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Being Prepared Helped Woman Survive Job Loss

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By IMANI ASUKILE, Tribune Correspondent

Published: November 11, 2007

You don't have to be a Boy Scout to live by the motto "Be prepared."

Many American workers learn that lesson each year, as foreign competition, technology and other factors force their companies to shut down or move overseas. People ask, "How am I going to make it?"

In Dade City, that started gradually in the 1980s, as changes in the citrus industry led to job losses at the Lykes Pasco juice plant, which had been a major processor of juice concentrate since the 1940s.

The real impact came in 1999, when Lykes Pasco sold out to an investment bank, and then a few years later when the plant, which had employed 2,000 workers at its peak, closed for good.

Many workers had to start over.

Take Ruthie Echols, a forklift operator who worked there for 11 years and made a good salary by Dade City standards. She had gotten comfortable in her job and knew she was doing as well as could be expected of a person with only a high school education.

Over the years, Lykes Pasco hired thousands of people like Ruthie, who couldn't find work anywhere else. The plant was always an option. In many ways, Lykes was Dade City, and Dade City was a company town.

When things changed, Ruthie was a single mother of three with bills to pay and had to make decisions fast. With little demand for her skills, it seemed like the perfect time to look in a different direction.

A graduate of Pasco High School's Class of 1985, Ruthie went back to school. She took advantage of a federal program, the Workforce Investment Act, and received a federal Pell Grant. The money did not replace her paycheck, but it helped her family keep going.

Ruthie enrolled at Pasco-Hernando Community College, not sure what she wanted to do.

"I was a little concerned at first because I thought the classes would be full of teenage students, but to my surprise, there were many students my age in my classes," she said. "That was comforting."

After being out of school for more than 10 years, she wondered if she could keep up. Little by little, though, her confidence grew.

She wasn't afraid to seek help. She found it in Gloria Washington, a counselor with the Pasco-Hernando Job Education Program, and instructors such as Mounir Balloul, Juan Burbano and Larry Eason.

Retraining posed challenges just the same. After completing her prerequisite coursework, Ruthie was accepted into the radiography program, based at PHCC's New Port Richey campus - more than 60 miles roundtrip from Dade City.

During her internship, she traveled more than 100 miles some days visiting medical facilities across the Tampa Bay area for training. All that put more demands on her time and automobile than the short trek to the Lykes Pasco plant had, but things worked out.

In 2002, her internship at Pasco Regional Hospital became a full-time job at the same time she earned her associate's degree in science.

Since then, her oldest daughter has earned an associate's degree from PHCC and is pursuing her bachelor's degree at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

That's not the end of the story, either. Careers in the medical profession are numerous. Just being a certified X-ray technician expands Ruthie's life options. She has a skill that is portable and a certification that is accepted basically in any community.

Fifteen months ago, Ruthie starting making the commute from Dade City to Hillsborough Community College in Tampa to pursue a certification in radiation therapy. The additional training will make a very marketable person even more marketable.

As the old saying goes, "Success occurs when preparation and opportunity meet." Ruthie wasn't a Boy Scout, but she was prepared. Success followed.

Imani Asukile, a Hernando County native, is a longtime Dade City resident and one of the founders of the African American Heritage Society of East Pasco County. His column appears every other Friday. To suggest a future column, e-mail him at idasukile@yah

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