t ( —Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 4. 1974 26 -*n • ■ ' _ Homestead Goodwill Worker Overcomes Vast Obstacles As Miss Joyce M. Burkholder, Martmdale, completes her reign as National Goodwill Worker of 1973 this week she has many fond memories, many mementoes, has traveled across our nation visiting many cities, has met illustrious per sonalities and has had many interesting experiences. She has indeed been a credit to Lancaster County. May 5 -12 is National Goodwill Week and Lancaster County Goodwill Industries is encouraging people to take a tour of their workshop at 1048 N. Plum Street, Lancaster, to see what people are doing there. Visiting hours are 8 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. Monday through Friday. They are also anxious that people visit their four stores which are located at 28 W. King St., Lancaster; 39 Market Square, Manheim; 560 S. Reading Rd., Ephrata and East Earl, R.D.2. This store is located just off route 625, in the old clothing store operated by Goods. The clothing sold at this Goodwill store is not reconditioned and cleaned but is sold as is, rummage sale style. Their furniture is reconditioned, though, as it is at the other stores. The stores open at 8 A M. and are open until 5 P.M., or later in some cases. The stores are open until 9 P.M. on Fridays and some of them are open Monday or Tuesday evenings until 9 P.M. . . „. There are 19 Goodwill collections boxes in Lancaster City and County. They are placed at convenient locations in most of the small towns in the county. Look for the nearest one to you and when you are house cleaning and sorting the family’s clothes this spring take any usable discarded merchandise there. If you have furniture to dispose of, call Goodwill In dustries and arrange for their truck to pick it up. You will not only find a solution as to what to do with the things you can no longer use but you will be doing a real service to Goodwill Industries. Joyce says, “The materials that are donated to Goodwill Industries become the tools that we use to repair the human beings.” All the textiles, shoes, furniture, television and radio sets, housewares, books, small ap pliances and toys are recycled. Joyce us a shining example of what Goodwill Industries can do for individuals. Having survived almost unbelievable tragedies, it is just a miracle that she is alive. Her fortitude and courage have been and are a challenge to many who come to Goodwill Industries where she is on the staff and serves as a recruiter. She is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Burkholder, Akron. She lived on a farm until she was 21 years old. Her father fanned his father’s farm where he had feeder steers, cows, pigs, chickens, sheep and horses. After leaving this farm at Leola he farmed on the halves. He is now a machinist at Calder Door in Lancaster. At six years of age Joyce contracted rheumatic fever, had to learn to walk again and was left with a heart murmur. Then she had a lot of trouble with the muscles in her legs. December 10, 1956 she was in an auto accident and brain damage resulted. A few months of her life were completely lost as far as she can remember. The brain damage left her with speech problems,-her mind and voice didn’t work together. She said “So many people began to treat me like a retarded person.” However, she-came out of this with a determination to do what her friends were doing. She graduated from Upper Leacock High School as the most outstanding female athlete in 1957. Joyce worked at Airestock Nursing Home from 1957 to 1961. At the same time she decided to go in traming for a registered nurse at the Lancaster General Hospital. Having lost time after her accident the first semester of her senior year in high school she needed more chemistry so was privately tutored in that. It was permissable to receive a license through waiver However, the law changed in 1970 so she worked three years for nothing She didn’t have enough credits in chemistry plus they thought she had tuberculosis. Fortunately she did not She ended up selling her horse and had to sacrifice everything She became discouraged and started to work at Indian River Hatchery and later at Babcock Hatchery in Lititz. She enrolled in the American School of Chick Sexing in Lansdale, Pa She went to school part tune and worked part time under the head sexer in this area for about one and a half years She had to buy chicks that were under 72 hours old to practice on Preferably chicks should be sexed the first 24 hours of their like Chick sexing is a very delicate operation and there is n.uch knowledge and proficiency required plus a lot of ex pense in learning it. Febraury 1969 she asked to take her first test In the test you are required to sex 200 chicks in ten * JV ' * *VI *.*»** Notes v ?£♦■**•'** - w - \*“i « ‘ - * i , >• * , **■ , ► 1 '■ * minutes and must be 98 percent accurate. Culls are used to practice on but in the test the chicks are first grade. By the way, chick sexing was developed by the Japanese people right after World War 11. When Joyce took her test in February 1969 she had 97 per cent accurateness. In the test you are required to sex 100 Leghorns and 100 broilers (heavy breed birds). It is harder to sex broilers than Leghorns. May 25th of that year Joyce lost her right arm by getting caught in a power take-off on spraying equipment while helping her brother-in-law repair a pump. This was a terrifying and tragic experience but her recovery was miraculous. Later Easter Seals and the Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation purchased an artificial arm for her. After this Miss Burkholder worked part time for Girvins Greenhouse, Leola, two years of it full time. She has worked two jobs most of her life. At Girvins she made deliveries over the eastern part of Lancaster County and was their geranium grower. Later she worked full-time cutting roses for six months. July of 1971 Joyce went on a picnic. She and her sister were wrestling and'horsing around and Joyce tore all the ligaments and cartilage in her left leg. She was put in a cast from her ankle to her hip. All of these tragedies made her do some thinking so she talked to God. She said “God, why didn’t you let me die? From this day forward this life is yours and you can’t help but have a purpose.” It was then that she noticed a little ad in the paper that she had missed every time she read that paper, and she had read it many times. It was put there by Goodwill Industries. At the time she had a gearshift car so she designed her own car equipment and had it put on the gearshift. Then her brother sold her an old automatic Chrysler for $5O. She went to work then for Goodwill Industries January 2,1972. She entered as a trainee and selected radio and black and white television repair. She was having counseling. She said “I have to leam to get along with people. I had twelve weeks of dispatching training then I was ready to be placed in competitive in dustry and I decided I could be a help to Goodwill Industry and I had no college education. I’m the only one of the staff that isn’t a college graduate. In May 1972 the Executive Director said he would give’3o days to prove myself. Joyce has all kinds of remembrances of her year as National Goodwill Worker. Her album is open to the page of her presenting a nosegay to Mrs. Richard Nixon by Mrs. Charles McSparran Farm Feature Writer * f n 51* Miss Joyce M. Burkholder, New Holland RDI, National Goodwill Worker of 1973 has had a full year of traveling and has received many honors. Lancaster County is justly proud of her. “In June 1972 “Agnes” flood took my home and everything,” Joyce recalled. Her very escape from the flooded house was nothing short of miraculous. “After the flood I realized that all my life, material things were im portant to me. I still had my life. Goodwill Industries staff collected $250 so I could go to the Goodwill store and get food, furniture or anything I wanted.” Of course, she did just that. Goodwill Industries has had a contest for selecting the National Goodwill Worker for at least five years. A con testant must be gainfully employed either by Goodwill In dustries or by competitive industry. There were yw,ooo people elegible for this competition last year and from that number there were 150 entries. Joyce was selected by Lancaster County Goodwill Industries towards the end of March, 1973 to be their contestant. A free-lance writer in Washington wrote her story. Joyce was selected for the East Coast contestant, Paula Rousso for the South, Fem Luce for the Mid-West and Joan Nelson for the West Coast. A panel of judges: Joan Crawford, Irene Foley, James Hagarty and Roger Sheldon selected Joyce. April 27th, 1973 Dean Phillips National Executive Director of Goodwill Industries, called her and told her she had been selelcted at the National Goodwill Worker for 1973. May 7th Joyce, accompanied by Dean Phillips, Sherry Kettering, Secretary,, John Harman, Norman Schell executive director of Lancaster Goodwill Industries and Kled Wight, Joyce’s roommate, started a whirlwind tour of Washington, D.C. She met Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. She did a “Voice of America”' program, heard by one million people. She went to the National Press Club as guest of Donald Larrabee. Set met Senator Schweiker and Congressman Edwin Eshleman, who presented her an American flag that had flown over the capitol the day before. Joyce presented Mrs. Richard Nixon a nosegay of Bacara roses (the french rose of love and peace) and white carnations. Mrs. Nixon very graciously showed her through the White House and served her refreshments If you don’tknow much about protocol at the White House and have the disadvantage-of an artificial right arm this can be quite a frustrating experience and to be sure it was for Joyce. She went to Arlington Cementery and visited Prsident and S ™ the hanging of the Guard at the da^Sf°fi! he vJ Jl J kno '! n v 0 dier- 11118 ha PP e ned to be the first day of the Watergate happenings and the day of the first resignation so President Nixon having summoned the Head of the Guardhouse, gave permission for Sargeant Johnson, the Commander in Charge of the Changing of the Guard to leave his post and to welcome her. This was the first time ever such a thing happened. Joyce was frightened and a flash veTv fiSSvT? 1 d u°’” But Sargeant very formally but graciously shook hands with her and W ST 6d r ’. he hunself having a cleft palate ~ Msissras . 1 1973 Joyce, accompanied by her mother at tended the National Delegate Assembly in St. Louis where I Continued on Page 281 $ V A.
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