Spotlight on Jude - a Shuttle, a Train, a Bus, a Hike and Back Again.

Today's spotlight is on an employee of Stride, Inc., who has been with us for many years and his method of transportation to get to work five days a week is an indication how dedicated he is to his job!!

Jude gets up every work day @ 4 a.m. to make it to work. He lives in a Indian Pueblo 50 miles from Albuquerque. Jude is Stride's Production Assistant and he happens to have a developmental disability. He does not drive; so to get to work he must take a shuttle from the Pueblo to a rail station. There he catches New Mexico's commuter train, the Railrunner, to downtown Albuquerque. Once in downtown Albuquerque, his trip is not over! Jude catches a city bus and then completes his trip by walking two miles to the office. By the time he arrives, it is 7:30 in the morning and Jude begins his day.

Jude only recently became Production Assistant, previously he was a member of the Packaging and Assembly team and worked the tables with the rest of the crew. As our business has been growing, the fellow who had organized the crew and kept them busy working throughout the day was being spread too thin. Jude saw a need to be filled and fell naturally to doing the job. Of course, the cracker-jack management team eventually realized what was going on and promoted him!

One of the most rewarding things about working with people who have developmental challenges is that they are more than willing to try a job, fill a need and, in the case of Jude, travel two and a half hours to get to work!