Feature Article January 23, 2002
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David Yerxaby Kristin RideoutI had the chance to talk with David Yerxa at the Drop In at the Anglican Church in Sharbot Lake. David, who has a mild case of cerebral palsy, is 33 years old, and has his own successful can recycling, paper shredding, and laminating business. Some of his business is volunteer, and some he gets paid for.
David first started his can recycling and paper shredding when he was a student at Clifford Bowey School in Ottawa. He volunteered to shred paper at the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Institute for the Blind. Now David has his own barn at home, where he does all the can crushing before he takes it to a recycling plant in Smiths Falls. He gets paid 40 per pound for all the cans and 2 per kg for the shredded paper. In a regular day, David starts crushing cans at 10 a.m. and continues till 6:30 p.m. From 6:30 on, he starts shredding paper, for which he charges 35 a pound (or volunteers). David and his parents moved to Silver Lake in May of 2000, and have been living in their cottage ever since. They brought the barn with them from Ipperwash, Ont. Jim MacKinnon of Central Frontenac Towing moved it on his truck.
When they lived in Ottawa, they found that there was a high turnover of the workers assigned to help them, and so there was not much continuity. Here, they get tons and tons of support from Community Living. The support is great. David has two people assigned to him and they come over to the house to give support, help, and answer any questions said Davids mom Diane. They are all very grateful to Community Living for always being there, with open arms and helping hands.
Community Living took David to all his interviews and helped him with his resum and now he works and volunteers at the high school, Rural Legal Services, Medical Centre, and the township office. People from his church bring David bags of paper to shred at home. He also has a shredder that he can take around with him. People drop off cans they have collected from Community Living, the restaurant, the high school, and the Legion.
Once a week on Tuesdays, his friend Morel Chaisson volunteers to come over to help David with his can crushing. Since he has two can crushers, it makes it easy for two people to work at the same time. David attended Algonquin College, where he studied for 4 years, and Ottawa Tech. where he studied for 3 years, taking math, reading, writing, and computers. Altogether, David has been in school for 25 years. During his spare time, he likes to go to the Community Living events such as going to the Legion for dinner, the Drop In, playing volleyball, swimming, going to movies, and bowling. Community Living has something happening every week.David has gotten many volunteer awards and an environmental award from CBC. He has currently finished all the paper shredding jobs he has, but is looking for more work. He says, I really love my business, and would like to make it even bigger one day.
Kristin is our new Katimavik volunteer at The News. She is from Toronto and is still adjusting to the transition from NORMAL life to Katimavik. She loves it, though, and really likes Sharbot Lake. Kristin enjoys writing, and will be reporting on community events for the paper. We welcome Kristin and all the Katimavikers to our community.
