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Kathryn Mitchell, Yorkville, IL
TCA Scholarship ($2,000)
Roehl Transport

My dad just started working for Roehl in January of this year. This new job, new career has given our family hope. Hope for a better future. My dad has been a union electrician since 1990. But in 2007 he was laid off due to a lack of work. New homes in our area were just not being built. Over the next three years he only worked about 4 to 5 months total. By the end of 2009, things were getting pretty bad. His unemployment was about to run out. He couldn't get another job as an electrician unless it was through the union, and no jobs were available. So, at age 51, my dad had to start a new career. He chose to be a truck driver. He thought it would be a good career and provide some stability for our family. He went to Star Truck Driving School and had his employment with Roehl set up before he graduated. He did his training with Roehl and has been driving on his own since February. We don't see him a lot. He is gone for about two weeks at a time and then is home for about 3 days. He likes his job a lot. He has traveled to parts of our country that he had never been before. It is not an easy job, to drive all day and live out of a truck. But my dad does it for our family. So we can continue to live in our home and have food on the table and things like that. It was not easy for my dad to start a new career so late in life, but he did it for our family. It is not easy for my mom, who now must take care of everything at home as well as work. But when things looked bad, this new career made things look better. It gave us hope for the future. It is too soon to know what directions this new job will take my dad. But he is looking forward to the challenges ahead and know that because of the trucking industry our family has a brighter future.