| Athletes learn life lessons
If a bus headed to South Dakota drove by Barrington football player Matt Kasik, he'd jump on it in a heartbeat. Kasik, a senior, has learned not to take things for granted. He realizes there are lots of people in the United States who don't have a fraction of what he has. Kasik was one of 41 Barrington students who traveled to the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota, a remote part of the state near Fort Thompson where the Dakota Native Americans live. The students were immersed in the Dakota culture for eight days as part of a summer school course. ''You learn to appreciate what you have,'' Kasik said. ''I complain about stupid stuff, like my cell phone [battery] running out, but who cares in terms of what these people have? They won't be able to get jobs, so what am I complaining about? ''The stuff we take for granted is unbelievable.
Schmakel's job? Everything
Each week The Detroit News examines an interior aspect of baseball -- intricacies that take place on the field as well as off. Today: The clubhouse attendant. In any business or setting, supplying a group of 25 people with food, apparel and equipment would have its challenges. When the group is 25 big league baseball players, not counting coaching staffs and dozens more players during spring training, the job can be particularly ticklish. Jim Schmakel, 55, has been pulling off the balancing act for 29 years as Tigers clubhouse attendant. It's a job of enormous scope and detail and involves a seven-man staff that works year-round. Ordering and laundering uniforms and the layers of apparel that are worn beneath the exterior uniforms is a principal task.
Chef Gutierrez Driven By Growing Business Ventures
The work day at Chef Jose Gutierrez's year-and-a-half-old Downtown business, Encore Restaurant & Bar, begins at about 3 in the afternoon. Some of the kitchen staff already are in place doing prep work for the French-style bistro in Peabody Place. The rest of the staff, and Gutierrez himself, come into the restaurant in the early afternoon, drink their 2:30 espressos and ease into the daily frenzy of activity that surrounds a successful restaurant: signing invoices for deliveries, greeting stray customers who pop in to say hello, and making sure everything is in order for that night's crowd. And for Gutierrez, those daily responsibilities are just the tip of the iceberg. This summer, the master chef has been teaching cooking classes, preparing to launch a new catering business and planning for a wedding - his own.
|
