A Leap of Faith: Midlife Career Changes
In the meantime, Gorski continued to accept ever-increasing responsibilities at TWA. His duties eventually took him to St. Louis. “I had a great job that I really enjoyed, and I had a great staff,” he said. “I assumed I’d keep working at TWA for at least ten to fifteen more years.”
But one day in 1999 he learned of a job opening for the position of vice president at Catholic Charities. “In spite of where I was and not even thinking of leaving TWA,” Gorski said, “when I saw that ad, I knew that’s what I was supposed to do. It was one of those moments in life when a direction becomes crystal clear.”
According to Melvin Ishii, of Springfield, Virginia, for many career officers, retirement comes at a fairly young age. “You’re not too old to do something else, and that’s a heavy decision,” he said. “What am I going to do for the rest of my life?’ you ask yourself.”
Retired military personnel with security clearance are attractive to the many defense contractors around the Beltway. But Ishii, who was stationed at the Pentagon when he retired, didn’t want to become a contractor, despite the lucrative pay. “That’s not what makes me tick,” he said. He and his wife, Kathie, had always emphasized the importance of education to their three daughters, now grown. “I’ve always enjoyed learning. It’s a strong, fundamental streak in me,” he added.
Ishii is also committed to service. “I’ve always enjoyed working with people in some form of public service. People don’t see the military as being service oriented, but in my eyes, it is. It’s more than a paycheck.” He wanted to do the same kind of thing after he left the Army.
When he retired, Ishii, who was nearing the completion of his master’s program in secondary education at Marymount University, began to accept substitute-teaching assignments. “The more I subbed in special-education classes, the more interested I became, and I decided that’s what I wanted to do,” he said. While still working toward his master’s degree, he enrolled at George Mason University to obtain a special-education endorsement. At the same time, armed with a provisional license, he accepted a full-time position teaching secondary special-education social studies. After two years of night classes, Ishii secured his special-education endorsement.
By the 2005–2006 academic year, Ishii had moved from the classroom to become the full-time department chairperson at Woodson Center, a school-within-a-school program. “We have kids who need more support than the general high school can provide, and we accept students from other high schools in the county,” he explained. All high schools in Fairfax County have special-education programs, but Woodson Center provides support for those who need additional help.
During the trying days of her divorce, friends showered Theresa Wilson with cards and letters. After a particularly difficult day, she’d pull out and reread some of these expressions of love and support. “These symbols of love would renew me,” Wilson said. The concept of collecting things precious to her—her “blessings”—in a basket began at that time.
Soon afterward she began to accept public-speaking engagements, during which she often referred to her “blessing basket.” After hearing Wilson speak of her personal crisis and her blessing basket, women in the audience wanted to know where they, too, could purchase such a basket.
Though by that time the then-single mother was busy as special-events coordinator at FOX 2 in St. Louis, Wilson found an importer in Arizona and began selling baskets made in China. As women called to tell her that they’d received a blessing basket and that the concept had changed their lives, Wilson’s vision expanded. “If we’re blessing and changing the lives of the recipients, we need to see if we can bless and change the lives of the people who are making the baskets too,” she said. She envisioned “a giant circle of blessing.” Today Blessing Basket Project is bringing that blessing to weavers in Ghana, Uganda, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Papua New Guinea.
The work being done by Tom Gorski, Melvin Ishii, and Theresa Wilson has a dramatic impact on the lives of others. Catholic Charities of St. Louis is the largest private social-service agency in the state of Missouri. As vice president, Gorski is responsible for all administrative functions within the home office, as well as all of the agencies providing services for senior citizens, shelters for abused women, homelessness prevention, legal assistance, and professional counseling services. Though he works indirectly for the clients served by Catholic Charities, he explained, “The deacon is a servant.” He said that he has experienced “immense satisfaction at seeing someone change for the better” through the work of Catholic Charities.
Ishii said of his career choice, “Education fulfills something that I feel is important and central.” He relates how some of his students have such anxiety that sometimes they are unable to walk through the door of the school. “To see these students, given the time and the support they need, be able to graduate after four years…that’s really been very, very rewarding for me.”
Wilson is passionate about the impact of her work on others’ lives. “Blessing Basket is not only reducing poverty but is literally changing people’s lives, and I think that is very powerful,” she said. Weavers are paid much more than even fair-trade wages. Instead of earning a few cents for a basket, a weaver can earn $12 for a set of three. With these “prosperity wages,” mothers can now buy nutritious food for their children and pay for schoolbooks and uniforms. One Ugandan weaver has been able to leave an abusive husband, send her four young sons to school, and open a restaurant in her village. That woman now provides employment for others.
These career shifters have experienced rich intangible rewards in helping others, but they’ve had to make adjustments when it comes to finances. Helping others and following one’s dream are “well and good, but you can’t run off like Don Quixote!” Gorski chuckled. “My wife, Elsie, and I sat down with paper and pencil and asked ourselves ‘What is it we actually need?’ as opposed to ‘What do we want?’” The outcome of that exercise surprised them. “We discovered we could be comfortable on a good bit less,” he said. The Gorskis did take several steps, including downsizing to a smaller home, which would enable them to live adequately on a reduced income. “But downsizing is something people whose kids are off and gone do anyway,” Gorski said.
Ishii shared that during one year he didn’t earn any money. He retired in 1993 and didn’t begin teaching until 1994. Meanwhile, he was attending graduate school. Had it not been for military education benefits, which funded his master’s program, Ishii said, “it would have been pretty challenging to go to school and not have a job, especially having kids to support!”
Wilson’s experience is more harsh. “This has been a huge financial burden on my husband and me,” she says. The Wilsons have amassed $40,000 of personal debt, most of it as cash advances against credit cards to pay the considerable up-front costs of the project. The weavers are paid half of their wages in advance, with the balance due when the baskets arrive in the United States—and before they are sold. In addition, transportation and shipping costs are immense. Until 2005, Theresa Wilson did not collect a salary, and her husband, Bryan, a member of the operating engineers union, has not found the work the couple had counted on when Theresa left her position with FOX 2.
That decision was a leap of faith, based in part on the couple’s conviction that they couldn’t just walk away from a program that was helping so many people and that was coming together so quickly. Wilson stressed that anyone who decides to take such a “massive risk” as changing careers must be willing to accept the consequences of that decision.
In 2005, Blessing Basket Project received a $200,000 grant from Robert J. Skandalaris, a philanthropist interested in promoting entrepreneurship, especially the social-entrepreneurship model followed by the project. He stipulated that the funds be used to secure, equip, and staff an office and that Wilson receive a salary.
Nevertheless, her personal debt has prompted her to sell everything of value—antiques, jewelry, other items—at garage sales, auctions, and on eBay. At the time I interviewed her, the couple were preparing to sell their home. Her children sometimes get frustrated. “They had a comfortable if not privileged life all those years when I was making a good income,” Wilson said. “But they have come down to the office and volunteered their time.” She is pleased that they seem proud of what Blessing Basket Project is doing for others.
Wilson shared what keeps her going when she feels overwhelmed by her commitment to the weavers and the financial stresses at home: “We press on when we see that another life has irrevocably been changed by the work we’ve done.”
Among these three adults and their stories are several common themes: a desire to use their particular skills and interests to help others, a passion for their work, satisfaction not in the size of their paychecks but in knowing that they have helped to change lives, and a firm belief that lives can be made better.
A freelance author from St. Louis, Missouri, Barbara T. McElroy enjoys gardening and spending time with her many grandchildren. Currently she is focusing on organizing family photos dating from the time of her great-grandparents.