Goleta Pier near the UCSB, CA

Wednesday, October 11, 2006
I'm not sure if this is the place to post or not, but I really wanted to give props to the male caregiver of some mentally challenged charges. We watched them on October 10th at about 2:30 pm at the Goleta Pier near the UCSB campus. Physically, they were not children by any means, but their mental capacity could not have been more than 3 - 6 years equivalent. This man was amazing with them. His three charges were walking at different speeds along the pier and he ferried back and forth between them, constantly reassuring the ones he wasn't physically with that they were doing great. He held their hands, offered tons of encouragement to the one girl who seemed a little nervous, he stopped and shared in their excitement at watching the fishermen and generally let them lead the way. One thing that really stood out was how he handled a situation where one of the boys had something in his hand and wouldn't show him what it was. He kept repeating "It's okay, I just need to know what it is. I need to be sure it won't hurt you." I believe he called the boy Jody. "Jody, please let me see what you have. I won't take it from you, I just need to know what it is." Over and over he demonstrated far more patience than I could have in the same situation. Jody was obviously very distraught at possibly losing this treasure, but the caregiver was loving and compassionate the entire time. Caregiver was a man in mid to late 20's. He wore jeans, a drab olive green T-shirt with a design on the front I couldn't make out. He had a buzz haircut and very short beard and mustache combo going on on his face. Looked like it had been grown out only several days. He wore round, small framed sunglasses. One of the boys (Jody) had dark brown/light black hair and wore white pants and a light blue jacket. The other man, I think he called him Larry, was wearing jeans and a rust colored button down shirt that had light colored roundish pattern on it and a baseball style hat. The girl wore jeans, two tank style shirts layered over each other with a blue hoody sweatshirt over them. She had brown hair with bangs and wore a pony tail. If this sounds like your caregiver or you are a business that employs this man to take care mentally challenged people, do whatever you have to to keep him - even my children commented on how nice he was.