Volunteer of the Year 2009
Ron Wiedbusch & Storm
"STORM" ...the Legend Continues
In the beginning...
Every student and their families in the Ypsilanti Public Schools
area know of Ron Wiedbusch and his attention drawing SAFETY RESPONSE
VAN. He is highly visible at all school ...neighborhood ...and
community program events. He works side by side with our local fire
and law enforcement insuring the safoty and well being of our
children, their families and our school campuses. For the past 34
years, Ron has been overseeing both educational and safety programs
here in the city of Ypsilanti and throughout the state of Michigan
and his safety curriculum booklets are used across the country.
During his three decade career, he has been an elementary, middle
school, high school and GED teacher, a special-education consultant,
a university liaison to Eastern Michigan University and Cleary
University, a Home Land Security and Red Cross Instructor, a
grant writer for both Ford Motor Company and for the Ypsilanti Safe
and Drug Free Schools Coalition, he has earned three university
degrees and countless awards including: two from United States
Presidents. At one point in his career Ron sat on 22
national/state/regional/veteran and educational communities and
chaired over half of them.
Since 1994, Ron has been on-call 24/7...come snow, rain, or sunshine
to oversee the safety and security of the students, staff, and
schools here in Ypsilanti. The Ypsilanti Public Schools...SAFE
SCHOOLS PROGRAM has earned the National "PEACE EDUCATION AWARD, the
3E AWARD For Excellence in Educational Endeavors" and its program
evacuation guide has been used to model the prgrams in over 60
school districts both here in Michigan and in other states plus
Canada.
Past Events Bring About Life Altering Changes...
To outsiders looking in, Ron's life and professional career is
that of a modern day hometown hero, but there is a very painful
....DARK SIDE due to personal health issues. His wife Kendra, their
five children (Jordan/Tara/John-Scott/Dayna and Kayla) started
noticing a change in Rons physical movements and his balancing three
years ago. It hit the point of concern...when Ron fell down their
homes stairwell 5 times in one week. He put off going to his
personal doctor for a long length of time saying he was too busy
with work and taking care of other peoples needs. Then one night in
November 2007, when his security cell phone went off with a
"BREAK-IN" alarm call: after hanging up the phone, Ron could not
walk 2 or 3 steps without falling down - hard - very hard.
The next morning his family doctor met him at the hospital with an
orthopedic specialist team and that whole day for 13 hours non-stop
evaluated every inch of his body, mapping it out with x-rays along
with every type of bodily fluid as well. The hospital team had one
unified goal, to find out why this 6'3" atheltic man could not walk
without falling. The finding were not good.
Over his lifetime, Ron has had over 20 broken bones along with many
punctures, sprains, tears, cuts, fractures and burns. But an auto
accident that broke his neck in 3 different places years ago had
come back to change the rest of his life.
The medical team explained to Ron and his wife Kendra that the human
body sends calcium throughout ones body to help repair bone breaks
and fractures. But in Ron's case, excess calcium from his body has
been sent to the damaged areas for years. Now the spinal cord nerves
in those areas are now damaged/lodged in calcified bone so nerve
signals no longer transmit. The medical team was able to use
microscopic laser treatment to help slow future spinal cord damage.
But the damaged nerves couldn't be repaired without great risk to
Ron.
A Flicker of Light....
As Ron's medical concerns came to light, he was still
overseeing the Ypsilanti PS "Safe Schools Program". Over the years
Ron has assisted with countless agencies dealing with searches for
lost and missing children, the elderly, and the disadvantaged. He
has also been trained by the US Department of Homeland Security to
deal with civil unrest/community disasters/group trauma and death.
Becoming aware of his vast training background and his knowledge of
the community, Ron joined the states 24/7 Search & Rescue Response
Team. Along with this new role came hours of intense training and
the taking on of a skilled K-9 partner for rescues.
After a nation wide search, a 5 week old White German Shepherd was
located for Ron from a nationally recognized training/breeding
facility near the Ohio/Kentucky border. On the weekend before
Christmas, during a North-Eastern blizzard, Ron and his family drove
9 hours to and from the training facility to pick-up his White GS
puppy. Both of the puppy's parents and past lines were highly
awarded law enforcement K-9's.
Due to the 19 hour ride through the snow and ice covered highways in
heavy snow, Ron and his family selected the name "Arctic STORM".
Storm started his K-9 Obedience Training and Community/Work
Socialization at 6 weeks of age. His professional dog trained
started coming to the house three nights a week working with Ron and
Storm for hours to form a highly skilled Search and Recover K-9
team.
Facing Life's Changes....
Ron had to face the medical facts that his life was changing. He could allow his mobility and balance spinal injutry to overcome him thus giving up everything he stood for and loved - or he could refocus "Storms" advanced training. With support from his family, friends, and doctors, Ron drew upon his personal beliefs and faith and met with his K-9 trainers from Pro-K( (thank you Amber and Mike) to establish a new direction for Storm. As of January 2008, all of Storms training and socialization would be focused on assisting Ron to overcome his mobility and balance issues and train Storm as a service dog.
A New Journey Begins...
Storm now began assistaing Ron with his balance and mobility
issues at home, in the community and while he worked for the Safe
Schools Program. After 9 months of intense training and
socialization, Storm had completed all of his advanced obedience
training with Pro-K9 trainers. In August of 2008, Storm earned the
AKC Canine Good Citizen award.
The trainers from Pro K-9 felt they took Storm as far as they could
and in September 2008, Ron and Storm were referred to For Better
Independence for training in assistance tasks. It was the goal of
For Better Independence to train Storm in various service dog tasks
to address Ron's mobility and balance issues.
After training Storm to accomplish various service oriented tasks,
in Winter 2009, Storm tested and became a Registered Therapy
Dog through Therapy Dogs International Storm and Ron now go out to
schools, libraries, day care centers, churches, hospitals and
community functions doing therapy work. These include doing both
Safety and Educational programs.
But now the work begins...
For Better Independence trainers saw in innate ability in Storm
to perform service related tasks their first meeting. All of Storm's
talent, training, and loyalty to Ron would be utilized to train him
to become a fully trained and certified service dog. This type of
achievement is reserved for these specially trained canines.
Areas that Storm trained and excelled at were retrieval of personal
items, mobility and balancing techniques, guide harness walking and
recovery, as well as lifting, blocking bracing and bridging. Storm
spent many hours training and refining these skills, to respond to
Ron in the appropriate way. For the first time in a long time Storm
spent most of the summer away from Ron training in assistance tasks
but the end results were well worth it.
Taking Charge Over Ones Life...
As of Summer 2009, Storm has now completed and passed all of his
service dog training due to the extensive of FBI. Storm was tested
and certified as a service dog for Ron. They can be seen together
daily in the Safe Schools Program Safety Van making school security
rounds, attending musical or sporting events or teaching safety and
educational programs. This K-9 Service/Therapy Dog Team also attends
many Special Olympic or Veteran events together riding on their
customized handicapped "Rebel Trike" with its attached K-9 Reese Dog
Trailer for Storm.
Even with progressing health issues, Ron and Storm continue to work
with pride for the Ypsilanti Public Schools through its Safe Schools
Program; Monthly as a K-9 Therapy Dog Team they do safety and
reading programs at 6 different libraries and make rounds with
nurses and social workers to patient's in two mental health
hospitals.
When asked about his spinal injuries or how life has been altered...
Ron just smiles.
Ron truly feels he has a blessed like. Ron understands he has a life
long disability but due to his wife Kendra, his family, their five
children, his doctors and the help of trainers at For Better
Independence, Ron has a very productive and rewarding life.
So when you see Ron and Storm...
Slow down...Smile...and remind yourself how life can change at any
moment...
Remember to use your life to help others as much as you can.
On behalf of For Better Independence Assistance Dogs, we thank Ron and Storm for the time, energy, guidance, and dedication they has given us over the year. We are better for knowing them both.