Goodwill helps man to find job

The Warren resident was hired based on his qualifications.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LIBERTY -- Don Reisinger first heard about the Youngstown Radio Reading Service in the early 1980s, thinking it was a worthwhile endeavor and sharing his ideas for the station.
The service, provided through Goodwill Industries and funded in part through the United Way of Trumbull County, has a target audience of the blind throughout the Mahoning Valley. Newspapers, periodicals and other materials are either read live or taped for rebroadcast.
Reisinger, a 53-year-old Warren resident, approached the operators with some of his ideas. "I knew a lot of these people, so I went to them and said, 'Let's do some other things here, too,'" he said. "They said they would as soon as they had people to help, so I said I would volunteer."
When an position at the station opened, Reisinger knew he was qualified. The people at Goodwill, he said, knew it too.
"That's why they hired me," he said. "Because of my qualifications. They didn't hire me because I was blind."
What he does
These days, Reisinger is a full-fledged employee of YRRS, assembling programming blocks for the station that broadcasts beginning at noon for 12 hours a day, 365 days a year, as well as hosting sports, cooking and talk shows of his own.
The signal for YRRS is picked up either through special receivers available from Goodwill Industries on Belmont Avenue, or on Channel 15 of Time Warner Cable in select communities.
Blind since birth, Reisinger was raised in a home where his parents never told him he was different.
"I was just like every other kid, I just couldn't see," he said.
He and his co-workers also consider him a jack of all trades at the station.
"If it needs done here, I'm supposed to do it," he says with a big, toothy grin.
It's the latest in a long line of career choices for Reisinger, who grew up in Newton Falls and was educated at both The Rayen School, where he took Braille courses as a boy, and the Ohio State School for the Blind in Columbus. Previously, he toured as a drummer for local bands and worked repairing lawn mowers, snow blowers and other small engines.
Happy with job
He's enjoyed the other work, and says there may come a day when he goes back into other fields, but for now, his life is the station and the people he works with through Goodwill Industries.
"Goodwill really does what it says," Reisinger said. "They are committed to getting people with disabilities to work, and I'm proof. They knew I could do the job, and they gave me the chance."
But, he adds, he couldn't do it alone. Without the help of Mike Bocela, the program's coordinator; Mike Muder, programming manager; and the countless volunteers who come in to read for the blind, Reisinger knows he couldn't be doing what he loves.
"The volunteers are what really make this place go," he said. "They are the real core behind it."
He also gives credit to the United Way for supporting the program financially.
"It's just my opinion, but if it wasn't for the United Way, I don't know if we'd still be going," he said. "They are really crucial to us."
slshaulis@vindy.com
XTo volunteer as a reader for Youngstown Radio Reading Service, call (330) 759-0100.