For all he does to help the homeless, the working poor and the uninsured,
Wray McCalester is the UAW
After all those years working at the General Motors Fort Wayne (Ind.) Assembly plant, UAW Local 2209 member Wray McCalester was looking forward to retirement so he could do whatever he wanted.
It turns out what he really wanted to do after 31 years with GM was open a free health clinic for the homeless, working poor and uninsured in his tiny community of Wolflake in northern Indiana.
“The UAW has been great for me and my family, and it has benefited the community in more ways than it knows,” he said. “But as pastor of a small United Methodist Church here, I could see all the people who were coming in looking for health care. There’s no doctor, and many people don’t have insurance or the transportation to get to the next town where there is a doctor.”
Since last November, McCalester and a team of 45 volunteers – including eight doctors and nurse practitioners, 15 registered nurses and licensed practical nurses, and the rest clerks and housekeepers – have been keeping the Wolflake Free Medical Clinic open from 1-8 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday. The clinic operates out of several rooms in a former hospital that closed more than 50 years ago and became a museum.
Most UAW members would never have heard McCalester’s story or the dozens of other stories from UAW members if it wasn’t for the new “I Am the UAW” Web site and TV advertising campaign.
The union’s new broadcast, cable and Internet advertising campaign tells the story of the UAW by telling the stories of individual UAW members.
The Web site, www.IAmtheUAW.org, is the union’s way of letting Americans know that UAW members not only live and work in their communities but are their friends and neighbors, too. Every day UAW members work to improve their workplaces and communities, and the Web site is one way of sharing the stories that come out of that activism.
One person who heard about the union’s new public relations campaign was Brett Molitor, a UAW member and Employee Development Trainer at GM’s Fort Wayne plant.
“After I heard about the campaign from a union meeting, I went immediately to the Web site,” he said. “Indiana is not very union friendly. The I Am the UAW campaign seemed like a good way to put a face to union people.”
The first face that came to mind was that of his buddy, Wray McCalester. Molitor took advantage of the opportunity offered by the Web site to tell the retiree’s inspiring story of helping others.
“I would like to tell you about a new retiree … (who) has started a new FREE clinic in his community. He said when he retired his top goal … was to do this,” Molitor wrote online.
McCalester and the other free clinic volunteers are devoted to helping the working poor in northern Indiana with their dental infections, broken bones and high blood pressure. But they can’t wait for the day when their services are no longer needed.
“It’s shameful that a country as rich as ours doesn’t have national health care that covers everybody,” said McCalester, who’s also working to hasten the day when he can retire once more.
You can tell your story – or someone else’s – in text, audio or video. Simply click on IAmtheUAW.org.
