BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
Retirement for Sherry Ruszkowsi, as it is for so many, will be a chance to spend more time with family.
However, Ruszkowski will also be leaving family behind when she retires as the executive director of Arc of Bradford County, which provides services and programs to those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“These guys are my family,” Ruszkowski said of the clients who benefit from Arc services. “They really are my family. When they have troubles, they come to me.”
Ruszkowski, whose last day is Oct. 25, said she has as many photos on her phone of Arc clients as she does biological family.
Speaking of her phone, Ruszkowski’s number is known by all the consumers. She told her husband, Mike, that she’s going to have to change it.
They call me. They text me,” Ruszkowski said. “Mike and I were watching TV the other night. I got a text. It was from one of the clients in a group home telling me, ‘Good night. I love you. I just wanted you to know how much I love you.’”
Ruszkowski has been the executive director at the Arc of Bradford since 2005. She worked there previously in another capacity from 1986 to 1989 before leaving to take a job at Arc of Putnam County, where she worked for 16 years before returning to Bradford.
It adds up to a lot of years in a career field Ruszkowski never envisioned herself working in.
Finding a purpose
It seems Ruszkowski had a friend who knew her better than she knew herself. That’s what led to Ruszkowski even working in a career devoted to the disabled.
“This is not a job I went looking for,” she said.
Ruszkowski, who lived in Indiana before moving to Florida, had a friend there who had a child with Down syndrome. While the child was involved in an early infant stimulation program, the mother worked as a volunteer in a day program devoted to those with disabilities. She called Ruszkowski and said she knew of a job that she would be perfect for and that she had to apply for it.
Ruszkowski had no background in working with the disabled. She admitted she didn’t think she was as perfect for the job as her friend thought.
“I reluctantly went and made an application because I cared that much about my friend,” Ruszkowski said.
Ruszkowski hoped she wouldn’t receive a call after submitting her application, but she did. She got the job.
The first few weeks were shaky, but after that, Ruszkowski discovered that she indeed was working in a job she was good at.
“I settled in. I got to know the people I was working with,” she said. “It made all the difference in the world.”
God’s timing
Ruszkowski enjoyed working at Arc of Bradford County during her first stint there. She was first a workshop supervisor before being promoted to program director.
Regarding her time as workshop supervisor, Ruszkowski said, “I remember specifically Winkler Products out of Jacksonville. They make the plastic spoons and forks and knives. We would get them in bulk. Then we would put them in boxes for them and ship them back to them. That was one of the big jobs we had.”
Arc of Bradford is located at 1351 S. Water St., but when Ruszkowski first started working there, it was located on S.R. 16. In an interview that was published in the Nov. 9, 2006, issue of the Telegraph-Times-Monitor, she said, “The building on 16 was very cold. There was wind blowing through the doors and just one large space heater that blew all over the shop. Unless you were standing right in front of it, you were usually cold. We really had to bundle up to work there.”
In October 1989, Ruszkowski left to take a job as a residential director at Arc of Putnam County. She was a supervisor of group homes and later became a supervisor of two adult day-training programs.
Arc of Bradford was looking for a new executive director during Ruszkowski’s first year in Putnam County. Families she knew called her and asked her to apply for the position.
“I really wanted to do that,” Ruszkowski said. “That had always been in my heart.”
She received an application and filled it out.
“As I was putting it in the envelope to mail it back to them, the Lord told me it wasn’t the right time,” Ruszkowski said, adding, “I was upset, but I knew very strongly that He didn’t want me to come here then.”
Remaining in Putnam proved to be a benefit, as Ruszkowski described it as an extended training period that prepared her for her eventual return to Arc of Bradford as executive director.
“I would learn a lot of what I needed to know to be able to come (to Starke) and run this place,” she said. “To me, it was all about God’s timing.”
When Ruszkowski heard that Arc of Bradford Executive John Conneeley was retiring, the timing was right. She interviewed for his position and was hired.
She apparently made an impression on Conneeley when she came on board.
“When I came down here, John was going to stay on for another three years,” Ruszkowski said, “but he decided that after I was here the first year, he needed to go ahead and retire.”
Helping others accomplish goals
Ruszkowski has a lot of fond memories she can look back on during her time at the Arc organizations in both Bradford and Putnam counties. Most of them involved helping Arc clients to get what they wanted in life and to be what they wanted to be.
She remembers helping one client buy his own house, while two clients are getting ready to move into their own apartment and live independently.
“Those are milestones,” Ruszkowski said. “When I first started in this business, that was not even a consideration. They had to be taken care of. They had to live in a home where somebody would be looking after them all the time. It was unheard of to think somebody could do that.
“In Palatka, we grew the supported living program. I think by the time I left, we had 32 people living in either a rented apartment or owning their own homes.”
Really, if a person is able to live independently and buy or rent a home, then why not? For Ruszkowski, working with those who are disabled has always been about focusing on what they can accomplish, not on what they can’t do. That was one of the reasons she got such joy when clients — especially those in the Kiwanis Club of Starke-sponsored Aktion Club — participated in community service endeavors, such as working at the Bradford Food Pantry or holding fundraisers to assist needy families during Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“It allowed everyone in our community to see it’s not about a disability,” Ruszkowski said. “It’s about what they can do. They are able to function and contribute to our society.
“If you really want to get honest about it, we’re all flawed somehow or someway, whether we admit it or not, so why is it we focus on people specifically who have disabilities? These guys have a lot of heart, they want to help and they enjoy being a part of their community.”
If Ruszkowski and the staff at the Arc of Bradford needed any reminding that their clients are able to do a lot, they got it during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic when the governor mandated that Arc shut down as a facility that provided non-essential services. Sunshine Industries is an on-site woodshop where some of the clients work and earn money, manufacturing products such as pallets and survey stakes. With the clients unable to work there because of the closure, Ruszkowski and her staff worked in the woodshop to fill customers’ orders.
“It’s very hard work,” Ruszkowski said.
Yet anytime Ruszkowski walks into the woodshop, she’s greeted by nothing but smiles. The clients enjoy the work. They want to work. That’s why the closure during the pandemic was so hard on them. Ruszkowski said clients called every day, asking if they could come in. They didn’t understand why they weren’t being allowed to do their job.
“Everybody wanted to come to work,” Ruszkowski said, adding, “We have a very unique workforce here.”
Over the years, the Arc has faced state budget cuts, doing their best to meet the same requirements, but having less money to do so. Ruszkowski said she’s grateful to the support of the Bradford County Commission, Rep. Bobby Payne, Sen. Jennifer Bradley, former Sen. Rob Bradley and the local community as a whole for their support in helping the Arc continue to help its clients accomplish their goals.
Ruszkowski is also thankful for her staff, which consists of some who’ve worked there for more than 10 years. They haven’t received a lot of pay increases as a thanks for the jobs they do, but Ruszkowski said she believes that’s going to change. She has applied for Federal Medical Assistance Percentage payments.
“We actually are supposed to be getting close to $1 million to reward and to acknowledge all of the people who worked during COVID,” she said. “They were in the (group) homes with sick people. They were getting sick. Some would get better, and then they would get it again.
“It’s to reward them for putting themselves in harm’s way.”
Looking forward to what comes next
As the days go by, Ruszkowski has experienced a number of events for the final time, such as the Arc Christmas party and, most recently, its annual Purple Day event.
“In many respects, it makes me sad, but I’m looking forward to the next chapter in my life,” Ruszkowski said, adding, “I’ve really been praying about the next stage of my life and what God would have me do. That excites me.”
Ruszkowski knows that some of the first things she’ll do during retirement is spend time with family. That’ll include a trip to the mountains in North Carolina this Christmas and a trip to Kentucky, where her daughter lives as well as her brother and sister.
“Just because of COVID, we haven’t seen them hardly at all,” she said.
The trip to Kentucky is planned to last a week, but that could change. As Ruszkowski said, “I’ll have the freedom to stay longer if I want to.”
Ruszkowski doesn’t imagine she’ll be one who’ll just sit at home. She’ll find things to do, including possibly remaining involved in some way with Arc of Bradford.
“I really might look at coming back as an Aktion Club sponsor,” she said.
Ruszkowski still has a little over four months left before retirement officially begins. Until then, she’ll be around her Arc family and welcome in John Williams as the new director. Williams, a Keystone Heights resident, has been working at the Arc of Putnam.
“He has a lot of new ideas and wants to start some new programs,” Ruszkowski said, adding, “He’s real excited. He’s young and ambitious.”
So, what does Ruszkowski expect her final day on Oct. 25 to be like? Easy and relaxing.
“I’m not going to do anything but be here,” she said. “I think I’ve earned a day of rest. I’m going to just be here and spend time with my guys.”
