81-year-old volunteers brings joy to others
John Davis, an 81-year-old Uniontown resident, sits in a white, wicker chair in the middle of a brightly lit room, wearing a pair of socks on his hands. A pair of blue pants is draped over his head. Children are tugging at his shirt, jumping on him, and flashing hand signals to each other. He endures it all wearing a smile as broad as Main Street. The children laugh hysterically and yell in a range of tones, “John!”
Rhonda Rockwell, who teaches the hearing-impaired children, turns to the next page of a book and “signs” its contents to her students. They rush back to John to continue decorating him with assorted clothing items, further imitating the antics of the main character in the story.
Davis is a volunteer for the Fayette County Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC) on New Salem Road in South Union Township.
Whether delivering meals to shut-ins through the ARC’s Meals-on-Wheels program or entertaining young hearing-impaired children during story hour, Davis has been a regular volunteer at the agency since 1996.
Although his own lifelong hearing difficulties have progressed to the point where daily conversation is difficult, he has managed to build meaningful relationships with almost everyone along his daily route. Like an elderly version of Norm on the TV sitcom “Cheers,” Davis is often greeted by shouts of “John!” whether he’s entering Potter’s Restaurant in Uniontown or the client-managed ARC snack bar.
“It takes a very special person to volunteer here,” said Tom Ninus, executive director of ARC, Inc. “many have tried to volunteer here but have not stuck around. Sometimes they end up pitying our clients, who are developmentally disabled. But not John. He has become like a good friend to these people. He treats them the same as if they were his friends at Potter’s.”
A veteran of World War II, Davis began working for ARC as a van driver in 1982. Six years ago he retired after suffering major heart problems that landed him in a coma for a week.
Born prior to the Coolidge administration, Davis emerged from the coma no longer able to professionally operate a vehicle (although he still drives himself around), limited by profound hearing loss and a weak heart. At 75 years old, though, his life’s work was just beginning.
“When I came back from being sick, they asked me to go along with the clients on a service outing to the Animal Shelter. I’ve been volunteering here ever since,’ said Davis.
His daughter, Nancy Davis, assistant executive director at ARC, saw her dad’s remarkable recovery from life-threatening heart surgery coincided with his service as a volunteer.
“You know, he was not even expected to live. His pastor, Dr. Sharp, would visit him at his bedside all the time, and Dad would yell, ‘Hey, Big Boy!’ when he walked in. He’s always teasing people, but nobody ever takes him the wrong way.”
“Then, after he left the hospital, he began accompanying our Meals-on-Wheels drivers,” continued Nancy Davis. “He was just a friendly face at the door of a shut-in, and many of them are very lonely. I think it helped him as much as the shut-ins.”
Davis himself does all he can not to be shut in. Sitting in the ARC office with his hands resting calmly on this knees and a boyish grin playing on his weathered face, Davis described his life.
“I live in Uniontown,” he said. “Me and the dog live together. It was being starved, so I took it in.
“I still go to Eddie’s and Potter’s to see my friends on a regular basis. And I still drive, but they won’t let me drive the clients around,” he said. “And I volunteer here. When I walk in here, everybody yells, ‘John!’ They all stand up and yell my name. I finally found a place where everyone will greet me,” he added with a wink of his eye.
According to Ninus, John Davis has several attributes that make him a valuable volunteer. He treats the adults who have developmental disabilities as if they were his friends, and doesn’t pity them. He maintains a positive attitude while supporting the clients in their everyday lives. And, as he accompanies them on van trips throughout the area, he treats the client like the adults they are.
And Davis is a great role model to the hearing-impaired children who come to the ARC once a week for instruction from Intermediate Unit instructor Rockwell.
“It may surprise some people that hearing-impaired children sometimes don’t like to wear their hearing-aids,” she said.
“He shows the kids that it’s OK to be hearing-impaired, but it’s important to wear your hearing-aid. He also talks to the kids about his life so the kids won’t think there is no one out there like them. His accomplishments in life show that it is possible to achieve while being physically challenged.”
However, while John Davis always wears his hearing aid, he doesn’t always turn it on.
“He’s selective,” joked Ninus. “At the annual ARC dinner, I went on and on about what an asset he has been to our agency. I spoke about his selflessness, how he never asks for anything but gives so much to our community. It was an opportunity to say some important things to John. When I asked him to come up, he just sat there. Turns out he didn’t have his hearing aid turned up and he didn’t hear anything I said. Oh, well.”
Judging by the scores of Christmas cards recently sent to him by shut-ins from all over Fayette County, and the shouts of “John!” that greet him when he shuffles into the ARC snack bar, John Davis is loved and appreciated. He can probably hear that, even without his hearing aid turned on.