Sterling Wind

Sterling Wind working at a Labor Source information
booth at a job fair back in 1995.

As I sit down to scratch down a few memories of my experiences working here at Imagine!, the eloquent words of Bart Simpson come to mind: “Ay caramba.” And yes, I’m using “Ay caramba” to describe the surprise that hits me as I contemplate the fact that I am still here after almost 26 years.

Back in the fall of 1987, I had a full head of hair and a pony-tail. I had just recently graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with a BA in history and political science, and had moved to Boulder with a beautiful young woman and no prospects for employment. Then one day, I found a job advertisement to teach adults who have a developmental disability to become more independent in something called a “life enrichment program.”

Although I had not previously worked in an setting like the old Developmental Disabilities Center (DDC – the former name of Imagine!), I did have some experience tutoring and working with middle school and high school kids enrolled in special education, as well experience teaching basic rock-climbing skills to adults with visual impairments when I lived in California.

I must not have flubbed the interview completely, because shortly after my interview, I received a part-time job offer to work 20-30 hours per week at a startling $3.35 per hour (the minimum wage in 1987). My plan was to work for the DDC until I got a full-time position and learn what I could learn, while still keeping an eye out for a job that paid better. There wasn’t much formal job training: in the first three days I shadowed a tenured staff member on day one, shadowed tenured staff again on day two with a little bit of opportunity to work directly with consumers, and then on day three I was the teacher being shadowed by a tenured staff.

Within a few weeks, I had a “full-time” position working 36 direct-care hours with 1.5 hours for paperwork relating to the consumers for whom I served as primary counselor. My co-workers were amazing! Teaching consumers was challenging and exciting, and as a team we were pushing the boundaries to be a community-based service provider. Slowly, we transitioned from working with consumers behind the segregated walls of the old DDC to using the community, our community, as a learning environment. Our efforts increased significantly when we obtained our first “brick” cellular telephone, and a Geo Prism with a wired-in-place cellular telephone. With these new tools, our team rebranded ourselves as Labor Source and began pursuing integrated jobs out in the community.

The joys of my tenure here have been so many. One of the highlights includes working with Colette Marie to write the business plan that would launch Out & About more than fifteen years ago. A few years later I would work with Colette once again to launch a program called “Stepping Stones,” which assisted high school students with developmental disabilities to gain community-based work experience during their transition from school to adult life. A few years later Greg Wellems approached me to discuss Imagine!’s SmartHomes initiative and offer me the position of Project Manager. Together with a terrific internal team, we drafted a comprehensive plan to build the first and second ever SmartHomes to use technology in a comprehensive way to serve adults experiencing an intellectual or developmental disability. The Bob and Judy Charles SmartHome in Boulder and the Charles Family SmartHome in Longmont are dynamic living laboratories where consumers, direct service professionals, and their support teams can work with young engineering students, professionals from the community, and yes, even staff members to dream, design, and test solutions that can lead to greater independence.

After nearly 26 years, the pay has improved beyond the minimum wage, the people whom I work with here at Imagine! are still amazing, and the communities we serve are richer because people with disabilities are engaged in ways that the old DDC dared to dream. As my old friend Skippy used to say, “Remember that you can’t learn to play second base by sitting on the bench.”

Are you interested in sharing your story for “50 Years, 50 Stories?” If so, contact Caroline Siegfried at caroline@imaginecolorado.org or 303-926-6405. We’d love to hear from you!